Our Colorado Trip

I hadn't been to Colorado in 11 years, so I was pretty excited to get back there. Shannon and I left early last Sunday, and drove for 10 hours over some extremely boring landscape in central and western Nebraska. Occasionally there would be random hills, but mostly it was just a long drive.
One thing I loved about driving to Colorado as a kid was the fact that you would see an endless, barren, and flat landscape for miles, and then all of a sudden these mountains would pop out in the distance. Well, that didn't happen for us this time because it was raining as we approached Denver. We didn't see the mountains, in fact, until we arrived in the city.
Shannon and I determined on this trip that we loved Colorado Springs and Estes Park the most of all the cities we visited. Among the additional cities we hung out in (not just drove through) were Fort Collins, Denver, Woodland Park, Cripple Creek, Manitou Springs, Divide (where our cabin was), and Boulder. We were both disappointed how you couldn't see mountains very well in Fort Collins and Denver, but other than that they were nice cities.
The reason for the trip was my mom's 50th birthday, which we celebrated by renting a cabin in the mountains (elevation 9,500 feet) for a few days. The cabin had a great view, but it was kind of smelly and dirty. Overall, we enjoyed it- it even had a hot tub which we used the last night of our stay there.
One day we went hiking in nearby Mueller State Park. The views were spectacular, but wildlife was scarce. We didn't see one bear, not one elk, not one moose. We did see some foxes and mule deer, in town.
Other highlights include taking a cog rail up to the top of Pikes Peak...

Visiting the cliff dwellings of the Anasazi Indians...

Losing all our money in Cripple Creek...

Getting family portraits at Garden of the Gods...

Visiting the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park...

Surprising my mom with a 50th birthday party at the cabin...

Seven Falls...




We had a great time and ultimately decided that we want to live in Colorado someday (somehow, some way). I miss the mountains already.