Colorado Elopement Hikes near Denver: North Table Mountain West Loop (Golden)

Living in Denver, Colorado, offers many perks, including beautiful hiking trails for an elopement within 18-30 minutes. Here’s the first of a series of Golden hikes that I’ve recently recommended to my wedding couples in Colorado as options for a wedding ceremony elopement. I’ve included a review from a past visit and my notes.

North Table Mountain is the high plains of the high plains in Golden, Colorado

North Table Mountain West Loop

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Date: February 5th.

Weather: 33 degrees and sunny at 9:14 am.

Cover: Completely exposed (more ideal for winter and early spring because of the sun).

Time: 9:14 am - 11:47 am.

Distance: 6 Miles total (West trailhead parking lot to Lichen Peak to the east side of the mountain and looping north and then west back to the lot).

Traffic: Low (normally high).

Parking: Several spots available.

Equipment: Hiking boots and microspikes.

Terrain: Definitely a quick climb up from the lot but flat once you reach the peak. Faced 12-20 mph winds on my back until I reached the east side and began looping north/northwest. At that point, I was walking against a not-so-kind wall of wind. Beautiful views of neighboring mountains and Golden. It’s a well-marked snow-covered path, but I could see it being muddy during the late spring.

Difficulty: Easy but the initial walk up may require a cardio baseline.

Colorado Wedding Officiant Notes: While my visit was in the winter, the trail provided a snow-dusted landscape that framed every step. Considering that the mountain is shaped like a table, wedding couples have endless options for a scenic backdrop of the mountains in the west or Golden and Denver in the east. Wind is certainly a factor at times and should be part of the consideration for the elopement. Late winter and early spring will provide hard ground without mud but may require microspikes for traction in snow. Late spring and summer will offer a dry path and quite a bit of sun exposure. An early morning hike is recommended for cooler temperatures. The fall is a perfect season with moderate temperatures and stunning views of changing leaves.

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Many locations on North Table Mountain offer stunning views of Golden and Denver.

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When it isn’t windy, the rock cliff and the views of Golden can provide a perfect backdrop for an elopement wedding in Colorado.

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The west side of Table Mountain provides a private perspective between the mountain and its sisters across the road.

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#35 - Designing Your New Work Life | Dave Evans

#35 - Designing Your New Work Life | Dave Evans

Welcome to “The Elements of Being” podcast, where I dissect and explore the minds and habits of psychologists, filmmakers, writers, and industry icons. Essentially, we examine the mental and emotional narratives and processes that steer the social stream of consciousness….Truly a chance to geek out over the psychology behind human behavior. Each episode is a glimpse into the trends and patterns of human behavior and the underlying influences that navigate us into different directions. Whether we primarily focus on nutrition or the unconscious, guests share insights, thought-provoking lessons, the nuances of creativity, and the elements of being….us.

Today, I'd like to introduce you to Dave Evans, the Codirector of the Stanford Life Design Lab and a co-founder of Electronic Arts, one of the world's largest interactive entertainment companies. He also led the design of Apple's first mouse and laser printer and has a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford.

Recently, Dave and his colleague, Bill Burnett, coauthored the #1 New York Times bestseller Designing Your New Work Life....and it served as the foundation of our conversation. It's a job-changing, outlook-changing, life-changing book that shows us how to transform our new uncharted work lives and create a meaningful dream job. With new insights on making our way through disruption- large and small, personal or global-the book helps us navigate during these times of fear and anxiety about the unknown and through our post-COVID work lives and beyond.

Specifically, we discuss their Disruption Design with a focus on curiosity, reframing, radical collaboration, awareness, bias to action, and storytelling. We also learn how to make possibilities available even when our lives have been disrupted, examine the tools to enjoy the moment, and begin to prototype our future.

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To learn more about Dave Evans and his new book, visit https://designingyour.life.

The Elements of Being Podcast with Michael Moody featuring Dave Evans

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In this episode, we specifically discussed:

-How to redesign our professional lives with unknown disruptions in mind when we've already invested in a specific path.
-How to break the chain of working endlessly without satisfaction and "doing whatever it takes" modeled by our parents and society.
-How to approach the dilemma of serving life of purpose for less pay or settling for a higher wage at a less satisfying job.
-Design thinking and the benefit of applying this mode of thinking to our professional lives.
-The importance of curiosity in our professional lives.
-Prototyping new positions and experiences while serving a current position.
-How we can reframe our current position to change our work experience or career trajectory.
-A distinction between reframing and renaming our work experiences.
-The benefits of radical collaboration.
-The foundation of great storytelling.
-The best exit strategies.

