RoadTrip: Denver and Colorado Springs

Red Flowers, Red Rocks

After waking, we watched some TV from bed before showering and starting our day.  We drove over to Brett's friend's house to then drive over to Red Rocks Park on the west side of Denver. We did some hiking around the trails and then decided to head towards the amphitheater.

Emily, Megan, Billy, and Brett at Red Rocks

The amphitheater was amazing and we could only imagine how cool it would be to see a killer show there.  I remembered back in high school listening to my sister's Dave Matthews Live at Red Rocks CD. I am almost positive I had no idea where Red Rocks was or even what Red Rocks was.  The museum at the theater was very nice and it had a wonderful history of all the shows that had been put on on the stage.  I enjoyed the part about how the Beatles sold out every show on their Beatlemania tour except for the show at Red Rocks, tickets were $5 and they didn't sell out.  Maybe Denver was more of Rolling Stones crowd.

After climbing the hundreds of stairs up and down at the amphitheater, we were in the mood to do some more hiking and we had seen a sign for Dinosaur Park just down the road.  We didn't know anything about this place but our expectations were nearing Jurassic Park levels by the time we pulled into the parking lot.  The parking lot said "Dinosaur Parking" but when we got out and explored it didn't seem like anything other than a parking lot.  After another attempt to find the real dinosaurs we just found a bike trail off of the parking lot and hiked up it.  It ended up being nothing special with views of I-70 and to the east, Denver.

Feeling beaten by the dinosaurs, we were tired and hungry.  That is exactly when you don't want to be hanging around me so I forced the group to stop and get some margaritas, chips, and salsa at a Mexican joint called the Morrison Inn in Morrison, CO.  After sharing a pitcher of some strawberry margaritas we went back to Emily's house where he mom had made some appetizers and chocolate chip pie, which was amazing, that we snacked on while chatting on their porch.  But before long, we had to head out to make it Colorado Springs.

We quickly found out that from the south side of Denver to Colorado Springs is a short drive and we easily made it to our campsite at Lone Duck Campground a few miles west of town.  We got a spot next to some other groups but had a creek to one side and trees surrounding us which gave us a little privacy.  This was Memorial Day weekend and the campground was 100% booked so we felt lucky to have a spot reserved.  The campground had a lot of things going on, there was a heated pool, fishing pond, game room, convenience store, and a mini kitchen.  They were also having pancake and sausage breakfast for the holiday weekend which families seemed to really enjoy but we decided to pass on those.

There is a lot that we wanted to do and see in Colorado Springs and after getting our camp set up we decided we wanted to start doing stuff.  Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak, Air Force Academy, US Olympic Training Facility.  But we saw a brochure for Seven Falls and it was open at night so we headed in that direction as the other stuff all seemed to close at dusk.

The line of cars at Seven Falls was daunting but as pulled in to the parking lot we figured out the line wasn't because it was ridiculously crowded but that the parking lot was ridiculously small.  It only held about 75 cars and it was difficult to back out of spots with all the traffic.  We got lucky and found a spot way up front and quickly tried to distance ourselves from all the foreign tourists taking pictures of chipmunks and fake bear tracks in the sidewalk.

We climbed all 224 stairs up to the top of the falls and then realized that the better view was to climb up the other stairs to the "eagles' nest."  We then walked back down 224 stairs and up the 185 to get the better view.

We snapped a few pictures of the falls as the lights shining on the falls were changing colors.  The light effects looked pretty neat but it was also very touristy.  I am quite glad that National Parks don't do this type of thing.  Nature has a beauty all of its own, we don't need to manipulate it to make a few extra dollars.  Maybe I feel that way because they got a few dollars out of me.  Be warned, Seven Falls is a tourist trap but we did get a good leg workout.

Roadtrip: Fort Collins and Denver

We woke up a few times in the middle of the night to the downpour of rain (luckily we put the rain fly on) but we stayed dry and warm.  In the morning we woke up to a chilly, overcast day at Horsetooth Reservoir without much of a plan except that my friend, Brett, was arriving in Denver that evening and we were going to try to meet up for some drinks with him and his friend.  We drove over to the showers at the campsite, which makes us sound lazy but it was pretty nippy out, our site was a good 10 minute walk over to the shower, and if we drove we could plug out phones in and get a little battery charge.  So ya, we might have been a touch lazy this morning.

