Lynn's Travel Adventures

We call these vacations “adventures” for a reason. Other than our white water rafting trip in Durango we haven’t had much in the way of adventures on this trip. Well, that ended today. Note to self….don’t ask GPS to get to a national park visitor center, at least not at RMNP. Before we left our cabin, I programmed the GPS to get us to the closest visitor center which was about 50 minutes away. After driving around some backroads we finally got to a park entrance where the ranger let us through with a smile and a wave. The dirt road we were driving on should have been the first clue that we were in the wrong place. By the time I figured it out though we were at the point of no return. After about 1.5 miles (which took forever on the skinny, unimproved, pot-hole filled road) we got not to a visitor center, but a ranger station. Since there was no where else to go, we turned around in the parking lot and went back out the way we came. When we got back to the little house with the smiling ranger, we asked where we were supposed to go. Turns out the main entrance was back to the highway about 35 minutes away. We left the cabin a little after 6am thinking we had plenty of time to get to the park for our 7-9am entrance time but now it’s 7:30 and we still really don’t know where we’re going. We got the the park entrance at about 8:15 but the ranger didn’t even ask for our timed entry tickets. So now we’re thinking, why did we spend time/money (albeit only $2.00) to get the tickets when no one seemed to care. To make matters worse, she didn’t give us a map and the visitor center wasn’t open yet. Now we have no idea where we’re going but hope the people in the car in front of us do so we followed them. About 10 minutes into the park I remember that we have a National Geographic book about the National Parks which has maps. Yeah!! It takes another few minutes to find a place to pull over and at least 10 minutes to find the book in our jam-packed car. But at least we finally have a map. So….we make the turn to Bear Lake road because I know that’s one of the places we want to visit and, low and behold, that was where the ranger wanted our timed entry tickets. Turns out we could have accessed the park at any time without a ticket but could only enter the Bear Lake Road during our time slot. OMG!! It was a pretty stressful few hours but we eventually ended up in the right place at the right time.

We left our car at the park and ride and took the free shuttle to Bear Lake. The walk around the lake was very easy and very beautiful. Here are several pictures from that hike.

After our trek around the lake we went on another 1/2 mile hike to Nymph Lake. While the Bear Lake hike was very flat, the one to Nymph Lake was not. I don’t know what the % of grade was but we climbed about 260 feet in that 1/2 mile. We were also at about 10,000 feet so it was a little harder to breath walking on flat ground. We took our time, resting a couple of times along the way. When we finally arrive it was definitely worth the trip.

We were told that the next lake (Dream Lake) was gorgeous and it was only another 1/2 mile so we decided to make the trip. Unfortunately, the grade was much steeper and was only going to get worse so after only about another 10 minutes we turned around and went back to the parking lot. By the time we got back on the shuttle we already had 7500 steps for the day and felt we had accomplished something.

Once we got back to our car, we headed west on Rt. 34 and 20 miles later, we were at the Alpine Visitor Center. The ride was beautiful.

After leaving the park, we drove about 75 minutes to the Hampton Inn in Ft. Collins. We had delicious pizza with a Navy friend of mine. Rose and I were stationed in Italy together and we at different commands in the D.C. area. I’d only seen her once since I retired in 98 so it was great to catch up with her.

Tomorrow we head to New Mexico to visit Capulin Volcano National Monument. We’ll let you know how it goes.

Well it was another fun but low-key day. We had a leisurely morning at Cathy’s beautiful basement flat before taking the 35 minute drive to Boulder. We had a tee time at the Flatiron Golf Course and after taking time to hit a practice bucket we teed off with a couple of local men. Rich and Ed were very nice (not to mention patient) and we had a great time. The course was gorgeous with a lot more water hazards and trees than we’re used to. I didn’t quite make it across a couple of the creeks so I lost a couple of balls (not to mention strokes).

After golf we headed down Boulder Canyon for our last Airbnb flat. This one is a tiny studio cabin that sits on a creek. It’s a lot smaller than the studio flat we had in Denver but it’s still quite nice. The bed looks super comfy so I’m looking forward to a restful sleep.

