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Rockies and Red Rocks

September - October 2023
Targeting Colorado, Utah, & New Mexico. A road trip camping in the back of our Dodge minivan. Starting off thinking this will be a 6 week trip, we will see how it goes. Read more
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  • Rockies and Red Rocks
    Day 1

    Babler State Park

    September 5, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 79 °F

    Spending tonight and tomorrow night at this state park just west of St. Louis. We drove over 650 miles today starting in Pennsylvania and traveling through parts of West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and into Missouri. We ate at Salt + Smoke, a great barbeque place. Tomorrow we explore!Read more

  • Rockies and Red Rocks
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    Day 2

    St. Louis

    September 6, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 75 °F

    We had a leisurely start to the day at the camp site. Breakfast was coffee and left over ribs (for Jeff).

    We drove into St. Louis and toured the national park area of the Arch including the old cathedral. The cathedral was beautiful in its simplicity although it evidently didn't always look that way. There was a guide there to answer questions and he said his father had described the cathedral as looking like a Chinese whore house (the guide had asked his father what he knew about those). The old courthouse was closed for renovations so only could admire it from the outside.

    We did the trip to the top of the Arch to see the great views of the area. After, we toured the museum under the Arch. While I question the status of this as a national park (the smallest), it is definitely a worthwhile stop.

    Our next stop was the Budweiser facility. We had booked the Beermaster tour. The tour took over 2.5 hours and covered about 2.5 miles. This is an great tour and the facility and its history are very interesting. We had multiple testing opportunities including while it was still being aged and was an unfiltered 8.5% version of Budweiser. We also got to sample from the 2500 gallon finishing tanks and finished off with a visit to a tasting room.

    Dinner was pizza at the gallery pub followed by frozen custard at Ted Drew's, which is evidently a local institution.    Read more

  • Rockies and Red Rocks
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    Day 3

    On to Abilene, KS

    September 7, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 88 °F

    Today was another driving day (400+ miles) so not much in the way of pictures. We did manage to stop and visit with former President Harry Truman in Independence, MO. We figured it would be courteous since we plan to visit with Dwight Eisenhower in the morning.

    The Truman Library was worth the visit. I always enjoy learning more about history and Eileen tolerates it (she might secretly like it).

    We had dinner at the M & R Grill in Abilene. While I had a steak on my mind, I ended up ordering chicken fried steak at the waiter's recommendation. It was good.

    We took a walk around the town and topped it off with ice cream from Midwest Snow Cones and Creamery. The ice cream was good and the portions were large.

    We are spending the night at Walt's 4 Season RV Park. A nice little RV Park, will be fine for a night's sleep.    Read more

  • Rockies and Red Rocks
    Day 4

    Abilene KS to Aurora CO

    September 8, 2023 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 77 °F

    We had breakfast at Snuffy Joe's, a highly rated Abilene diner followed by a visit to the Eisenhower Presidential Library. A very nice exhibit of his childhood home, military life, time as president, and burial site. Very educational!

    Then another six plus hour drive to Aurora Colorado. We stayed on one highway for over 6 hours! There were lots and lots of open fields, cows, horses, and a lot of wind generators ( windmills). That was about all until we got closer to our destination. Then we could begin to see the Colorado mountains.

    Colorado has a lot of breweries so we stopped at our first one - A Bit Twisted. They served Texas BBQ because the owners are all from Texas now living in Colorado.

    We are spending two nights at Cherry Creek State Park. Tomorrow, Denver and Red Rock!    Read more

  • Rockies and Red Rocks
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    Day 5

    Downtown Denver

    September 9, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F

    We spend a good bit of the morning and afternoon in the historic LoDo (lower downtown) section of Denver, starting at the Union Station building. In addition to being an active transportation hub, it has a number of eateries (14?). The center court was being set up for a wedding reception.

    We did a two hour guided walking tour as part of our time there. There were about 20 in the group. Our tour guide owned the company and had been providing tours since 2017. Sounded like he had spent time bar tending and other things at giving up his career in IT, which he hated. One of the areas we visited was Larrimer Square, developed by general William Larrimer from Pittsburgh.

    While wondering, we came across Shakespeare in the Parking Lot where we got to watch a production of Romeo and Juliet.

    There appears to be a great network of trails and the streets seemed somewhat biker friendly.

    We had lunch and a beer at the Wynkoop brewery, very good.    Read more

  • Rockies and Red Rocks
    Day 5

    Red Rock Amphitheater

    September 9, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 77 °F

    There aren't many things on my travel bucket list, but a concert at Red Rock was one of them and now it is checked off. Beautiful night, amazing views, and great music. We started with a short tailgate right next to the famous red rocks. Then, many steps upward we reached the amazing venue. Joy Oladokun was the opening act - very down to earth, and good original songs. After a break, Brandi Carlile took the stage for 2.5 hours nonstop. She is a very talented musician with a very talented band. We enjoyed every minute of it and pictures can't begin to describe the views.Read more

  • Rockies and Red Rocks
    Day 6

    Rocky Mountain National Park

    September 10, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F

    We went to Boulder, CO. It is a small, cute town with a mall of shops and eateries. It is a college town so there are many things to do. We just walked around. We were going to hike at the Flatirons, but decided against it due to time and the lack of parking.

