adventures with a dog and an airstream
I have a strange personal attachment to Ft Collins. I had never been there, didn’t know much about it other than its general location north of Denver, but for some reason for something like twenty years I’ve always had a...
We really wanted Estes Park to be a charming little mountain town. It’s the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, and has a compact, walkable downtown area… that’s full of t-shirt shops and candy stores and tourists. Even in mid-May,...
[This post is about our first visit in 2016. Read about our second in 2018, and third in 2020!] We have intentionally skipped big cities on this trip, but we made an exception to see some friends in Denver, and...
We visited Rocky Mountain National Park on our first Big Trip, in 2016. Due to road closures and trail conditions, we weren’t able to experience the park nearly as much as we had planned, so look for an update here...
Buena Vista, a pretty little town with a special flair for river activities, sits in a valley surrounded by some of the tallest mountains in Colorado. Before you visit, you need to know that it’s pronounced “Byoo-na Viss-ta,” or just “Byoonie.” Don’t...
Where we stayed We kind of ended up visiting Black Canyon by accident! Read about our time in Montrose, CO in this post. What we did Black Canyon National Park is more about driving than hiking. We drove through the...
Originally, we had wanted to spend a couple nights at Ridgway State Park, exploring the trails there and around Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, but the snow event that forced us to reroute through Moab and Grand Junction kept...
We did two fun and insanely gorgeous hikes while staying in Grand Junction, both near Fruita in the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area. Devils Canyon On our first afternoon in town, we hiked Devils Canyon Trail, a 6.7 mile loop...
So this is the point in our story where the random day in Moab slots in: the morning we were to leave Cortez, with the sketchy weather forecast in mind, we checked the highway conditions on the way to Ridgway,...
Mesa Verde National Park does not offer extensive hiking; it is mostly about the views and tours of the ancient cliff dwellings. We did a few short hikes and one of the scenic drives, stopping at overlooks to ogle the artifacts. We did not tour any...