You would think the absolute majesty of a road trip in the great state of Colorado would be my first topic. However, I want to mention how many people are out and about as well as, all the water that flows everywhere. And I know majesty isn’t a word I would normally ever use, but honestly I don’t think I know how else to describe the scenery!
Seriously, I have never seen so many people running, biking, hiking and walking EVERYWHERE in my life! And when I say everywhere, I mean on paths, in parks, on sidewalks and on the highways. Some of these people were taking a chance with the walking or riding on the highways! Some almost inspired me to be an outdoors type…the operative word being “almost”.
I also want to touch on the water situation, it’s everywhere, with rivers just flowing alongside the highways.
I live in California, and it is beautiful here, but rivers flowing alongside the highway beautiful? No.
The people who live in Colorado (Coloradoians? Coloradons?), must be immune to the beauty or used tp it, because I could barely drive straight trying to see all the rivers and mountains and colors. I don’t think I have seen so many shades of oranges and reds anywhere else. The mountains and even the sky at times, looked like they were on fire with all the shades of red!
Things get very different when you cross out of California. The most noticeable for me is the speed limit changes for towing vehicles.
I tow a 30 foot travel trailer, named Roadkill, and 55 mph is the max speed for towing in California. But as soon as you cross into Nevada, you can go as fast as everyone else. However, it was so windy, and I tow a big sail on wheels, I stayed at 55…it got a little embarrassing when I was being passed by 18 wheelers!
There is a lot of driving going from the Bay Area to Colorado. In one day we went through 4 states!
Let me quickly tell you about my driving companion. My fourteen year old daughter, Abs.
First, I’ll say she is a fun co-pilot. She’s a good sport about the amount of time spent in the car and she, for the most part, lets me take a million pictures of her. That said, mostly it was like driving alone. As soon as she got in the car, the headphones went on her head and all I got were uh huhs and ya that’s pretty, without looking where I was pointing.
Before I talk about the splendor of Colorado, splendor may be better than majestic…I got a Thesaurus, I want to add that from the moment you drive into Colorado until the moment you drive out, you are at high elevation. I don’t know that it ever went below 5000 feet.
Colorado Road Trip – Mesa Verde National Park
Mesa Verde National Park. No question, that is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I could not stop pulling to the side of the road, taking pictures and staring with my mouth open. You could see “forever” in every direction.
The canyons and mountains, the scenery in general, were so beautiful and grand, I was overwhelmed.
The sky was the most perfect shade of blue with big white fluffy clouds that looked almost like a diorama with the clouds hanging from a fishing line!
Besides the landscape, the star attractions are the cliff dwellings. I mean, WOW! They are fascinating, huge and intricate.
Hundreds of people lived in these “houses” carved out of the side of the mountain. How did they even do that with a chisel and a hammer and no YouTube to show them the steps? It was mind boggling.
Since we were so close, we went to The Navajo Nation Four Corners Monument.
It was cool for a quick stop to stand in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado, at the same time.
When we left Mesa Verde I thought I’d never see anything so beautiful again! But I did…multiple times!
Colorado Road Trip – Great Sand Dunes National Park
Our next stop on the way to Manitou Springs was Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.
We went, or tried to go, sandboarding and sand sledding. That was the activity of the day. You would think it’s similar to snowboarding or sledding. Nope. You have to climb the hot dunes. Side note, don’t wear open toed shoes or shorts because you will burn yourself.
Walking in sand sucks, and sand gets EVERYWHERE. By the time I got to the top of the dune I was winded and needed a break. We were on the baby dunes and little kids were lapping me.
We decided to give sledding a shot and rented a sled at our campground.. It was awful. I think it would be great fun if you get the hang of it but Abs and I tried 3 times and the farthest we got before catching an edge in the sand and rolling off, was about 6 feet. The rest of the time we were in the sand. I had someone take our picture holding the sled so we looked legit, and then we were out of there!
Colorado Road Trip – Manitou Springs
The next day we took off for Manitou Springs. Just in case you were wondering, it sounds like Mani-too not Mani-tow. It was our favorite. Even Abs liked it! We stayed at Pikes Peak RV Park…it was very nice, right near the action and Starbucks. The downtown was very cool. We went shopping, and ate at various restaurants.
Our favorite, Swirl Wine Bar, had upside down umbrellas all over the ceiling! There were sculptures everywhere in the downtown area that were pretty cool. I made Abs pose for pictures with them all. I think she wanted to throw my camera into the spring…but she didn’t, and now I have her picture next to all the art!
We even tried the spring water from the many fountains around. You just fill up your bottle and go. However, I don’t recommend it unless you like carbonated water. We were not fans. We just stuck with washing our hands when we passed a fountain!
Colorado Road Trip – Pikes Peak Cog Railway
While we were in Manitou Springs we went on the Manitou Springs and Pikes Peak Cog Railway. It was super fun.
A cog railroad goes straight up a mountain and there are cogs to ensure it doesn’t slip. I have no idea what a cog is, but it worked because we made it, without slipping, to the top of Pikes Peak…14,115 feet!
Here are some fun facts…
Pikes Peak inspired the poem America the Beautiful.
There are 58 mountains in Colorado that are over 14,000 feet and they are called “The 14ers”.
There are people that seek these mountains out and hike to the top…then they are members of the 14er club, I assume, I saw shirts.
