Rocky Mountain High in Fabulous Colorado

I can’t believe our Colorado trip has been almost two weeks ago already! As you can imagine, I got caught up in work last week so this post is a bit delayed but I wanted to share with you our wonderful trip. In April, our son and his fiancé moved to Longmont, CO which is about 20 minutes north of Boulder. We really liked the charm of Longmont and its proximity to other beautiful places in Colorado. No matter where you go in Colorado you are sure to find two things…mountains and breweries so all of our outings included both of these.


One of our first outings was to Boulder. We walked Pearl Street, a pleasant pedestrian area filled with great shops (highly recommend Peppercorn) and street performers. We also had brunch at the Chautauqua Park Dining Hall and took in the beautiful mountains around us. You can't go to Boulder without walking through  the University of Colorado. The campus is beautiful and we enjoyed the museum in the Old Main Building. Another great find was the Celestial Seasonings tea plant. They offer a great free tours complete with tastings and a gift shop.

Estes Park is another fabulous town that we visited and really enjoyed. The town has lots of great shops and ambiance, not to mention the beautiful surrounding mountains and lake. It is also the home of the very beautiful Stanley Hotel where Stephen King drew his inspiration for the Shining. Many of the mountains still are snow capped and beautiful.

We went to Denver and toured the State Capitol, it is absolutely beautiful! I would highly recommend this tour and the surrounding park. We then hit the 16th Street Pedestrian Mall where we saw painted pianos throughout eagerly waiting for tunes to hit the keys as well as crazy painted steer. Tree lined streets with pretty flowers and lots of great restaurants abound at the mall. The guys went to a Rockies game while the gals went to a museum. All in all, a good time had by all in Denver.

We drove to Colorado Springs for the day and what a day it was! The Garden of the Gods was stupendous beyond words and we also went to the top of Pike’s Peak via the Cog Railway. I would highly recommend both, the Cog Railway is in a small town minutes away called Mantua Springs. The town is really cute with shops and restaurants, it was fun. The trip up to the summit is about an hour and half. It was a beautiful day until we got on the train. The clouds came in and played havoc with our trip to the summit. We went through lots of weather changes to the top but nothing prepared us for the snow and hail storm at the top. We did have winter jackets as we read that it can be 40 degrees colder at the summit but it was windy and freezing! Needless to say we didn’t get to see the five states we heard about but it was an experience nonetheless.

It’s been over fifteen years ago that I have been to Colorado. I used to travel to Denver and Colorado Springs frequently for work. Going back to where the offices were located was interesting as it brought back memories. I was very surprised at the expansive growth in the Castle Rock area, there wasn’t much there back in the day when I visited the outlet mall, the only reason to go there at the time.

We had a fabulous trip, enjoyed spending time with our family and look forward to going back again and exploring other parts of Colorado. For more great pictures of our trip, visit my Facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70792&id=1486850256&l=c535cf648e