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Listen to all episodes on Apple, Spotify, Overcast, Castbox, Stitcher, or on your favorite podcast platform!

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My Favorite James Clear Quotes and Thoughts (Set 1)

Each week I share a bit of wisdom from author James Clear with my personal training clients in Denver. His book Atomic Habits has inspired many optimal health seekers to create a new routine. While change may be challenging, the right mindset and series of habits can lead to a lifetime of joy, physical prowess and comfort, and less pain. If you like my selections, definitely signup for Clear’s weekly newsletters for more tidbits!

Find new inspiration with a Denver personal trainer. / Photo: Eberhard Grossgasteiger

Favorite Quotes (and Thoughts) from James Clear, Author of Atomic Habits

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• "The more you invest yourself in fulfilling work, the more your effort fuels you. The harder you work on a bad project or in an unsatisfying role, the more of a grind it becomes."

• “Life is a series of tradeoffs, and greater results usually require greater tradeoffs. The question is not, "Do you want to be great at this?" The question is, "What are you willing to give up in order to be great at this?"

• Meditation teacher, Light Watkins, on acting your age: "The advice shouldn't be to act your age. It should be to act your spirit. Your age may try to prohibit you from dancing like that, or starting over, or trying something new. But your spirit would never do such a thing. If something feels aligned, your spirit wants you to go for it, whether you're 15 or 85. Acting your age makes you fit in more, while acting your spirit will indeed cause you to stand out—in a bad way to people who act their age, but in an inspiring way to those who act their spirit. Try acting your spirit from time to time, and you can see for yourself which path makes you feel more alive." Source: Newsletter by Light Watkins. (Hat tip to Wes Claytor)

• "Question: “Who (or what) do you need to forgive, so you can move on and live well?”

• "It's only work if you would rather be doing something else. Find a way to carve a career out of what you already want to do."

• “Build small habits. Make big plans. 1) Keep your daily actions small. Strive to get 1% better every day. 2) Keep your daily mindset big. Think about how you can play a bigger game. Start small, but never dream small."

• Painter Mariam Paré, who specializes in making paintings by mouth after suffering a spinal cord injury, offers some advice to her younger self: "If I could talk to myself twenty years ago, I would tell myself to focus on my strengths, and not on my weaknesses; on the things I could do and not the things I couldn’t do; to strive to excel and hone those skills to the point of excellence. That this was the best strategy to secure my future. I would say to myself that the only real obstacles you have are those you create for yourself."

• "If an idea is true, criticism will not destroy it, but strengthen it."

• Interior designer Danielle Colding on the ultimate luxury: "Quality of life is having the freedom to make choices that are not fear based. Whether it’s the ability to choose the kinds of projects I want to take on and can learn from, or the ability to take a month off to travel. Freedom to choose is the ultimate luxury."

• Question: “What is an area you'd like to improve over the next decade? How are you working toward that outcome today? Think long-term. Act short-term.”

• "When researching strategies, emphasize patterns over stories. One person succeeding means nothing. 100 people succeeding is a signal. When explaining strategies, emphasize stories over patterns. People forget numbers and charts. Everyone remembers a great story."

• "When determining the size or complexity of a new habit ask yourself, "What can I stick to—even on my worst day?" Start there. Master the art of showing up. Then advance."

• Poet Jenny Xie on how reading is a form of travel: "Reading is migratory, an act of transport, from one life to another, one mind to another. Just like geographic travel, reading involves estrangement that comes with the process of dislocating from a familiar context. I gather energy from this kind of movement, this estranging and unsettling, and I welcome it precisely because it’s conducive to examination, interrogation, reordering. Travel, imaginative or physical, can sharpen perception and force a measuring of distance and difference." Source: The Self Is a Fiction

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#34 - The Lens of a Positive Psychologist During a Crisis | Dr. Itai Ivtzan

#34 - The Lens of a Positive Psychologist During a Crisis | Dr. Itai Ivtzan

Welcome to “The Elements of Being” podcast, where I dissect and explore the minds and habits of psychologists, filmmakers, writers, and industry icons. Essentially, we examine the mental and emotional narratives and processes that steer the social stream of consciousness….Truly a chance to geek out over the psychology behind human behavior. Each episode is a glimpse into the trends and patterns of human behavior and the underlying influences that navigate us into different directions. Whether we primarily focus on nutrition or the unconscious, guests share insights, thought-provoking lessons, the nuances of creativity, and the elements of being….us.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to Dr. Itai Ivtzan, a positive psychologist, a Professor at Naropa University, and the School of Positive Transformation Director. Over the past 20 years, he has run seminars, lectures, workshops, and retreats in the USA, UK, and worldwide at various educational institutions and private events. In addition, Dr. Itzvan is a regular keynote speaker at conferences and has published five books and more than 50 journal papers and book chapters. His main areas of research and teaching are positive psychology, mindfulness, and spirituality.

