Colorado is Beautiful

Colorado is Beautiful!
 This is the view we had this morning from our campsite in the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

We have really enjoyed our brief trip through Colorado and even though we only had 10 days, we managed to pack in quite a few great stops.

On September 22nd we left MN and drove to Sioux Falls, SD. We passed through many small farming towns and enjoyed the views of the “amber waves of grain” as the harvest was in full swing. We hit a little rain but made it to our destination in good time. The Sioux Falls KOA was much nicer than the Massachusetts KOA! The staff were very friendly and even brought over a raised wooden door mat so we would not get our feet wet stepping out of “The MotherShip”. The next morning we were off to the Registry. I passed the eye test and got my official South Dakota driver’s license! 

 Back on the road we drove in the rain again all the way through Nebraska. This was our first trip through Nebraska and I have to say it was pretty boring. We stayed at a Walmart in North Platte, NE; stopped for a late breakfast at Ole’s in Paxton, NE. (We were the only customers in there for breakfast at 10:00 am. I guess the local farmers must eat breakfast closer to 6:00 am). We found another Walmart in Ft Collins CO and were finally ready to begin our Colorado adventure!

Our first stop was in Estes Park near the entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Park.  We spent 5 days there at the Elk Meadows Campground and enjoyed perfect weather everyday…. 80’s and sunny! We drove the jeep (not the RV!) 45 miles over the Trail Ridge Road which is the highest paved road in North America. The highest elevation is 12,183 feet. and the road has many, many hairpin curves with steep drop-offs on both sides. The views were spectacular! One point along the spine of the mountain, the drop off is about 2,000 feet down on either side of the road! On the other side of the mountain we found a great little town called Grand Lake. After a quick lakeside lunch it was time for the return trip back over the top!  We also took a few side trips to Bear Lake and Chasm Falls. Our timing for this trip was perfect as the Aspens were in full bloom. The park was beautiful and hillsides seemed to light up with the sun shining on the golden leaves. The photos don’t really capture the full effect! We saw many elk wandering all over the park. On our last day we took time to play golf on a beautiful course right in Estes Park . The elk had also taken to wandering on the golf course!  On one hole they were hanging out near the green so we were not able to finish the hole.  Course rules allowed us to take a par which really helped my score!

From Estes Park it was a short drive to our next stop at Colorado Springs. We only had 2 days to spend here but we did a lot! We took the Cog Railway up to the top of Pikes Peak (14,110 feet). The ride up was fun but the views from the top were spectacular! Here’s a little history lesson. Katherine Lee Bates took a trip up to the Pikes Peak summit in the late 1800’s and was so moved by the magnificent views that she was inspired to write the words to “America the Beautiful”.  We also toured the Garden of the Gods, and visited the Air Force Academy (right after the Air Force vs. Navy football game….lots of traffic!!), the US Olympic Training Center and the historic Broadmore Hotel. We stayed at a great campground (Pikes Peak RV) in the town of Manitou Springs just at the base of the mountain. The town is full of little shops and galleries and restaurants and is a place we will definitely come back to someday!

From there it was on to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. We really wanted to stop at Royal Gorge but our time would not allow it for this trip. We will definitely plan it for our next time through. We did take a slight detour to stop in Buena Vista, CO. to visit the Frontier Ranch which is a Young Life Camp. Tom wanted to see what it looked like as he spent 3 summers there in the 1950’s. Today it is a beautiful  camp/resort and has been renovated and expanded. In addition to youth camps, they now host adult retreats and other events. Tom had fun “remembering when!” and he can’t wait to send the photos to his former fellow campers.

And that brings us now to our current stay at the Great Sand Dunes National Park. It is an amazing place, especially the history of how the dunes were formed so many hundreds of millions of years ago! The huge dunes, 750 feet tall and the tallest in North America, are a small part of an enormous sand deposit that covers 330 square miles. They have long stood as a landmark for travelers from the Navajos, to the explorers, to gold miners, to homesteaders and now for sightseeing RV’ers!

Our next stop will be the Albuquerque Balloon Festival. We had so much fun the last time we went, we decided to make a return trip!

See you down the road!


Here are the photos Photo