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Colorful Colorado Roadtrip

Today I am bringing my experience and recommendations from our recent Colorado Road Trip. Since pandemic we have been locked down in homes, and I am craving for vacation big time. As vaccine reach is out now, we thought it is safe to vacation however with social distancing in place and with out getting on to flights. Colorado and Tennessee are about same distance from Texas, since Colorado is on our vacation list from long time and summer is the best to explore activities in Colorado (also we are not cold weather liking type family). We have made plans to make a Colorado Road Trip as our vacation destination for Summer 2021, and one of our friends family also joined this fun ride, that made a fun blasted road trip. Okay, you too can ride with us now by reading this post!  :-)

St Mary Mount Glacier, Idaho Springs, CO

Colorado is about 10 to 11 hours drive from Dallas, Texas, though it can be covered in single stretch drive, we have decided to take a break in between so that the drive could be relaxing and enjoyable for kids. That made us to set the duration of this trip to 8 day and 7 night trip (Sat-Sat) 2 days for travel 5 days of stay + activities during the trip. Since we thought it's not safe to venture out in hotels yet, we have decided to stay in vacation rentals and opted for AirBnB. First we have booked houses in Colorado Springs and Idaho Springs (mountain cabin) that are close to cover the major attractions and must have scenic places in Colorado. We have listed out the main attractions to visit but we were flexible enough to adjust as needed. All the parks in Colorado are nice, their admission ticket is valid for 7 days for in and out. Based on our list only couple of parks requires early admission, based on the weather forecast we have bought tickets early to Estes Park - Rocky Mountain Attraction. Other attractions are mostly free entrance or you can buy tickets after going there. 

Hop on, Ride with us!

Following are the must attractions we wanted to cover in this trip:

1. Pikes Peak Summit - Colorado Springs
2. Royal Gorge Bridge Park - Zip Line Activity - Colorado Springs
3. Garden of Gods - Colorado Springs
4. Seven Falls - Colorado Springs
5. Sanddunes National Park - Alamosa
6. Red Rocks - Amphitheater, Idaho Springs
7. Rocky's Mountains - Estes Park 

Estes park required to buy Admission Ticket early, that is the only one we booked early on certain date. All other activities we have decided to buy at the place to go with the flow. Pikes Peak, Garden of Gods are free admission, Seven Falls requires tickets to buy at the park. Royal Gorge and Zip line tickets you can plan buy tickets early. We have decided not to buy these tickets early, as the weather forecast indicated chances of rain, duration of trip. We have been chasing the rain through out our trip, but Weather has cooperated very well, we escaped rain and able to cover all the attractions with out getting wet. 

Hint: Always check weather forecast before you make activity plans, since weather in Colorado changes drastically, it may rain on top of mountains, but at the foothills it might be sunny. So don't disappoint if you see rain in forecast, adjust your plans accordingly and be prepared to have some gear for rainy weather. (umbrellas, dry fit shirts etc)

Day 1- Dallas to Amarillo TX

On Day 1 we have started at Noon from Frisco, TX and drove to Amarillo, TX about 5. 5 hours drive. We have reached Amarillo by evening and covered the Cadillac Ranch near by attraction and checked-in to our rental home. 

Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo TX

Day 2 - Amarillo to Sand Dunes, Alamosa, CO

On Day 2 we have started from Amarillo to Colorado Springs about 6 hours drive. Originally we were not sure what to cover either Seven Falls or Garden of Gods once we reach Colorado Springs. But as we made stop over at Trinidad, we have seen directions to Alamosa and realized Sand Dunes Park is closer to where we stopped over. So we detoured and went to Sand Dunes National Park, and that was a great change of plan, later it made all other activities fall in place saving a day for us. :-)

Great Sand Dunes National Park is  a very unique experience, where you get to hike the Sand Dunes that are 800- 900 ft high above sea levels. But seeing the Sand Dunes just like in Desert, in the middle of Lush Green Spanish Mountains with snow tops, is totally amazing. 

We reached our rental home at Colorado Springs by night 8:00 PM and we ate home made meal for dinner and crashed to bed. 

