Category Archives: Day Trips

Best of Southern Colorado: Cave of the Winds, Garden of the Gods, Royal Gorge

We had a great time in Colorado and while we were there we took the extra effort to go down south to the Colorado Springs area. This is about a 2 hour drive from where we were staying in Greeley, so it was worth it to book a night in a hotel so we could spend more time touristing around. We had two things on our mind to see: The Garden of the Gods and the Royal Gorge. We ended up seeing three because we also saw the Cave of the Winds. All of these I highly recommend if you are in the southern Colorado region. The landscape changes to be a little drier the further south you go and more and more juniper bushes become interspersed throughout the red rocky area.

Waiting to see the Cave of the Winds. Tickets were about $20 each but Aeden (children under 5 I think) was free

My mom and her first, and so far only, grandbaby

A lot of dinosaur fossils are found in this area so there are some museums and places that showcase it

The canyons in this area are insane!

When we first arrived to Colorado Springs!

The train was a huge part of how “the west was won”

We carried Aeden through some tight spots and steep stairs in this cool cave

Colorado flag flying proud. The yellow circle in the center of the C represents the sun

Fun in the Cave of the Winds

A fun cave with tight spots, but easy enough to do holding a baby

He seemed to enjoy it too!

While we waited for the tour I tried out my spelunking skills -haha

After the tour there was a beautiful rainbow over the canyons

Look! We caught a leprechaun at the end of a rainbow 🙂

So many photo ops!

On the drive back to the hotel from the cave we checked out the Garden of the Gods! So incredible and always FREE! This was the balance rock area

Such incredible formations!

Love these impressive backdrops!

Say cheese!

The next day we drove another hour to Canon City to see the Royal Gorge. We were there at the right place and time because it is normally $28 to cross

The ziplines and gondolas looked fun, but we just walked it

Tourist pose at the top checking out the HUGE suspension bridge we would be walking across

Fun with my mom. It was pretty cool, but wouldn’t be worth $28 just to cross in my opinion

On the other side of the bridge

There’s only so much you can do on a bridge, so I did a bridge! 🙂

Walking the 1/4 mile across and back

I looked for the PR flag, but there were only state flags there

Lookout point!

Overall we had a great time in southern Colorado!

What a beautiful piece of country!

What do you think of this post?

WOW (0)
Awesome (6)
Interesting (0)
Useful (0)
Bummer (1)
Whoa (0)

Quick Stop in Boulder, Colorado

1 Reply

Family fun in Boulder, CO

While we were in Colorado we wanted to take a quick jaunt into Boulder. It’s such a fun town to visit and while the drive was much longer than we remembered (Britton used to drive this route EVERY day to work), it was nice once we got Aeden’s belly all filled up (that kid can eat!). We enjoyed walking around Pearl Street, watching the street performers and grabbing a nice sweet treat.

When walking on rainbows is not strange at all!

And the flipflops are HUGE! 🙂

Fun in the fountains

Yum! I scream for ice cream!

Where the buffaloes roam (or are at least in bronze)

Colorful Pearl Street

Loved all the potted flowers! They even had some tropicals planted for the summer

Later we took a little side road to enjoy the Boulder countryside

Overall, it was a fun quick day trip visiting Boulder.

What do you think of this post?

WOW (0)
Awesome (10)
Interesting (1)
Useful (0)
Bummer (0)
Whoa (0)

Red Rocks on the 4th of July

1 Reply

We had always wanted to see a show at Red Rocks Amphitheater on the 4th of July, and so with this vacation we made it happen. Blues Traveler has been playing there on Independence Day for about a decade now and we had always heard great things about it. Our show lived up to the hype even though you could tell they were a little used to playing there and had a lot of the opening bands play with them. Blues Traveler put on a decent show, but the real star of course is the location itself. Nestled between two huge triangular red boulders, Red Rocks is a natural wonder. I am generally not into concerts because they tend to be really expensive and indoor venues just never do justice to the music. But Red Rocks is special even to musicians. You just aren’t a “true” star until you’ve played there and been listed on their museum wall.

The rock formations are out of this world!

We took advantage of our family’s offers of free babysitting to go out to this concert. We were expecting a great show, but what we didn’t expect was a lightning show, rainbows and all the fireworks shows that lit up the whole Denver area. It starting raining in the middle of the show, but it cleared out half the crowd which made the rest of the performance all-the-better. The firework show put on by Bandimere Speedway was the best and it was so interesting to watch the displays from above instead of below. We loved our time at Red Rocks and encourage anyone who loves the outdoors and music to go (hint: pack some snacks and expect some outrageous prices at the concession stands). Here’s a little from our time with our niece and her boyfriend at Red Rocks.

With Summer in the summer of Colorado

Britton and his niece with an impressive rock formation

You could see Denver in the distance

And rainbows forming over it

We took the long way to the amphitheater and saw deer on the hike

And a bear (haha)

Our group at the concert

Fireworks going off as Blues Traveler played

Such beautiful countryside!

Here’s a little video of our time at Red Rocks:

What do you think of this post?

WOW (1)
Awesome (5)
Interesting (1)
Useful (0)
Bummer (0)
Whoa (0)

Colorado Trip: Greeley Stampede, Estes Park, Family Visit

Leave a reply

We are visiting Colorado for the first time in nearly 6 years! We have a lot of things we wanted to do while we were here including visiting our properties, family (some hadn’t yet met Aeden) and Colorado. So many memories have come up and it is strange to see if from Puerto Rico eyes. I have definitely changed, or been changed by my time in Puerto Rico. I will get into more about our comparisons/contrasts later, but for now, here’s a little of what we’ve been up to. It’s the 4th of July in Colorado, a more “American” style vacation there couldn’t be. BBQs, ice cream, flags and fireworks, big trucks and overly polite people calling me a “gal” abound. It’s funny how easily we stepped back in. Some things have changed, but more have stayed the same.

Hasta Pronto, Puerto Rico! Taking a Cape Air Flight. Aeden’s first!