Utah Day 2

June 21, 2015 (Sunday)

Arches National Park - Balanced Rock

We were up bright and early and waiting for the 6:30 breakfast to be set up. After a super quick breakfast, we headed to Arches National Park. The previous day got over 100 degrees so we wanted to do hikes before the temps got too high for the day.

Arches was a pretty cool park. We did not have a ton of time to spend there, since we wanted to shower at the hotel before the long drive back to Denver for our 11:50PM flight. Our first stop was the Balanced Rock. There was a very short trail around the rock. We hiked the Windows loop trail, which gave us a close up view of the North and South Windows as well as the Turret Arch. The Windows Arches are the largest in the park. Also in the same parking lot (opposite side) we hiked up to the Double Arch.

Arches National Park - Turret Arch

Arches National Park - Double Arch

Arches National Park - Delicate Arch

We also drove to the Delicate Arch Viewpoint. We opted for the short walk for the view. Delicate Arch is the world’s most famous arch, honestly I am not sure why – maybe because we did not hike to the arch, but the viewpoint?

Ice cream was calling our names so we made a pit stop at the Dairy Queen in Glenwood Springs. The ice cream there was really creamy – yum!

On our way back to Denver, along I-70, we spotted some long-horn sheep with some lambs walking along a mountain.

An old high school friend lives in Denver and we had to pleasure of meeting up with her at the Ruby Tuesday near the airport. It was great to get a visit in with her.

Colorado Day 3 / Utah Day 1

June 20, 2015 (Saturday)

Colorado National Monument

Another early morning…our first stop for the day was the Colorado National Monument ($10/car or free with NPS pass). We arrived via the East Entrance. We hiked the Devils Kitchen Trail (0.75 miles one- way), which was recommended by the ranger at the toll booth. We then drove thru the park and stopped along some view points along the way. The visitor center is near the West Entrance. We watched the video, which totally was not worth it – it was a photographic slide show.

Colorado National Monument

Continuing west, we made it to Canyonlands National Park. We visited the Island in the Sky portion of the park, which is the most easily accessible. We hiked the 0.5 mile loop to Mesa Arch. Sarah broke away from us to hike the Aztez Butte Trail while Pam and I drove to scenic viewpoints – Grand View Point being our favorite.

Canyonlands National Park

After our adventures at Canyonlands we headed to Comfort Suites in Moab. The hotel was great – the room was super clean and had very nice décor.

The dinner choice was Moab Brewery. It was better than the previous brewery food quality wise, but the girls were disappointed that beer flights were not served.

Colorado Day 2

June 19, 2015 (Friday)

Hanging Lake

After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we hiked the Hanging Lake Trail. Research stated that the parking lot fills quickly. There were plenty of spaces when we arrived at 7:30ish, but by the time we left (10ish) there was a wait for parking spaces. The trail was considered moderate-strenuous. The trail follows the Dead Horse Creek and has a few foot bridge crossings. The top portion of the trail was very rocky and steep – thank goodness for handrails! The trail was 1.2 miles long (one-way) and is a 1000 foot climb. The view at the top is lovely.

View along the Hanging Lake Trail

For lunch, we headed back to downtown Glenwood Springs. We decided to try out CO Ranch House – excellent choice! We all loved our meals – pulled pork, elk quesadilla, veggie pot pie. We enjoyed sitting in the outdoor patio. It was by far the best meal we had on the trip.

Once lunch was complete we wandered around at the downtown shops. The Strawberry Festival was also going on all weekend, but we did not make it that far into town. Later in the afternoon, we dropped Sarah off to attend the wedding, which was about 20 minutes outside of Glenwood Springs. Pam enjoyed the hot tub and pool for a bit and then we walked to Tequila’s Mexican Restaurant for dinner. The portions were large, but the food was just okay. The service also was not the best – a lot of high school age kids worked there.

On our return trip from picking Sarah up from the wedding we got stuck in traffic. The tunnel was closed. After about 50 minutes the tunnel reopened. There was a car upside down on the side of the road – yikes! It was a good thing we were not a few minutes earlier or it might have been us.

Colorado Day 1

June 18, 2015 (Thursday)

Girls weekend vacay! This adventure took us to Colorado and Utah. We had the 6AM flight out of Detroit to Denver. It was my first experience with Frontier Airlines. The baggage check-in line was short and overall we had a great flight in both directions. We rented a car through Hertz, this was also a first for me. I am not sure if all locations have the same type of check-in process, but I did not really care for it. The check-in was relatively fast, but it was weird to have to talk to the agent through a phone and computer screen. Returning the car was odder yet. No one was there to direct you where to park the car, so we just put it in a line and then had to go inside the building and try to figure out where to go to report the mileage, time and amount of gas in the car. The shuttles were very quick, so that was a positive.

Petrified Wood that is trying to be preserved

The main purpose of the trip was for my friend Sarah to go to one of her old college friends’ wedding in Glenwood Springs.

The first stop for our trip was the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument ($3/person or free with the NPS pass), which was near Colorado Springs. Arriving near 11AM, we were able to join a ranger guided hike along the Petrified Forest Trail. The hike was about an hour long and was easy. There were some really neat flora, insect, butterfly fossils on display. There was a video available but we did not watch it. There is also a Fossil Learning Lab set up in a Yurt Tent – unfortunately it was not open during our visit.

A view from Florissant Fossil Beds NM

After the park were able to find a place somewhat close by for lunch – Lake George Pizza. The pizza was super good, and the potato skins were pretty good also.

With fully tummies, we headed to the Holiday Inn Express in Glenwood Springs. The drive was quite lovely. We enjoyed beautiful mountain and river views.  About half way thru our drive, we stopped at the Brown Burro for ice cream. The ice cream was just okay, I had strawberry. The hotel was nice also, clean and pretty décor.  The hotel was just a short walk to the downtown area.

 Glenwood Canyon Brew Pub was our dinner choice for the evening. They had quite a few beer options – Pam and Sarah, my travel companions, both enjoyed a sampler flight. Over all the food was not that great. The salad was good, but the burger not the best.