We got tickets several weeks in advance to go to the Denver Botanical Garden's Blossoms of Light event. Every year they set up lights around the gardens that you can walk through. We've only gone to this event one other time in 2019 that was with my whole family. I think the lights were more exciting back in 2019, but it could have just been that in 2019 that was the first time we had gone, versus now we had some expectations that we weren't necessarily let down on, but I think we both expected a little better.

The weather this late fall has been interesting. We haven't had a real snow yet, and I think that was one of the reasons why the Blossoms of Light even wasn't as good this year. When there is snow on the ground, the light reflects off the snow creating more ambient and even light for getting better photos. But I think we still managed to get some good shots of the gardens, the lights, and each other.

For the changing of the New Year, we spent some time up at Valley View Hot Springs on the South-West end of the state. We've celebrated the New Year up here once before, and it's a great way to ease into the New Year - relaxing in some hot springs and being in nature. This year was quite a lot different than the last time we were in this area in winter because of the lack of snow. This time there was just a small dusting on the ground, compared to a couple of years ago where there was several feet of snowpack on the ground. It's been quite a dry winter, but we were lucky to have gotten a snowstorm while we were there. The snowstorm wasn't that big at the hot springs itself, but when we got back home there was around 6 inches on the ground, which is much-needed moisture for this area.

We hiked up to the collapsed mine and bat caves like we always do (although the bats aren't there in the winter). The views were pretty spectacular, and because of the storms rolling in, I got some great shots of one of the nearby mountains getting hammered by snow. We hiked further than we typically do just to get up a little higher which was exposed and extremely windy. The extra portion of the hike past the main cave added some pretty steep elevation gain in a short amount of distance, but I think the views were worth both the extra difficulty and the excessive wind.