My wife and I spent 4 days in mid June hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park and then headed to the Denver area for more sight seeing and attended the wedding on my best buddy’s daughter. When we travel and camp we usually bring food to eat on the way to where we are going to save money and time. We stayed in a hotel in Witchita Falls the first night instead of camping because the temp was 106 degrees. We then hit Colorado Springs the second night and stayed at Garden of the Gods Campground. It was a cool place, but definitely not set up for tent camping. The site we had was surrounded by at least 150 massive motor homes and was a very busy place. The facilities were awesome so we had a good time and also visited Garden of the Gods park early the next morning. It was an awesome park with very cool rock formations. We then headed the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park and camped there for 3 nights and 4 days of hiking. We did a couple of short 1-2 mile hikes early in the trip then picked up the pace and did two 8 mile hikes and a 4.5 miles hike to end it. We did mountains, rivers, water falls, old historical sites, lakes and visitor centers. If you go, definitely camp on the west side as it is way less busy than the east side (Estes Park) W
e saw moose, deer, elk and plenty of smaller critters. We drove across the continental divide on the last day using trail ridge road. It is one of the highest highways in the US and goes up to 11,000 feet. This is a must do if you go to the park, but it in not for the faint of heart. We then hit Estes Park after a hike to a Alpine Lake and had a nice meal and some brews at a beer garden. The weather was nice the whole time with temps in the mid thirties at night and 70’s during the day. It was very windy though which made hanging out around the campsite pretty tuff. After the park we went to Arvada and hung out and explored that area for 3 days and also attended the wedding. We went to Red Rock Amphitheater, The Sister Cabrini Shrine, and went to some restaurants in the Olde Town Area of Arvada. The Cabrini Shrine was on my bucket list as I am retracing a trip that my oldest sister and my wife took in 2011. My sister passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2013 so retracing her trip that she and my wife made makes me feel like I’m connecting with her. I really miss her. We also got to attend a picnic connected to the wedding, along with the rehearsal dinner and a great wedding and reception. I also got to hang out with my best friend and his family for those three days so that was awesome. We really burned up the road on this trip driving just shy of 3000 miles. We also made the most of every area we visited and met some great people. The only down side was the gas prices as they averaged close to 5 bucks a gallon, but hey, it is what it is and that why we work our behinds off so we can do these trips. I hope everyone is having a great summer and if you get a chance head out to the Rockies and get on the trails.
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e saw moose, deer, elk and plenty of smaller critters. We drove across the continental divide on the last day using trail ridge road. It is one of the highest highways in the US and goes up to 11,000 feet. This is a must do if you go to the park, but it in not for the faint of heart. We then hit Estes Park after a hike to a Alpine Lake and had a nice meal and some brews at a beer garden. The weather was nice the whole time with temps in the mid thirties at night and 70’s during the day. It was very windy though which made hanging out around the campsite pretty tuff. After the park we went to Arvada and hung out and explored that area for 3 days and also attended the wedding. We went to Red Rock Amphitheater, The Sister Cabrini Shrine, and went to some restaurants in the Olde Town Area of Arvada. The Cabrini Shrine was on my bucket list as I am retracing a trip that my oldest sister and my wife took in 2011. My sister passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2013 so retracing her trip that she and my wife made makes me feel like I’m connecting with her. I really miss her. We also got to attend a picnic connected to the wedding, along with the rehearsal dinner and a great wedding and reception. I also got to hang out with my best friend and his family for those three days so that was awesome. We really burned up the road on this trip driving just shy of 3000 miles. We also made the most of every area we visited and met some great people. The only down side was the gas prices as they averaged close to 5 bucks a gallon, but hey, it is what it is and that why we work our behinds off so we can do these trips. I hope everyone is having a great summer and if you get a chance head out to the Rockies and get on the trails.
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