We left last Saturday morning at about 6am and drove all the way to Denver, Colorado. We spent the night at a friend's apartment. The couple, Sam and Heidi, were in our Bible study last year, and have just recently moved out to Colorado after graduating school and getting married. It was really great to be able to spend time with them and catch up with them a little. I am so sad we forgot to get a picture with them! Sunday morning, Sam and Heidi took us to a large flea market/farmers market just outside the city. There were multiple stands full of fruit like the one below.
We had planned to stay another night in Colorado in a state park, but when we got the park and found our spot, another family's name was on the reservation! Turns out we had accidentally made our reservation for the following Sunday night...oops. Since we didn't have a campsite, we decided to just continue driving. In the end, it was a good thing we weren't able to stay the night at the campground. We were able to get some travel time back and drive through the mountains slowly enjoying the sights and stopping to enjoy the view where we liked.
Ryan suggested that we stop to enjoy one of the hot springs in the mountains. We stopped in Glenwood, Colorado intending to go to the hot springs, but when we got there, we saw that there was a giant swing ride at the top of the mountain! We couldn't pass up the opportunity!
We rode a chair lift up to the top of the mountain. (Can you tell how excited I was!)
The swing was right on the edge of a cliff, so when the swings were fully extended, you were flying over nothing. It was amazing! The whole thing was ridiculously expensive, but so worth it. I mean, really, how many times in your life will you get the chance to ride a giant swing ride on top of a mountain?! We never ended up going to the hot springs.
We ended up finding a campground less than a mile up the road and spent the night there. The weather was beautiful, so we decided to sleep outside under the stars instead of in our tents. Honestly, I was a little scared, I had never slept outside like that before, but it was something I have always wanted to do. I am so glad we did.
We woke up to this amazing view of the mountains in the morning. It was dark when we arrived at the campground so we didn't know what the view would be when we woke up.
The next day we continued on our journey. We really didn't have a plan, other than we knew we had reservations at the Grand Canyon for Monday night, so we just looked at the maps for things that would be interesting to drive by. We ended up going to Arches National Park. Another absolutely amazing place. The park is in Utah and has beautiful rock formations formed by the wind. Many of the formations are naturally formed arches.
After the Arches National Park, we headed for the Grand Canyon, arriving early evening. Our first views of the canyon.
I mean, STUNNING, right?! It is so immense, so overwhelming really. We were at the Grand Canyon for three days and never tired of the view.
The first full day at the canyon, we decided to take a hike down below the rim. We hiked about a mile and half and descended about 1,500 feet down. We weren't even close to the bottom. Interestingly, the further down into the canyon you get, the hotter it gets.
In the evening, we watched the sun go down over the canyon.
We had some celebratory ice cream for my birthday while looking over the canyon.
Thursday morning, we started our drive home. We took a different way home so we could see different views. We stopped first at four corners. It was a rip off! You had to pay $5 per person, to stand in line to take your picture in the middle of a little plaza, and that is all there is. Oh well, I guess it was worth seeing it at least once. We all laid in a different state for the picture.
After four corners, we stopped by Mesa Verde National Park. The park itself is beautiful, it also has these amazing cliff dwelling built by Pueblo Indians. It was really interesting to walk through the ruins and learn about how these people lived.
We had camped every night up until Thursday night. We hadn't showered in a a few days, and we were tired and really wanted to sleep in a bed instead of on the ground. So we broke down and rented a hotel room with a pool and free breakfast. It was blissful! It was actually a good thing we stayed in a hotel, because it rained like crazy that night and we would have been drenched if we had camped.
We continued on our journey the next morning. We stopped at The Great Sand Dunes National Park. It is funny, you are driving through mountains and then suddenly, there are a giant piles of sand! There was a very shallow river running in front of the dunes that we could walk across and then climb up the dunes. It was really fun and felt like we were suddenly on a beach.
We made one final pit stop at a place called the Garden of the Gods in Colorado. It was a bunch interesting of rock formations in the foothills of the mountains.
After the Garden of the Gods, at about 5pm, we drove through the night and got back home at about 11am this morning.
It was an absolutely amazing trip! I am so grateful we were able to go, and so thankful to Austin and Chloe for joining us! We had such a great time, and laughed so much together. There are so many funny stories and jokes we shared. This post would go on forever if I were to share them all.
Thanks for sticking with the post till the bitter end, I hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse into our vacation!
No comments :
Post a Comment