There are many inspiring places around the US that must been seen in person. Each of these places from Arcadia National Park to Yosemite have unique features and history. Every couple of years my wife and I take a driving trip to visit one of these places. This years trip was to the Rocky Mountains.
We spent a week driving around the Rocky's and saw them from many different angles and in a lot of different weather conditions. It was a great trip. For a quick summary of the trip you can just click through the pictures or read on for more details.
We started our trip in Colorado Springs in the Garden of the Gods Lodge across from the actual Garden of the Gods. They never said which gods created these gardens but I'm assuming it was relatives of Buddha since it was a bunch of rocks in a western zen like setting.
While in Colorado Springs we took a chance to head to the top of Pikes Peak. We could not get to the top because snow had closed the final 6 miles of the road but we did get 11,450 feet and got some good views
After Colorado Springs we headed off for a scenic ride to Vail. The ride started out sunny and along the way we saw 4 of the 31 14,000 ft peak in Colorado as well as checked out a real ghost town. As we got closer to Vail and higher into the mountains it started to snow. At our first 11.000 ft pass the viability turned to almost zero and we came close to hitting a semi trailer making a U turn. We went through 2 more 11,000 ft passes to get the Vail and the visibility and roads were a little better.
Vail was worth the trip. It is a beautiful European like village and what was even better is that it was almost empty. It turns out that even though there was plenty of snow on the mountain ski season was over. Most of the ski resorts are on government land and because of some animal migration the government decides when to close the resorts which this year was April 20th. The result was a we got one of the most luxurious rooms we ever stayed in for just $100 and had a world class meal in a good German restaurant. In fact we had the entire restaurant and wait staff to ourselves. Now I know what VIPs feel like.
From Vail we had another scenic drive to Golden Colorado. Along the way we saw the famous Red Rock Amphitheater. The next day we continued from Golden pass Buffalo Bills grave into the heart of the Rockies and made our way to Estes Park which is the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. Estes Park was almost as empty as Vail. In fact the we were again the only resident of the condo village we stayed at.
We spent 2 days riding around Rocky Mountain National Park taking in the views and just relaxing at our condo. Although the first day was a little cloudy the second day was perfectly clear so I took a lot of pictures to try and capture the scale and magnificents of what I was seeing. The park had a lot of places to take in the view and because it wasn't crowded it was easy to stop and take it all in. Although some of the roads in the park were still closed from the winter storms I don't think there was much we missed.
After Estes Park we headed to Denver where we took in a baseball game before heading home the next day.
Spending a week in and around the Rockies was one of the more scenic trips we have taken. From the views we saw it is easy to understand America the Beautiful was written from here.
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