Bryce and I decided to visit Colorado with Kyle and Danielle. Since many things were still closed down for Covid, we thought it was a good idea to see the Rocky Mountain National Park since it was outdoors. It was around 12 hours to drive there (not including traffic and stops) but it was a good in between spot between St. Louis and Los Angeles.
Keep on reading for my day-by-day adventures!
Day 0, June 26: Arrival Day
We got into Denver and found our Airbnb. It was all decorated in St. Wars theme. Once we got unloaded, we took a short walk at the Rocky Mountain Lake Park in Denver, just to stretch our legs.
Day 1, June 27: Mt. Sanitas and Morrison Museum
Bryce and I had the day to ourselves, so we started off with a hike up Mt. Sanitas in Boulder starting at 7am. This 3 mile hike up the mountain had an elevation gain of 1323 feet. My body was not used to the elevation, but we still made it to the top.
After our hike, we went to the Morrison Natural History Museum which had exhibits of the Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Front Range Ice Ages. We even got to see the first Stegosaurus fossils that were found in the world. After the museum, we did another nearby hike at Mount Falcon Park.
Day 2, June 28: Flatirons, Estes Park, and Hiking RMNP
We started the day exploring the Flatirons in Boulder. Then we went and explore Estes park before we were able to get into the National Park at 3pm (since everyone had to have a reservation in order to get in). I loved the trail once we started to We ended up hiking over 6 miles out and back but it was well worth the view. We even got some great engagement shots in during the hike. After almost 4 hours of hiking, we ended our night with Mexican for dinner.
Day 3, June 29: Garden of the Gods and Manitou Cliff Dwellings
Kyle and Danielle finally made it to Colorado. Our first stop of the day was the Garden of the Gods, a National Natural Landmark that features red sandstone rock formations. Our second stop was the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, which are (not original structures but replicated) structures of Puebloan cliff dwellings. One educational plaque stated that the Cliff Dweller’s society was matrilineal, and that property and inheritance always went through the females.
After seeing the Cliff Dwellings, we went to the Manitou Brewing Company. I tried their Blood Orange Hard Cider. We walked around some of the shops there, and then ended the night on a flight of ice cream.
Day 4, June 30: Stanley Hotel and Rocky Mountain National Park
Since Bryce and I got in a few days before Kyle and Danielle, we had time to explore the Flatirons. However, we did a quick stop there just so Kyle and Danielle could see them before we moved on to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park was where the Stephen King’s The Shining movie took place. It was a fancy hotel to walk through. We didn’t stay here or do a tour, but it was fun to walk around. After the hotel, we did the 3 mile Sky Pond hike in the Rocky Mountain National Park. We got to see Alberta Falls, The Loch, the Lake of Glass, and the Sky Pond. We even got to play in some snow! After our hike, we ate dinner at Wiley Roots Brewing. I had a burger and the Blueberry Limeade Slush.
Day 5, July 1: Red Rocks Park Amphitheatre and Fort Collins
While we didn’t go see any show or music at the Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, we did set our alarms for 4:00am to see the sunrise over the rocks. Today was our down day, so after we walked around the amphitheater, Bryce called a colleague he knew at the Agricultural Research, Development, and Education Center at Colorado State University for a short tour of the seed lab.
Bryce’s friend at the ARDEC suggested a local brewery called Horse and Dragon Brewing Company. Bryce and I tried the Mountain Toucan, Sad Panda, Kestrel Run, and Midnight Stallion. My favorite was the Sad Panda, which was a mix of vanilla, chocolate, malt sweetness, coffee bitterness, and caramel flavors all within this coffee stout. For dinner, we tried the Colorado style pizza, which is a hand rolled crust infused with honey. It was good pizza, especially since we were hungry. We also did some shopping around the area, and I ended up by some Habanero Chili Chocolate at Nuance Chocolate. To end the night, we did a breakout room at EscapeWorks. We got out with 17 minutes to spare!
Day 6, July 2: Denver
We started our morning off at the Denver Botanical Gardens. It was about 24 acres but it included a conservatory, a visitor center, water gardens, shady gardens, internationally inspired gardens, cactus and succulents, and a small tea house. After the botanical gardens, we went to Hammond’s Candies to see their candy factory tour. There were fun facts all over the walls, such as 2500 pounds of sugar are used daily to make candy, 4000 pounds of candy are produced each day, and 10 million candy canes are made each year. I bought a banana crunch chocolate bar, which was milk chocolate made with banana chips.
After our candy tour, we headed to the Dinosaur Ridge, a segment of the Dakota Hogback just west of Denver. It is where the first Stegosaurus fossils were found and includes a 2 mile trail up a hill to the high point. There were signs about the geology, paleoecology, fossils, ripple marks, and dinosaur tracks. I liked the ripple marks, where moving water left ripples in the sand of a beach in the Denver Foothills. The dinosaur tracks were also very neat to see.
The last thing we did in Denver was putt-putt at Urban Putt. It was so cute. Almost every hole was themed like a Denver site, including the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, the capital building, and even the airport.
All good trips have an end, and our time visiting Colorado had come to an end. We both had 12 hours of driving to get back home, but we got to hike some beautiful landscapes and saw a ton of animals. We saw multiple birds including a woodpecker, moose, deer, chipmunks, elks, deer, and big horned sheep. It was nice to get out of our hometown since everyone has been on lockdown while getting to visit with family.