Since this is our last Airbnb flat on our trip, we finished the pasta for dinner before heading to Pearl Street Pedestrian Mall to walk off the carbs. On the way back to the cabin we stopped for a short walk by the creek.

It’s a beautiful evening so now we’re sitting in the yard listening to the creek and the street traffic. But….mostly the creek.

Tomorrow we’re heading to Rocky Mountain National Park. We had a timed ticket for entry between 1-3pm but a bunch more tickets were released at exactly 5pm mountain time so I was able to grab another ticket for 7-9am entry time. That gives us all day in the park instead of just the afternoon. Tonight’s host told us that it’s mating season for the elk and that it’s spectacular to watch. I’m not so sure about that but I’m certainly willing to give it a look see. I’ll let you know how it goes. Night everyone.

We are loving this vacation. Not just because of the things we’re doing and seeing but because it is so relaxing. We’ve been doing something every day but we haven’t packed our days so full that we’re exhausted.

This morning we ran to the store for a few things then went to the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum just east of Denver. It was very well done with some great displays.

From the museum we headed back to the center of Denver for the Taste of Colorado. Compared to the Taste of Chicago which would have 250,000 people over a long weekend this was pretty small but it was still nice. We had gyros from a street truck and walked around some of the vendor tents. It was pretty hot (low 90s) so we only stayed about an hour before heading back to our beautiful flat.

After an afternoon siesta we went back out for ice cream. Our host, Cathy, suggested a place about a mile down the street and it was delicious. Now we’re sitting on the back patio playing a rousing game of Rummikub. Aren’t we exciting!!

Tomorrow we’re heading to Boulder which is only about a 35 minute drive. We’re in one more Airbnb flat before we switch to hotels for the rest of the trip. Maybe we’ll get a game of golf in tomorrow. Who knows??

So, let’s finish our anniversary yesterday before moving on to Pikes Peak. We had a lovely dinner at the Cliff House in Manitou Springs. Dinner was delicious….I had sea scallops and my honey had pasta primavera. They brought us a lovely plate of strawberries and cream for dessert. It was a wonderful anniversary!

Today, Sunday, we got up earlier than we needed to for our trip to the Cog Railroad up to Pikes Peak. When we got the directions from GPS, for some reason it gave us directions to the station on the top of the mountain, not to the station at the bottom. As a result we thought we had a one-hour drive when in actuality it was only 12 minutes. So….we got to the station at about 6am, about an hour before the staff arrived. Obviously we had no trouble finding a parking spot so we just hung out in the car until it was time to leave on the 8am train.

The ride up the mountain was beautiful. Here’s a pic I took from the train.

The summit is 5 feet higher than it was in 1965 when I visited it the first time. Now it’s 14115 feet above sea level. It took an hour to get up there and we spent about 50 minutes at the summit. That was plenty of time for photos, a trip to the gift shop and a stop in the cafe for a little snack.

You might be wondering what makes these donuts world famous. Well…we wondered as well and asked one of the workers. Apparently it’s impossible to bake at that altitude so someone came up with a recipe and developed an oven to successfully bake these donuts. We were told that if we were to take them back down the mountain, they would be as flat as a pancake because of the change of altitude. We thought about trying it but they were so delicious we ate them both at the top.

After we descended the mountain we drove to Denver (about 90 minutes north) and visited the Molly Brown House Museum. The movie “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” with Debbie Reynolds is one of my favorite musicals. The house in the movie is much larger than the real house but it was still very beautiful.

The following video is my favorite number from the Unsinkable Molly Brown. The story goes that the production was running out of money and the producers wanted to cut this number. But Debbie loved it and told them they had to keep it in. The producers agreed but only if they could get it done in one take. So, they did. Apparently the two male dancers with Debbie near the end of the number collapsed in exhaustion when it was finished. Believe me, there is no ballroom in the real house. In fact, the entire building could fit into this ballroom.