Day3 - Royal Gorge + Seven Falls - Colorado Springs

On Day 3 we have planned Royal Gorge Bridge park, where there are several activities housed, including the ZipLine Activity that I didn't want to miss. And weather showed up as sunny and no rain, hence we picked this activity for this day. We ate breakfast early and got out of the home by 9:00 AM, and park was 1 hour from our rental house. The driving in Colorado Springs is very beautiful where ever you drive, surrounded by beautiful mountain backdrops.  

We have reached to Royal Gorge Park, the Canyon Views, architecture of the Bridge, River down below are stunning. We have walked the Bridge, finished Zip Line Activity first, it started drizzling so the Gandola(tram) ride was stopped, so ate Lunch, by then the Tram started operating, Yay, we finished Tram Activity and there are few more activities for kids also over there. We did some souvenir shopping, by late afternoon we were done with activities and we headed back to Seven Falls attraction, which is a public park (which was listed to be Open until 6 PM). 

Representing my State at Royal Gorge Bridge

As we reached to Seven Falls Parking lot, we came to know that actually there is a Bus Service offered by park, that takes you inside the Seven Falls Park, and the bus service will be closed by 4:00 PM, though the park is open until 6:00 PM, and you can not drive to park directly. We barely made it in time to the parking lot, we were told that there is slim chance that we could get on the bus, as there was already lot of crowd on that day,  still we stood in line with the hope that we may get onto the last bus, and that was the best decision. We were able to get on to the last bus, and made it to Seven Falls, it is pretty nice park for an evening stroll with the Canyon Wall Backdrops, view of Seven Falls. There are stairs to climb to every fold of the Seven Falls ( stair climbing is pretty hard), either you take stairs and go near to seven falls and touch it or relax in their rocking chairs and enjoy the view of Seven Falls with the Canyon Backdrops. Park will be closed by 7 PM, as we started walking back to the Bus stop, it started raining, Park Staff is nice enough to offer Umbrellas to visitors. I am surprised at this service, may be they are used to it as Rain is pretty common on these mountains and looks like everyone is always prepared. 

Overall Day 3 was pretty adventurous with all the activities and thrilling with the mystery whether we can make to Seven Falls or not. We ate dinner at home and crashed to bed.

Day 4 - Pikes Peak + Garden of Gods - Colorado Springs

On Day 4 we planned Pikes Peak, where mostly it is driving to top of the mountains and getting lost in the beautiful view of Mountains, and that relaxation and resting was needed for kids and family, after 2 active and adventurous days. 

We ate breakfast were out of the home by 9:00 AM, we drove to Pikes Peak, stopped at few look out drives. You can drive up to 16 miles on the Mountains on your own, from there for 3 miles there is a Bus Service, you have to park your car and need to hop on to the Bus that takes you to the Peak of the Mountain. ( heard you can drive all the way to the top on your own, may be they changed that due to Pandemic or to control the traffic or to limit the crowd on top of mountain. 

It is super cold on top of the Mountain (14000 ft), you need winter clothing just for that part, so it is wise to pack a hoodie with pockets, that helps to cover your ears and hands to keep you warm. We did some climbing at the peak and wandered in the middle of the clouds, caught some beautiful views of mountains and foot hills. Pikes Peak is called America's Top Mountain.  We ate Lunch at the Cafe on top of the mountain at Summit ( new visitor center that opened this year May 2021), they made the cafe very environmental friendly all reusable cutlery/plates (avoiding plastic) and I loved it. You see that a lot in Colorado, as they want to keep it clean and green to preserve this mountain beauty. 

Lost in the Beautiful Views

We started driving back, and saw lot of traffic to uphill was controlled, good thing we went super early as we didn't had to face any of these traffic delays. We headed to Garden of God Park, where there are Red Rock Canyons standing in the middle of lush greenery. They are in Colorado Springs, it self very close to our rental home. The Garden of Gods Park is Open and free Admission (due to some one's donation, they made the admission to park is free). This activity is good for the whole family, you can stroll around these Canyons and climb some canyons too to catch the beautiful surrounding views. We spotted some of the must see Kissing Camels, Balancing Rock, Single Seeded Juniper Tree etc. You can cover this park by Bike Ride too where you can rent bikes.(that is saved for later trip may be).