Colorado Vacation

Aaron and I are back from our Colorado vacation and had a great time!  Here's the trip highlights..
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Day 1 - Hit the road, 3:30 pm!  We stayed over in  Kearney, NE and drove thru some bad weather.  Luckily it was the only bad weather we had our entire vacation, other than that night, our weather was summer perfect!  I couldn't have asked for better weather!

Day 2 --Aaron woke up sick which wasn't a good start to our day but he was a trooper and we arrived to our camp site in Rocky Mountain National Park.  Our site was awesome, the only problem was it was quite a hike to get to it and climbing a mini cliff with all of our gear was challenging.  It didn't seem worth all the set up work considering we only camped one night here.  The site itself was better than I expected, great site! 

We then headed off for our first hike.  I had read beforehand about the Emerald Lake Hike and how it is the most popular in the area and I see why now.  Beautiful scenery from every angle!  We started our hike at 9,000 feet above sea level, being so high definitely made our views awesome.  We hiked thru lots of snow!  That was pretty cool considering it hadn't even cross my mind we would be hiking in snow.  Our hike was 2.2 miles round trip, the first half all up hill or shall I say 'up mountain'.  It sure was a hike! 

This was the trickiest part of our hike, one slick step and you down a long mountain side, I didn't capture the image of the 'cliff' but trust me, it was a steep drop right off the trail 

My favorite picture of our entire trip!  It just captures the beauty of Colorado

Standing at the top of a waterfall

This marked the turn around point in our hike because we could no longer make out the trail in all the snow!  This is not a blanket of snow... this snow is as deep as I am tall!

Even though there was a lot of foot traffic on this hike, it was so peaceful given all the other hikers

We then had dinner at Estes Park and my poor husband was in bad shape at this point so after dinner we just went to bed in hopes that extra sleep would make him feel better and it did.  Estes Park is a really neat town, Aaron thought it was too 'touristy' whereas I could totally live there no problem :)

Day 3 -- this day was trail ridge road tour bus day!  5 hour tour up over 12,000 ft.  This was an amazing trip!  For me, I rate this the most memorable part of our trip.  Never drive this on your own!  I thought it was pretty dangerous and if Aaron and I were driving it, we would have turned around long before where the tour bus turns around at.  One spot, still at over 10,000 feet high (or =2 miles up to put it in better perspective) was a complete drop on both sides of the road, I was freaking out.  The bus driver and the park ranger on the bus did an awesome job.  Overall, they made me feel comfortable/calm/safe as this trip was completely outside my comfort zone.  It was awesome when we were in the tundra, being eye level with the mountain tops is indescribable! 

The snow just keeps getting taller as we go up and up!

Too bad it was frozen so we couldn't see it in action

This was at the very top, snow twice as tall as Aaron

Someone dug out the top of the sign, we are standing looking down at the top of a sign that is probably 7-8 feet high

This was my favorite lookout stop

Another one of my favorite pics

Being in the tundra is very cold.  The wind is very strong up that high but the view is worth freezing for.  Luckily I did my research beforehand and we came with lots of layers to withstand the conditions, it really wasn't that bad with our layers on. 

Late afternoon we checked into our Estes Park cabin; our cabin was awesome!  My sister Heather came over to our cabin to stay with us.  Aaron was experiencing altitude sickness from the day so unfortunately it was another night that he wasn't feeling well.  I wore a sea band all day and felt fine, I think those bands do seem to work.  We grilled out and had the fire pit going, just enjoying the sound of the rushing river right underneath our cabin deck.  I kept saying I could just move into this cabin and live here!  I'd be alright with that! 

We ran into Estes Park for ice cream and walked thru a funny t shirt store and we had just joked about all the hippies and saw this shirt and died laughing.  Heather had to have it!

Heather brought us a bunch of micro brews from the brewery she works at

Chillin'

Day 4 -- Aaron, Heather and I headed out to Ft. Collins for white water rafting.  I was really nervous about this part of our trip.  Especially when they started going over the safety talk and basically listing every worse case scenario there was, horrible scenarios that I hadn't even dreamt up yet, like getting sucked underneath the boat and not being able to get out from under it.  Anxiety was kicking in for me whereas the safety talk made Aaron and Heather that much more excited. 

But once we got on the water... piece of cake!  We all loved it!  In fact I asked our guide to get us into some of the higher class rapids.  The water was a very cold 42 degrees, we had wet suits, fleeces, splash jackets, gloves, helmet and special shoes to help protect us against the very cold water.  Never once did I feel like I was going to fall in, I felt safe the entire time and we all definitely got soaked!  Tons of fun! This was Aaron's most memorable part of the trip he said. 