Accordingly, Dr. Itzvan has invested much time in studying mindfulness academically, writing books about it, teaching it, and training mindfulness teachers. As part of his work, he established the School of Positive Transformation, offering practical well-being courses for practitioners, teaching them how to transform themselves and their clients and students.

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To learn more about Dr. Itai Ivtzan, visit https://schoolofpositivetransformation.com.

The Elements of Being Podcast with Michael Moody featuring Dr. Itai Ivtzan

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In our interview, we examine the lens of a positive psychologist during a period of crisis. Dr. Ivtzan shared his personal struggles during the onset of the pandemic, and we discussed how to practice empathy when in conflict with family and friends and compassion for loved ones who hurt us. We also dive into the meaning we assign to such disruptions like the recent pandemic and destructive wildfires in Colorado, as well as the role of meditation and mindfulness in our well-being.

In this episode, we specifically discussed:

-The lens of a positive psychologist during a crisis.
-Making sense of crisis.
-Sitting with ourselves when our physical states are threatened.
-The dialogue regarding collective trauma in the positive psychology community.
-Feeling compassion for others when we've been hurt by even those who love us.
-Practicing empathy when experiencing fiery divisions between family, friends, and people we don't know.
-The role of mindfulness in building resiliency.
-The reasons why solitude is vital to our mindfulness.

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Listen to all episodes on Apple, Spotify, Overcast, Castbox, Stitcher, or on your favorite podcast platform!

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#33 - Systematically Building a Regenerative Future | Brenna Simmons-St. Onge`

#33 - Systematically Building a Regenerative Future | Brenna Simmons-St. Onge

Welcome to “The Elements of Being” podcast, where I dissect and explore the minds and habits of psychologists, filmmakers, writers, and industry icons. Essentially, we examine the mental and emotional narratives and processes that steer the social stream of consciousness….Truly a chance to geek out over the psychology behind human behavior. Each episode is a glimpse into the trends and patterns of human behavior and the underlying influences that navigate us into different directions. Whether we primarily focus on nutrition or the unconscious, guests share insights, thought-provoking lessons, the nuances of creativity, and the elements of being….us.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to Brenna Simmons-St. Onge, the Executive Director of The Alliance Center. She is a pragmatic visionary with over 15 years of leadership experience, including a decade in corporate social responsibility. During the pandemic, Brenna launched the Regenerative Recovery Coalition-a coalition with over 335 members working together to build Colorado towards a regenerative future. Through large public-private partnerships, Brenna is leading the Coalition to create equitable social structures that will foster shared prosperity on a healthy planet. As a dynamic change agent, Brenna leads with a nonprofit heart and a business mind leveraging holistic approaches to implement and scale solutions to some of the largest issues humanity faces.

In our interview, we break down the concept of a regenerative future and the individual and social efforts required for systems-level change, as well as the gap between idealism and pragmatism. We also examine how to secure the attention of policymakers and corporations and how they should rethink and measure success and growth within a capitalist system.

The Elements of Being Podcast with Michael Moody featuring Brenna Simmons-St. Onge

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In this episode, we specifically discussed:

-How to personally balance living in our modern capitalist system while recognizing the significant challenges upon us.
-Transition from a corporate career to a values-driven professional path.
-The definition of the concept "regenerative future."
-How the Alliance Center has drawn the attention of governors and other politicians in Colorado.
-How Brenna and the Alliance Center choose the most appropriate focuses at a given time for driving systems-level change with regenerative business in mind.
-How we can bridge the gap between idealism and pragmatism.
-What's required in the "regenerative future" message to secure the attention of policymakers and corporations.
-How corporations and smaller businesses should rethink and measure success and growth within a capitalist system.

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To learn more about Brenna Simmons-St. Onge, visit https://www.thealliancecenter.org/.

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Listen to all episodes on Apple, Spotify, Overcast, Castbox, Stitcher, or on your favorite podcast platform!

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