The railway ranges from a 16% grade to a 25% grade. Let me see if I can explain what a grade is… for every 100 feet you go up (or down) you gain (or lose) 25 feet in elevation. Something like that. This isn’t a math blog!
The view from above the tree line was totally rad…I’m trying out some new adjectives…but seriously it was breathtaking.
Colorado Road Trip – Garden of the Gods
Garden of the Gods was our next spectacular stop.
“Garden of the Gods”, is the most appropriate name for this place. It was jaw dropping big. These red rocks jetting out of the ground were awesome and they are called names that describe them perfectly. My favorite is “The Kissing Camels”…you see them right?
There is rock at the entrance of the park called “Balance Rock” and people were standing in line to take pictures!
While we were there a storm rolled in…thunder, lightening and rain…but the wind was the most gnarly. We had dirt blowing in our eyes and our hair was all over the place, but we stuck it out and saw it all. Totally worth it!!
This picture reminds me of the sky at the end of the Ghostbusters movie!
Colorado Road Trip – Cave of the Winds
We went to a place called Cave of the Winds. The tour guide said for us to stay together and take pictures only when we stopped walking because she didn’t want us to get separated from the group, and possibly get lost. Well, I don’t follow directions most of the time and Abs kept yelling at me to stop taking pictures.
In my defense, I was situated at the back of the group, and I couldn’t see what we were looking at until the group started moving. I had to take pictures while we moved passed the cool stuff! She wasn’t having it and would not pose for any pictures!
One of the cave features looked exactly like Oogie Boogie from Nightmare Before Christmas!
GPS
Let me tell you about the route GPS took us on to the Idaho Springs downtown shopping area. It did not direct us to take the highway we had been taking in and out of our campsite the past couple days, which was already a little worrisome but we stuck with it.
After about a quarter mile, the road became gravel and then it wanted us to turn right onto a sketchy road called Two Brothers Road if I recall correctly. There was a sign at the entrance to the road that read, “Do not take this road. It is for off roading vehicles only. Your GPS lied to you”.
The freaking GPS had in fact lied to us. We decided to turn left, which would still get us where we wanted to go, it would just take a little longer.
Well, it was the craziest, most narrow, steep, gravel road of all time. There were barely any cars going in either direction, but if a car was coming up the road while we were going down, the driver of that car and I could give each other high fives we were so close to each other! There were no guardrails and you could see right over the edge. By the end of the “road”, I was covered in sweat and my hands were cramped from holding the wheel so tight.
Abs Googled the road we were on and it was actually called, Oh My God Road…really! It was on a list of the most dangerous roads in the US or something like that. Google it!
There would be two other times the GPS lady tried to kill us with bad directions!
Colorado Road Trip – Rocky Mountain National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park was staggering…who doesn’t love a thesaurus? I did not know that they started requiring reservations. I was lucky to get a spot at the last minute for 1:00pm.
This is another spectacular national park. I have never not been amazed with nature at a national park, and I have been to a bunch! Every turn is another amazing view.
I recommend getting an America the Beautiful National Park Pass. They are $80 (at time of my trip) and get you into all national parks and national monuments for a year. Entrance fees are usually $35 so the pass is worth it if you will be going to multiple parks/monuments.
We saw a lot of marmots…super cute and when they “talk” they chirp like a smoke alarm with low batteries! We saw one that was actually posing for the camera!
Did I tell you I’m obsessed with seeing a moose? Well, I am! I was on the hunt in Canada, Yellowstone, really everywhere, and Colorado was no exception. There were a lot of people pulled off to the side of the road, cameras out and pointing. I was convinced I was finally going to see Bullwinkle. Nope. Elk. I got over the disappointment of not seeing a moose because it was very cool to see the elk!
The park also has a glacier that was pretty cool, pun intended, and The Continental Divide.
One of the best surprises was driving through the town of Grand Lake. I had never heard of it, but you drive through it on your way to the park and it is beautiful. Especially if you’re a lake girl like me. We did some shopping and had dinner there after our afternoon at the park!
There were more stops on this trip before we got to Tahoe and met up with my 2 other daughters.
The two most noteworthy are the Georgetown Loop Railroad and Dinosaur National Monument.
Colorado Road Trip – Georgetown Loop Railroad
The Georgetown Loop Railroad is totally different than than a cog. It’s like a corkscrew track so where the cog railroad takes you straight up the mountain this train wound back and forth like a corkscrew to gain elevation. The scenery was lovely and the coolest part is you go over a really high bridge twice, once on the way up and once on the way down.
Colorado Road Trip – Dinosaur National Monument
Our last stop in Colorado was Dinosaur National Monument.
We went through the Utah entrance, as opposed to the Colorado entrance, because that’s where the dinosaur bones are! It was very cool to see a dig site. Apparently I took too long reading the history placards because Abs got impatient and left me! Once I caught up to her, we got back in the truck and drove around the park.
It was as amazing as was all the other places we drove through on this trip.
End of an Epic Road Trip (well, the Colorado portion anyway)
And that’s it! Colorado is probably the most stunning state. I think if I lived there I would attempt all the outdoor activities just to see all the splendor…come on…that was a great adjective! I want to go back there in the winter and see if I like it just as much!
We still had a week in Tahoe with my other girls but I’m sure there will be many blogs about my lake in the future! Thanks for sticking with and virtually enjoying with me this epic road trip!