Stout - known for it's growing population and breakfast burritos

It also came in handy that we drove because the showers were pay to use and we needed to have some cash to get the water going.  So we paid our $2 and got to enjoy 6 minutes of hot water.  I am a world-renowned quick showerer so 8 minutes would be plenty.  But that doesn't mean I wasn't stressed about how much time I had left.  I got in and quickly lathered up and rinsed off with fear that I would get caught with suds still in my hair as the water ran out.  So I was done with my shower in give or take, 9 seconds.  I then used the additional 351 seconds thinking, "should I try to scrub more soap on my body," followed by "no! There's no time!"  In the end, I just stood under the hot water waiting for it to end, probably the longest shower of my life.  If there was a glitch and the water didn't shut off, I could have easily been in there for 45 minutes and just thought that "wow, 6 minutes is a lot longer than I thought."

After we were both thoroughly washed and dried, Megan having no issues with the shower, we spotted a little shack that was the "town's" convenience store.  They were advertising $2 breakfast burritos with a coffee.  Neither of us are big coffee drinkers but hell, we're on vacation right?!  And we both really wanted the burritos.  So we picked up a couple and drove back to our campsite to eat our burritos and drink our coffees next to the lake.  We were in no hurry, as the only thing we had discussed doing was going over to New Belgium Brewery.  We had checked online and all the

Breakfast Burritos Next to Horsetooth Reservoir

tours for the day were filled up but we figured we could just stop by and get a fresh pint in the tasting room or buy a souvenir or two from the gift shop.

We got to the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins by about 11 a.m. and it was quite the bustling scene.  I guess in the Craft Brewing Capital it really is 5 o'clock somewhere.  We asked about getting on a tour and the hostess assured us that they could get us on a tour and she was glad that we came without a tour reservation.  She thought that we would either get on the 11:15 tour or the 11:30.  We wasted a few minutes sending a few coaster/postcards that New Belgium would send for you if you filled them out and before we knew it we were on a tour.

Fat Tire Bicycle

The tour consisted of many beer tastings, and not like here is 3 drops for you and 3 drops for you.  New Belgium was letting you try a full bottle or can.  They were quite generous with the tastings which was greatly appreciated by most all of the tour group.  They seem to be well aware of their image and try to stick to that with giving employees bikes to ride, running the facility off of solar energy, switching some beers from bottles to cans in order to encourage beer drinking outside.  They also have a program where their employees, after 5 years of working there receive a sabbatical where they can do whatever they want.  Then at 10 years they get a trip to Belgium to do a bike/beer tour of the country.  They also have a pretty sweet slide in their office to get from the 2nd floor down to the ground level.

Barrel Aging Beers

After our tour, we were feeling pretty good but we wanted to buy some beers straight from the source, so we bought a 6 pack of Blue Paddle and a mini growler of a sour beer that tasted pretty similar to wine.  We also spotted magnets that were New Belgium bottle caps and discussed how that was such a great idea and that we could try to make those ourselves.  An employee overheard us and informed us they were free so we took a couple and decided we needed to get lunch before we go too far.

New Belgium Chandelier

Using UrbanSpoon to find restaurants, which we became very good at picking the good ones, we found B&B's Pickle Barrel Deli which filled our stomachs' with a big BBQ turkey sandwich and some chips.  We then played rock, paper, scissor to decide who had to drive down to Denver and who got to sleep.  Let's just say that I was well rested when we got to Denver.

As we got close, we used Expedia to find a hotel on the south side of Denver that seemed like it would be a good place to spend the night.  The Crestwood Inn was perfect especially for $49.  We lounged on the bed, Megan napped as I watched multiple episodes of Storage Wars, YUUUUUPPP!  We showered and headed out to meet up with Brett and his college friend.  We were a bit early and slightly peckish so a quick burger and fries from Good Times gave us the energy we needed to have another round of drinks.  We met up with Brett and his friend Emily and her sister Anna at Ludo's. It was a huge bar and we enjoyed our drinks on the second floor patio looking over southern Denver.  We made plans to do a hike the next day with them and as Friday night turned into Saturday morning we made our way back to Aurora, CO and our cozy hotel bed.

Emily, Brett, Megan, Billy, Anna
at Ludo's in Denver, CO