We thoroughly enjoyed our self-guided tour of this beautiful house. When we finished we headed straight to our new flat in the suburb of Wheat Ridge. It’s a basement apartment and is lovely. Tomorrow we head to the Air and Space Museum. The other two things we wanted to do, the Coors Brewery and U.S. Mint, aren’t open so I’m not sure what else we’ll do but I know we’ll find something fun to keep us out of trouble. I’ll keep you posted.

Didn’t post yesterday (Friday) as all we did was golf 18 holes at the Eisenhower Golf Club. It’s on the grounds of the AF Academy and is a beautiful course. It was a little cool and mostly cloudy but the sun peaked out every once and a while. As for how well we played (or not), there’s no need to discuss it on a public blog. Let’s just say we played better on the back 9 than we did on the front nine.

This morning we had a nice anniversary breakfast with mimosas. We’ve been dragging around a bottle of Martini and Rossi Asti (one of my favs) since we left home so we’re glad to finally crack it open. I can’t believe we’ve been married for 6 years already. Time really does fly. We’re going out for a nice dinner tonight at the Cliff House Restaurant. We planned to spend the night there as well but decided we didn’t want to pack everything up again so we’re staying in our flat for our last night in Colorado Springs.

After a quiet morning we walked to Old Colorado City which is only 1/2 mile from the flat. It’s the historic part of town, only a few blocks long, filled with shops and restaurants. Our favorite part though was the Saturday farmer’s market. There were tons of tents in the corner park and, since the weather is beautiful (75 and sunny) it was pretty crowded.

Not much happening this afternoon. We’re heading Walmart/Target to buy bubble wrap. We found a very large Mexican art market where we bought a few things for the house. One piece is a bit big so we want to wrap it in bubble so it doesn’t get destroyed in the back of the car as we continue our travels. Other than dinner tonight, not much else going on today. It’s nice to have a relaxing day where we can just sit on our back porch and enjoy the beautiful day. Talk soon.

We are so glad we decided to visit Black Canyon yesterday as the road we needed to take to Colorado Springs shut down at 8:30 for construction. As it was, we got there at about 8:25 and were the last group to go through before they shut it down until mid-afternoon. If we had visited the Canyon today we would have missed the window.

The drive was pretty but uneventful. The biggest challenge was getting around the larger, slower vehicles on the mountain roads. Our highest elevation today was 11300 feet but then we descended again fairly quickly. As we sit in our apartment in Colorado Springs we’re at 6100 feet.

The first thing we did when we arrived at about 1:30pm was visit Santa’s Workshop at the North Pole. We visited there in 1965 and I wanted to go back to see if I remembered anything. The answer is….not much. I remember the pole where we took pictures but that was about it. When we were there in 65 the only ride was a pony ride and now they have quite a few rides. Only a couple were open but we didn’t plan to ride anyway so that was no big deal. Admission is free so we spent about an hour wandering the grounds.

Here’s a short video I took of some of the grounds.

After leaving the North Pole we drove just a few minutes to the Garden of the Gods. Just like Santa’s Workshop it was free to visit. We thoroughly enjoyed driving around this National Natural Landmark and stopping to take a few walks.

After leaving the park, we picked up some groceries and headed for our Airbnb flat. It’s a bit smaller than the one in Durango with only a kitchen, bath and bedroom, but there’s a nice porch in the back so I don’t think we’ll miss the living room. After a dinner of roasted chicken and au gratin potatoes, we’re settled in for the night. Tomorrow we’re playing golf at the Eisenhower Golf Club at the Air Force Academy. It’s supposed to be a little cloudy but there’s only a slight chance of rain so we’re looking forward to a nice 18 holes. Hopefully we’ll play better than we did in Durango.

Thanks for taking the time to follow us on our adventure. We’ll post again soon.

Unfortunately the weather forecast was correct so we had a day of rain and clouds. We planned to spend several hours in Telluride; taking the gondola up the mountain. But, because of the clouds we didn’t see much point so we only spent an hour strolling through town. The Telluride Film Festival starts tomorrow (9/2) and goes until Labor Day. Luckily we missed the crowds by one day.

