We recently celebrated being back in the US for a year by taking our family's first "great American road trip" together! With loads of audio books, new movies on iPads, and silly car games, we added hundreds of miles to the odometer over two weeks, exploring the mountains of Colorado and the deserts of eastern Utah.
Our first stop was Canyon, Texas, where we spent two nights. In the morning, we explored the interactive displays at the Panhandle Plains Museum, then headed to Palo Duro Canyon State Park. After a hot afternoon hiking in the beautiful canyon, we ended the day with a traditional Texas barbeque dinner, followed by a stunning performance of the outdoor musical,
Texas.
The next two nights were spent in Manitou Springs, where we arrived just in time to get drenched in a brief shower at Garden of the Gods State Park. Only 10 minutes later, the skies cleared and the rocks glowed red with the setting sun--beautiful! We stood under Balanced Rock (it didn't fall on us!) and had fun getting our climbing fix. The next day we found a local skate park for Mark to play, then spent the afternoon riding the Pikes Peak cog railway to the summit of the famous "14er". Unfortunately, clouds obstructed our views at the top.
Continuing north to Denver, we stopped along the way to visit the US Air Force Academy, and afterwards enjoyed a tour of
Titantic-survivor Molly Brown's Victorian mansion. The highlight of our day was watching shiny, new pennies fall by the thousands during our scheduled tour of the US Mint. Mark was very excited to see the process of coin creation up close, and also to add a new coin to his collection from the gift shop! In fact, my diligent efforts to secure a spot on the tour very literally paid off; we each walked away with newly minted pennies. =)
After a full day, we checked in to the St. Julian Hotel in downtown Boulder for two nights. A short walk from Pearl Street, we spent the next day shopping, eating, and leisurely riding bikes along the river path. (I would
so love to live there!)
From Boulder, we headed west into the mountains, stopping to enjoy the views from Lookout Mountain and see Buffalo Bill's grave. We spent the afternoon at Peak 8 Fun Park in Breckenridge, where we rode the alpine slide and the speedy coaster and played on a huge snow pile! After driving to Leadville (almost 2 miles high!), we spent the next day visiting a mining museum and the Matchless silver mine. On the other side of Independence Pass, we arrived late to our Snowmass Village condo, and
almost didn't get the key inside!!
The next morning, I had booked a brand-new adventure for our family, whitewater rafting on Class III! I was a bit nervous, as the waters were quite high due to early season snow melt and none of us had any rafting experience. (I didn't want anyone to fly off the raft into the river!) Luckily, Aspen Whitewater was very accomodating and gave us their most experienced guide. After donning wetsuits and listening to the safety briefings, we hopped on our raft for an exhilarating 1.5 hour adventure, certainly everyone's highlight of the vacation!
In the afternoon, we grabbed a late lunch and found another skate park for Mark to ride. Nearby, I enjoyed visiting the lovely memorial gardens of one of my all-time favorite songwriters, John Denver. We capped this perfect day with a good Italian meal, a bottle of wine, and a family movie night
(The Right Stuff).
On Father's Day, we checked out of our condo and took the shuttle to the famous Maroon Bells mountain range. Here we hiked the 3.5 mile trail to Crater Lake, enjoying the fresh mountain air and majestic scenery over a picnic lunch. Once back in the car, we left the mountains for the deserts of Moab, Utah, and after loading up on groceries, we enjoyed our spacious condo and home cooked meals for the next 3 nights.
Over the next three days, we spent two days hiking the most famous trails at Arches NP and one day hiking in the "Island in the Sky" district of Canyonlands NP. Loading the backpack and camelback with tons of water and picnic lunches, we explored the amazing rock structures in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees! Needless to say, there was some complaining from the kids, but everyone appreciated downtime at day's end in the pool and in our condo!
Moving south, we stayed one night in Cortez. The next day was dedicated to exploring the archaeological wonders of Mesa Verde NP. Known for their cliff dwellings, we learned about the Ancestral Puebloan culture and took a guided tour of the largest dwelling, Cliff Palace! We spent that night in the mining town of Durango, enjoying a yummy pizza dinner in the historic downtown district.
The next two days were mostly driving days, though we stopped in historic downtown Santa Fe to admire the architecture, do some window shopping, and enjoy a delightful lunch at Cafe Pasquale. We also made a very sandy stop at Monahans Sandhills State Park, where we spent a few hot hours sliding down sand dunes on rented saucers.
Arriving home late Saturday night, we were excited to be back in our own beds again! Our two week road trip left us full of fun memories, if not a bit exhausted; we are happy to enjoy our pool and time at home for the rest of summer. Until next time!!