Aaron and I

Heather and I

That night we were all feeling pretty good, we grilled out and enjoy our last night at the cabin. 

We saw tons of Elk just outside of Rocky Mtn National Park

They were everywhere!

There were lots of people taking pics, I got close to them, they were calm and didn't seem bothered at all by all the people.  I asked a park ranger if they were reindeer, he corrected me, they are elk.  Whoops!  Gotta laugh at that! 

Day 5 -- Packed up, left Estes Park and headed down to Boulder for the first half of the day.  Heather showed us around her new hometown, which we really enjoyed what we saw of Boulder.  We then had lunch at the pub Heather works at, Mountain Sun, and met her coworkers who all were very friendly.  After lunch we said good bye to Heather and headed down to Denver. 

In the pub Heather works in, an artist comes in every month and draws this out of chalk!  That's a chalk board!  Impressive!

Behind us is another chalk board art

In Denver we stayed at a hotel right downtown.  2 blocks away from the 16th Street Mall, the location couldn't have been better!  We loved Denver!  The 16th Street Mall is a big ped mall with lots of shopping, restaurants, entertainment, etc.  We pretty much just walked around all afternoon and then headed out for a date night in the city.  We had dinner on a patio and enjoyed watching all the summer activity.  We then continued to explore and stumbled upon an outdoor concert that ended up being pretty entertaining. 

Frozen yogurt snack... Aaron really was craving frozen yogurt all vacation so when we saw a place, even though the line was outrageous, we stopped for it

Middle of the day beer?!?  Why not?  It's vacation!

Denver Date Night

Aaron started to wear down on posing for pics but I didn't :)

Day 6 -- Headed into Colorado Springs.  First stop, Garden of the Gods.  Beautiful red rock formations.  The park is much bigger than I had thought it would be.  We drove thru most of it and stopped at different outlook areas.  Every park in Colorado we visited was absolutely pristine and so well kept! 

Holding that rock in place



Yep, that rock isn't going anywhere with me holding it up




So... do you think it looks like a butt crack too?  That was our first thought!



We then headed to set up camp at another national park.  Not quite as big of a climb, this time it was downhill to get to our site and a climb back to the car.  Camping in Colorado is serious business!  I was bummed because the park was under a fire ban so we couldn't have a camp fire, too hot and dry was the cause of the ban.  It was high 90's! We then headed out for our Helen Hunt Falls Hike, which really isn't too much of a hike but driving to this hike we quickly climbed in elevation.  We then headed over to Pikes Peak area.  We didn't enter the park because I started to get altitude sickness really bad and wasn't up for any more quick climbs in elevation.  We ended up heading downtown for dinner.  My altitude sickness was comprised of a very bad headache where Aaron's altitude sickness was mostly fatigue. 

Helen Hunt Falls

Sad to say this is the best pic I have of Pikes Peak.  I can't believe I didn't get a better shot, this one is pretty bad but had to share at least one of Pikes Peak!

So what do you do in the evening when you are camping and you can't have a camp fire?  You can't really do much of anything!  So this might sound crazy but we took our portable DVD player into the tent and watched a movie.  I know, I know... we're the worst campers!  

Day 7 -- we had reservations at the world renowned Broadmoor Resort for their infamous brunch.  Was this an experience!!!  This was fancy stuff!  Very pricey brunch but worth every penny, our big splurge that we did seriously consider if it was worth it.... and it was!  Over 100 items to choose from, the service was impeccable, and you don't leave feeling heavy/sick from the food.  None of the food was too rich, it all just tasted really good and is hands down the best brunch I've ever had. 

Dang we looked good for having campgrounds facilities to get ready in

This is outside the front door, gorgeous!

Yummers

Morning beverages

Way fancy!

After brunch we walked around the resort for quite awhile and this place is paradise!  $575 for the cheapest room, outrageous!  We didn't stay here, I wish though.  It was so peaceful and serene.  I told Aaron to start saving because this is where I wanted to stay next time :) At this point in the trip I really didn't want to leave, I wanted to unpack and stay at the resort for 7 more days but we decided to hit the road back home.  I had reservations that night at our campsite but we had really hit everything we wanted to do in Colorado Springs so if staying at the resort wasn't an option, it was time to head home. 

I can't even describe how beautiful the grounds were... pictures don't describe it

We watched this swan forever... it was my tactic of procrastinating leaving this place

Every look nook of this place was ornate and fancy

Half way home we stayed another night in Nebraska and got home on Day 8 early afternoon.  I was wiped out and slept the rest of the afternoon.  Great vacation!

 I'm really glad we choose Colorado for our summer vacation, we really did have a wonderful trip and the memories of this trip I share now with Aaron are priceless.  I took over 600 pictures and made a cool photo book if you ever want to see it. :)