It’s a cute little town filled with very expensive shops (does anyone really pay $90 for a pair of sweat pants???) and little restaurants. We didn’t want anything heavy so we just had a couple of quesadillas for a mid-morning snack. Turns out though that they were bigger than we thought so we have leftovers out in the cooler.

Since we didn’t spend as much time as we planned in Telluride we decided to go straight to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park just outside of Montrose. Originally we planned to spend the night in Montrose then check out the Park in the morning but since we were in town by 1:30pm we flipped our plans. Even though it was very cloudy and a little rainy, the Canyon was still beautiful. It’s very different from the Grand Canyon in that this one is quite narrow and has very high walls. Because of the clouds the pictures don’t do the canyon justice but it’s the best we could do.

After about an hour on the scenic rim road the clouds and fog really started rolling in so we decided to bail and head to the hotel. After an early pizza dinner and a stroll in the local Target to walk off the pizza, we settled in for the night.

Since tomorrow morning is also supposed to be cloudy and rainy, we’ll head straight to Colorado Springs where we have another Airbnb flat. We’re looking forward to a roasted chicken for dinner. Talk with you then.

We had two terrific action-packed days in Durango. We checked out of the Grand Canyon Lodge Sunday morning for our 6 1/2-hour drive to Durango. On our way out of the park, we saw a small herd of buffalo along the side of the road. As they were only a few feet from the road, we took this picture from the safety of our car.

About 2 1/2 hours after getting on the road we got to Page AZ where we found the Glen Canyon Dam. It was only a few miles out of the way, so we decided to check it out. It was a bit of a hike to get to the overlook (we would have never made it without the handrail and our walking sticks) but the view was worth the trip.

Once back on the road it was another 90 minutes before we got to the Navajo National Monument. Once we arrived, we realized we had seen it on our trip in 2019 but since we didn’t remember any of it, we enjoyed seeing it again.

After eating our lunch in the monument parking lot, we got back on the road for the last 3 hours of our trip. In Durango we stayed at a very nice one-bedroom house we rented on Airbnb. We are very happy to be able to cook our own meals as, even after just 3 days, we were tired of eating out.

On Monday we took a half-day trip on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. When I was here in 1988, I did the full-day trip to Silverton, but we only went about 2/3 of the way up the mountain to Cascade Canyon. We were in an open carriage and had a great time.

Click below to see a video I took on the trip. It wouldn’t embed like the other videos so I had to do a link instead.

https://youtu.be/_vrBB6ionyA

Then on Tuesday we started our day with a 2-hour white water rafting trip. We don’t usually participate in activities with the word “Adventure” in the title but it looked fun, so we took the risk. It was actually a very calm ride as the Animas River is quite low. We ran into a couple of bigger rapids and on the last one our guide, Carson, turned the raft around and went “surfing” back up the rapid. Look at the pictures to see how that turned out.

Here’s a video I took earlier in the ride when I was still dry. For some reason I was able to embed this one…..enjoy!

After rafting we ran home for a quick lunch and change of clothes (mine were soaked) for our 2:00 tee time at the Hillcrest Golf Club. The course is beautiful and relatively easy with wide fairways. Neither one of played all that well but we still enjoyed our afternoon in the sunshine.

After golf, I changed clothes again, for our evening at the Bar D Chuckwagon. I had been to this in 1988 and thought Peter would enjoy it. A little history…in 1965 my family took a vacation to Colorado Springs. During that trip we went to the Flying W Ranch for a chuckwagon dinner. One of the performers was a guy named Cy. He was the comic relief of the group and a fan favorite. I saw him again at the Bar D in 1988. I asked about him when we got there tonight and learned he passed away just last year at 93 years old. I was told that he continued to perform right until the end.

We bypassed Durango in 2019 on our way to Glendale AZ. Now I wished we had stopped because we probably would have done the Bar D show and I would have had the chance to see Cy one more time.

The dinner was delicious, and the show was wonderful. Peter even bought a CD of their music. It was a terrific evening.

