Colorado Trip Notes

I'm getting our Colorado trip photos loaded onto the web now, so I thought I'd take a minute to write about the trip. We decided in early August that it would be fun to take a quick road trip up to Colorado with my siblings and our two dogs. We managed to find a few days that worked for everyone, a place that none of us had visited yet, and a hotel that would allow dogs.

Joella, Fang, Errol, Jeff and I left Wichita at about 6:30 am on Saturday, August 2nd. We drove to Hays, stopped briefly to pick up some snowballs (yum!) and met up with Nathan, his girlfriend Ashley, and Dan. We then proceeded to caravan the rest of the way out to Colorado. We stopped in Burlington for free road maps at Nathan's request, and for lunch. It was crazy hot (100-105) for most of the day, but as we got into the mountains outside Denver, we happily watched the thermometer drop all the way down to 90, then 80, and then finally down to 62 as we approached Independence Pass. Half of us (the ones in our car) weren't really planning to hit 12,000+ feet on our first day in the mountains, but those people in the other car lead us that way. It turned out to be fine - no one got too sick from the big altitude change, and we got some pictures of everyone at the pass on the first day of the trip. We rolled in to Snowmass Village at about 7:00 pm, checked in to our hotel, and went to Il Poggio for dinner. Jeff and I had this delicious veal gnocchi dish with asparagus and roasted tomatoes. It hit the spot.

Independence Pass

The next day, Sunday, we had breakfast at the hotel and decided that we'd spend the day at Maroon Bells. We got into our hiking gear and met up to drive to Aspen Highlands, where we picked up the shuttle bus that drove us to Maroon Lake. From there, we took the Crater Lake trail. Fang and Errol were allowed to hike on this trail, which made it more fun for all of us. Errol was pretty slow after about 20 minutes, so he got loaded into his pup pouch for carrying. I carried him for a while, then Joella offered to take him. She and Dan got well ahead of the rest of us, but we all eventually arrived at Crater Lake in time for lunch (some sandwiches and fruit that we picked up at the grocery store in Snowmass Village). Fang was a super-trooper pup and he hiked the whole way! Well, almost the whole way - there was one area of the trail that was small boulders from an old rock-slide, and he got carried over those. After a relaxing lunch and photo session at Crater Lake, we all headed back down the trail to Maroon Lake. We went into Aspen for dinner at Pacifica later that night.

Nathan and Ashley walk Errol on the trail

Joella and Dan at Crater Lake

On Monday, Jeff, Ashley and I got up early to go horseback riding on Buttermilk Mountain. Jeff rode Tivio, Ashley rode Johnny Walker, and I rode Prince. They were all mostly well behaved. The 1.5 hour ride took us up the ski runs into a little meadow area and back down again. We had time for a quick lunch back in Snowmass Village before we had to get changed into our rafting gear. The rafting company picked all of us up in the Village, and drove us down Highway 82 to the Roaring Fork river, where we all went whitewater rafting. Jeff, Ashley and Dan were all virgin rafters, so we tried to pick a not-to-scary trip. It turned out to be a little wimpy for all of us, but we still had a great time, as evidenced by the smiles in the photos. Everyone got wet, no one fell out, and we were back in town in time for dinner. Jeff and I decided to go into Aspen for dinner at Rustique Bistro, and the rest of the kids went to Double Dog Pub around the corner to relax.

Ashley with Johnny Walker, Jeff with Tivio, and Michelle with Prince

Rafting the Roaring Fork River

On Tuesday, we all visited Ashcroft Ghost Town outside of Aspen in the morning. The ghost town doesn't allow dogs, but for some reason, they decided that ours could walk with us through the town. That was nice because the dogs got to run around instead of being stuck in the car the whole time. We meandered our way down into Aspen for lunch at Brunelleschi's, then we split up to shop around town. Jeff and I had Fang and Errol in the pup pouches again, mostly because Fang was going nuts and growling anytime he saw another dog. We got stopped by MANY MANY people exclaiming how adorable the dogs were in the pouches. It was a little weird. We had our picture taken repeatedly. We finally started taking alleyways to avoid being stopped every few feet! Everyone eventually made it back to Snowmass for some rest time before dinner. Jeff and I went back to Aspen for dinner at Montagna, which was nice.

Ashcroft Ghost Town

On Wednesday, we all headed back to Kansas. It was a really long drive, but it was worth it for all the fun we had together in Colorado.

Here's a link to the photos - enjoy!