Colorado Rocky Mountains

 After completely exhausting ourselves at the Dude Ranch, we thought what better way to recoup than go climb some huge high mountains….NOT!  But that’s what we did.  Just an hour up the road from the ranch was Rocky Mountain National Park.  We spent one night there and did mostly parking lot touristy things.  Our campground was at about 9,000 feet elevation so even just moving around there took my breath away.  Still, my heart and lungs have not adjusted to the lower oxygen levels up there. The following videos are of our drive up to the top of the park as the main road goes.  Incredible views from 11,000 feet. 

A rainbow 🌈 greeted us as we were enjoying the scenery along the Rocky Mountain National Park main road. 

Our site at Timber Creek Campground, Rocky Mountain National Park

A short hike from our campground was this historic site of a long ago guest dude ranch 

One of the guest ranch’s buildings

The ranch was sitting on the Colorado River.  The river is very small at this point way up in the Rockies

Our next stop was a fun visit to Winter Park Resort. CO where we got to stop in to our friends’ son Mike’s restaurant “Goody’s”.  Here, we enjoyed a savory and sweet brunch of crepes.  We took a short gondola ride up and down the Winter Park Resort hill just for fun.  Afterwards, we met up with Mike for a beautiful hike up in the mountains surrounding Winter Park.  Our day ended with dinner at Mike’s lovely home in Fraser, the next town over from Winter Park.  Our campsite for these two nights was at Stillwater Campground, a site perched on the top of a hill overlooking Lake Gramby. 

Winter Park Resort

The Village at Winter Park Resort

Mike’s Restaurant 

Our amazing brunch: “The Club Crepe” and “Red, White, and Blueberry Crepe” 

Mike, Lynda, and Agi

Pretty Mountain flowers 

Mike taught us about “microburst” where a whole mountain side of trees are killed from a sudden concentrated storm

Mike, Vic, Agi and Bodi on the hike 

Our campsite atop a hill overlooking Lake Gramby, CO

Our next stop was Beaver Creek Resort, Colorado where our gracious hosts Mitch and Linda let us stay in their beautiful, spacious, luxurious mountainside condo.  We were treated to a lovely dinner with their wonderful friends Carol and Tom, a couple of amazing mountain hikes, fishing (I just watched) in a mountaintop lake, and lots of catching up time with our hosts.  

Beaver Creek

Watching the fishing goings-on at Beaver Lake

These beautiful aspens will turn a bright yellow very soon

The two Lyndas making our way up the 1500 feet climb up to Beaver Lake

The view from our first hike

Mitch’s 31 year streak of catching a fish  from Beaver Lake continues! We enjoyed that Cutthroat Trout that night at dinner, yum!!

Taking a breather to watch Beaver Creek on our way up to Beaver Lake

After saying, “THANK YOU!, goodbye,  and see you back in Florida” to Mitch and Linda, we continued south to our final visit in Colorado: Great Sand Dunes National Park near Alamosa, Colorado. (The video above is of a gorgeous, yet super high bridge just outside of Beaver Creek)  To be honest, our first impressions of this huge sand pile off in the distance were pretty low.  Boy, were we wrong!  As we went through the gate of the park, we got a little closer and could see that this was something really special!  We spent the next two days climbing and playing on the sand dunes and hiking the surrounding hills.  

Path to the Sand Dunes from our campground 

Flowers growing in the sand

Pretty rocks that were blown here from mountains 65 miles away

This is how Agi and Bodi say “Cheese!”

Fire must have ripped through this hillside at some point 

 View of the mountain behind our campsite

Footprints in the sand

At the top of the Sand Dunes Overlook Trail

Bodi Overlooking the Sand Dunes

We literally climbed higher than the clouds 

Sand cactus

Pretty driftwood

Goodbye, Colorado….for now…I’m pretty confident we will be back.  There are sooo many things to love about this state.  

Now, continuing our travels southward!  

(p.s. I am writing this blog from Taos/Santa Fe, New Mexico and Hurricane Ian is threatening our home state of Florida, due to arrive our area in 4 days.  Hoping for all our family/friends/homes will be safe.)