    Because we went to Boulder, we entered the park on the east side through Estes Park. We stopped at the Estes Park brewery for pizza and beer. Our campground was on the West side of the park so we had to drive through the park to get to our campground, Timber Creek. Shortly after we entered the park we saw elk in the fields. It is mating season and they are in the fields evenings and mornings.

    After that we started an upward climb. We were crossing the high point (over 12000 ft elevation) around 7:00PM where we were driving through the clouds. It was extremely foggy for 15+ miles, with visibility at times under 50 ft. Not a relaxing or scenic drive. The temperature was down to 37. We made it safely and found out the road was closed this morning because of ice, with snow on the mountain.

    Our campground is nice, but like many NPs, no showers. While we were setting up, we heard a bull elk calling.

    It rained around 11:00 pm but it didn't keep us awake. We awoke to 38 deg temperatures.    Read more

  • Rockies and Red Rocks
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    Day 7

    Rocky Mountain...more

    September 11, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 43 °F

    We slept in, checked in to the campground, and got both hiking and food recommendations from the camp host making the office. The host and her husband are full time RVers for the past two years. They sold their home in Cape Cod after her restaurant failed during COVID. This is their first hosting gig (they get to stay for free but work 32+ hours per week). They leave here in a couple weeks and are hosting at a regional park in Florida for the winter.

    We started off with a 2 mile hike right from the campground to a historic dude ranch resort that started in 1920 and operated until sometime in the 70s. Easy hike for a warmup but wanted to start off slow since we were at an altitude of around 8900 ft.

    Next we hopped in the car and drove to the trailhead for Cascade falls. This was a 7 mile out and back hike without a lot of elevation change, perhaps 600 feet. Much of the trail was very rocky so spent a lot of time watching the ground. We saw deer, chipmunks, snakes and groundhogs. Much of the area was burned out from a 2020 fire but it was still beautiful. Evidently, earlier in the season it was even more beautiful as it was filled with wildflowers.

    The falls was a cascading type, no steep drop, but very beautiful.

    We ate and drank at the Sagebrush grill at the recommendation of the camp host and were not disappointed. The barbeque app had brisket, ribs, pulled pork and sausage. That and some loaded fries made a great dinner. Our server was a girl named Sawyer, nicknamed Sawyer Spilly Pants by her family due to her tendency to spill things. She and her mother moved to Grand Lake 4 years ago when she was 16. They recently bought a duplex, her mother one half and her the other. She was great to talk to, very friendly, day down at it table to talk.

    When we drove back to our campsite, we saw a moose cow and calf about 50 - 75 yards from our site.    Read more

  • Rockies and Red Rocks
    Day 8

    Rocky Mountain ...again

    September 12, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 57 °F

    We woke up to a cold (35 F), but beautiful morning. The sun was shining and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. The stars the last night were amazing!!!! We cooked breakfast in camp - bacon, eggs, and polenta. Then we had to move sites because when we made reservations we couldn't get the same site for three nights.

    We went to the Grand Lake visitor center and then started on the Colorado River hike. We were hiking to Lulu City, a former gold and silver mining town. The town had 200 people from 1879 - 1884. Then suddenly, it wasn't producing what it thought it would, and everyone left. Supposedly there are some remains of buildings but we didn't see any. Just beyond the town marker, the trail led to a very peaceful river edge. We rested and enjoyed the scenery before heading back. The scenery was different from yesterday's hike. There were some burnt trees but far less and many, many pine trees. We saw chipmunks, squirrels, and yellow bellied marmots (like groundhogs). When we got close to the trailhead, we soaked our feet in the cold Colorado River. As we got to our car, there were 8 or 9 elk grazing by the parking lot.

    We went into the town of Grand Lake, walked around and had some ice cream. Back at camp we cooked hot dogs and baked beans and sat by the fire. We heard a pack of coyotes and some squealing. I think the coyotes had an elk dinner.    Read more

  • Rockies and Red Rocks
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    Day 9

    Goodbye Rocky Mountain

    September 13, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 68 °F

    We woke up to another cool, but beautiful morning. After some coffee and breakfast, we drove back to the east side of the park on the same road that was fog covered on our way in. It was a beautiful drive filled with rocks, forests, and plains. We were in search of the long horned sheep that roam the park but we didn't see any. We did see a bear, a moose, and did a short hike in the tundra area at an altitude of over 12,000 ft above sea level.

    We left the park and went to Garden of the Gods - fabulous red rock formations where slabs of rock seem to stand straight up. While hiking there, we saw several people rock climbing some of the formations.

    We checked into the Lone Duck campground and then went to eat at a local dive bar Definitely a locals place but the pizza was good. Not so impressed with the campground.    Read more

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