Here’s a video of the boys. They played the theme song from the old TV show Rawhide. It was my favorite show when I was a kid. https://youtu.be/Zc65yRFKo1s

It’s almost 10pm and I still have to pack. We’re leaving tomorrow morning for Telluride on our way to Montrose to visit the Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP. It will be one more stamp for my NP Passport book. It might rain in the mountains tomorrow so I’m not sure if they’ll be anything interesting to tell you but if there is I’ll post again tomorrow night. Till then….love to all who follow.

Sorry it’s taken so long to post but there was no internet access at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. To be honest, it was nice to disconnect for a couple of days.

We left Flagstaff bright and early on Friday, August 27th heading for the north rim. On our way we passed the southern edge of Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. We didn’t actually enter the monument as the roads are undeveloped and Peter doesn’t like to drive on unpaved roads. If we had gone in this is what we would have seen.

What we saw, though, was still very beautiful.

We drove to Lee’s Ferry which is the starting point for many of the Colorado River rafting trips. We talked with one of the guides and the trips are 3-7 days long. While it sounds like fun, there’s no way I could sit in the sun hour after hour for days. Besides no way am I sleeping in a tent. My idea of roughing it is a hotel without room service!

We found a spot we could wade in the Colorado River.

While the drive from Flagstaff to the North Rim is less than 4 hours, with all of our stops it actually took over six. But we weren’t in any hurry and we really enjoyed our side trips.

We’ve visited both the west and south rims but this was our first time at the north rim. I had heard that it was the prettiest of the rims but I’m not sure I agree. Of course it was breathtakingly beautiful but so are the other views. I really enjoyed this one though as it was less crowded than the south rim. Since it’s so far out of the way, you have to make an effort to get there. The best part was there were no tour buses off loading 50-60 people at a time. One of the workers told me that they rarely get tour buses; maybe one a week but sometimes not even that. On the other hand, the lodge cabins were much smaller and more primitive than the ones at Bright Angel Lodge at the south rim.

Since we didn’t get checked in until after 3pm on Friday, we spent the rest of the day getting settled and sitting on the main lodge veranda admiring the view. We had a lovely dinner in the lodge thanks to a couple (Julie and Joe from Pasadena) we met on the veranda. While I knew we had to make reservations for the room months in advance, it never occurred to me that we needed dinner reservations that far ahead as well. Unlike the south rim where there are several restaurants, the north lodge had only one restaurant that was only open for dinner. There was a deli to pick up to-go food but that was it. Luckily Julie and Joe decided not to use their reservation for their second night and gave it to us. The menu had some odd offerings (venison meatloaf anyone??) but we stuck with something less exotic. Peter had a rib eye and I had the duck. Both were delicious but very expensive. We lucked into reservations for our second night when Peter just happened to be standing at the hostess desk when someone cancelled. But like Julie and Joe, we decided not to have a heavy, pricey dinner two nights in a row so we gave up our Saturday reservations to someone else and picked up sandwiches at the deli.

On Saturday we drove Cape Royal Road along the rim of the canyon. It was 30 miles one way and there were lots of places to stop and enjoy a hike or just look at the spectacular view.

It was so hard to decide which pictures to include as there are so many that are breathtaking, but here are some of our favorites.

Both nights we spent hours on the main lodge veranda meeting people, having a few drinks and enjoying the gorgeous sunsets.

That was our visit to the Grand Canyon North Rim. It was a very relaxing two days so we’re ready for the next part of our adventure…Durango CO. I’ll post again on Tuesday night to tell you all about it.

We started our Rocky Mountain adventure today in Sedona. It’s only 3 hours from home so it was an easy drive. We had a great time driving/hiking in the Red Rocks. Even at 3000 feet above sea level, it was still in the low 90s so our hikes were short and covered flat ground. But we got our 10,000 steps so who could ask for more.

This is Bell Rock, one of the most photographed formations in Sedona.

Before we left for Flagstaff, we discovered the Chapel of the Holy Cross. It’s a beautiful little chapel built into the butte.

We’re spending the night in Flagstaff and tomorrow we’re heading to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We’ve been to the south and west rims but never the north so we’re looking forward to it. Talk with you then.