Kevin and I recently took a road trip to Colorado, and we are very excited to share our experience with you.
One thing we did different this trip was that we drove all the way to Evergreen, CO where our Airbnb was located. This trip we also invited my mom and two teenage nieces to tag along. But it was having our pup, Rocket, along in the adventure that was the reason we decided to do a road trip in the first place. We’ve wanted to take her with us on our traveling adventures for so long but weren’t sure how flying with her would go. It took us approximately 14 hours to get there (from Central Texas), including pit stops along the way just to refuel body, mind, and car. Also, Kevin was paranoid about our luggage flying away the entire drive. I noticed his eyes glued to the rear view window to check on our items. He made a point to re-secure our luggage at each stop. Ironically, he left the tailgate open at one point LOL! Thankfully, a Good Samaritan honked and waved us down to let us know of this mishap.
The drive through New Mexico and Colorado was great and quite beautiful, but man, getting out of Texas seemed like an eternity! But it wasn’t anything a good podcast (Serial) and Hot Cheetos couldn’t get me through. My nieces, meanwhile, were completely content with listening to their own music with their headphones and taking many, many naps along the way. There were no utterances of “Are we there yet?” That’s a win!
We arrived to Evergreen, CO around 7pm on Thursday evening, and it felt like we were in a Hallmark movie. It’s a small town nestled in the snow-capped mountains, and I was falling in love more and more by the second. The long drive was already absolutely worth it! We explored our Airbnb with a chorus of oohs and ahhs and all crashed after chowing down on some pizza.
Check out the Airbnb: Ponderosa Mountain Home
Friday
Friday morning, we woke to snow, and it was a feeling I’ll never forget! We started our day by taking a stroll at Evergreen Lake, which was only a 5 minute drive from our Airbnb. The snow continued to fall, and it was making my day. It was the first time I had ever seen this much snow. But that was only the tip of the iceberg (pun intended) because it wasn’t the most snow we saw this trip.
After Evergreen Lake, we headed to Estes Park, which was 2 hours away. We drove through the Rocky Mountain National Park, and the views were insane, actually at times, kind of scary. The further we drove up, the foggier it became and less visibility we had. I have to give all the credit to Kevin for getting us to and from Estes Park alive.
After arriving to Estes Park, we got caught in a massive snow storm. It cut our time in Estes short, but my little Texas heart was already so happy!
Saturday
Saturday morning we woke extra early to make it in time for our private family ski lessons at Arapahoe Basin Ski Lodge. We were all so excited, but equally as nervous.
Two things I learned during ski lessons:
- Skiing is not for me. It’s something I have come to accept. And..
- I’m way out of shape. Like embarrassing out of shape (the food I later consumed probably didn’t help my situation).
Yet, even though I fell a million times and got gnarly bruises from my ski boots, I have to say it was an amazing experience! Just seeing my nieces have an amazing time really made the experience for us. Next time, I will watch them ski from the 6th Alley Bar and Grill while I chomp down on one of their amazing bacon cheeseburgers. Actually, I have to show you that burger, because honestly that’s all my nieces talked about for days after. As one of them put it, “I’ve never been so satisfied,” and the other could only make sounds, “MMMhhhmmm.”
After getting back to Evergreen and taking a much needed nap, we decided to take Rocket out on an adventure. We headed down the road to Elk Meadow Park and let our nature-loving pup explore and sniff around until her nose couldn’t sniff any longer.
Sunday
Sunday was our last full day in Colorado, so we headed to Denver to have breakfast at Denver Biscuit Company. We all shared a gigantic cinnamon roll to start, and Kevin and I shared the Lola which is a biscuit sandwich with fried chicken, bacon, and honey butter all covered in maple syrup. Delicious!
After breakfast, Kevin and I had a mini photoshoot with Shoot My Travel (photos to come) at the RiNo District, but, in all, we didn’t spend much time in the city before we headed back out to nature. Many shops were closed much to the dismay of my nieces.
To finish off the rest of our last full day in Colorado, we headed over to the Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre. I have never seen our pup, Rocket, so happy in my life. She was running through dirt paths, and up and down rocks. She sprinted with her cousins and had an adorable smile on her face the whole time. I wish we could hike here everyday with Rocket.
Our trip to Colorado was probably one of our favorite trips yet (we might say that after every trip)! We completely understand that traveling is not an option at this time, but we hope you will use this as a resource for your future trip to Colorado, and we hope you enjoyed reading about ours!
Stay safe,
Rebecca & Kevin