When my extended family lived in Bath, Maine – about an hour up the coast from Portland – we often drove to Popham beach on Christmas afternoon. The weather hardly ever kept us from walking the beach. The walk was a shared Christmas experience that was grounded in a place that everyone in the family had enjoyed their whole life. And the spectacular scenery of the Kennebec River and Maine coast always seemed new.

Here in Northern Colorado, Poudre Canyon is a comparable place, where my immediate family's history is coupled with a specific site's natural beauty. We've been going to Poudre Canyon to hike, camp and see a show at Mishawaka Amphitheater for all of the 17 years we've lived here. So yesterday, on Christmas day, I decided to drive up to Cameron Pass.

As we made our way up the canyon, we saw how more and more of the river had frozen into patches of ice. I asked my daughter what she thought of the canyon in winter.

She said she'd seen it all before.

But isn't it special? I asked. Apparently not for her. She explained that she and her friends couldn't wait to leave Fort Collins and go someplace else – where it was warmer, for one thing. Where do you want to go? I asked. She hadn't decided – or wasn't telling – but Denver wasn't far away enough.

We crested Cameron Pass, where the snow was several feet thick and the crystalline sunlight sparkled like a winter wonderland. I stopped and took pictures of the Nokhu Crags.

We then turned around and headed back down the canyon. I had had a vague plan to take the Laramie River Road to Glendevey and then circle back through Red Feather Lakes to Fort Collins... And if by magic, it was possible to stop at Glendevey Ranch and eat, so much the better... As it turned out, those "plans" couldn't have been less connected with the real world. First, Laramie River Road (County Road 103), which is located just below Cameron Pass, is snowbound throughout the winter and not plowed. Second, Glendevey Ranch is a private retreat.

We ended up taking County Road 68C to Livermore. It's not a route I had taken before, but it passes by the Shambhala Mountain Center and Ben Delatour Scout Ranch. It also passes by the Elkhorn Creek Trailhead in the Roosevelt National Forest. The trailhead looked like it was new or unusually well maintained. I made a mental note to read up on the trail, for hiking next summer.

I also stopped and took a picture of the ridge, as it glowed golden in the late afternoon light.

When we got home we made Christmas dinner: lamb steak, mashed potatoes, sautéed tomatoes, and cardone in cheese sauce. The dinner turned out fine – despite the oven exploding midway through the preparation. The smoke from that excitement eventually cleared, which was about the time my daughter and I agreed the cardone had turned out better than what we had expected, and we'd eat it again.