I hope everyone had a happy 4th. My wife and I went to
- Thread starter Freddie.B.Cocky
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Had a classic cookout, hamburgers and hotdogs, with 10 great guests. Time in the pool for the kids and games inside. Great time here! Even talked some Gamecock football. The consensus was 6 to 8 wins. Most talked about games were UK, Clemson, and UGA. Everyone agreed that we must beat UK.
I grew up about five blocks from Greenville HS but attended Parker. That area is my old stomping grounds.
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1.The Garden of the Gods
2.Pikes Peak was closed - very disappointed
3.The outside structure of the Air Force Academy Chapel was very unique however the inside was very vanilla.
4. The train ride at Carson(not the exact spelling) City was fun.
5. We didn't care for the sand dunes although many people enjoyed them.
6. Enjoyed Durango for a couple of days and the surrounding areas.
7. The drive from Durango to Silverton was beautiful, plus Silverton was a neat little towns.
8. The drive from Silverton to Ouray is a must see in my opinion.
9. I almost forgot, we started by visiting the Rocky Mountain National Park. It was great.
10. We met some friends in Grand Lake and spend the night in their cabin- that was fun. The little town of Grand Lake was nice.
11. We visited the Staley Hotel where the director (and his name escapes me for now) got the idea for the movie the Shining. They did have the Staley Steamer motor car on display.
12. Getting back on track- we visited some little town and I can't think of the name of the town but it had a famous candy factor located there an a store where one could purchase first quality candy - not an outlet.
13. One of my favorite places, which was suggested to me by uscg1984 was the Black Canyon. He called it Colorado's best kept secret and I certainly would agree - a must see.
14. After the Black Canyon we ended up in a little town and again I can't think of the name of the town but it's the first town one encounters after leaving the Black Canyon. We visited the Visitor's Center and they gave us some cool roads to take to get to Gleenwood Springs and hence I-70. Man that was a great drive I highly recommend that drive, it entails some dirt roads, beautiful Aspens and just some great spots to hang out and make out or even have a picnic lunch. I would loved to have parked and walked around in that area for about two plus days.
15. Then it was on to Glennwood Springs and then to I-70 back to Denver.
16. As uscg1984 said there are interstates and then there are interstates the drive from Gleenwood to Denver on I-70 was beautiful.
I've got to go to a funeral right now but will try to continue later. Once we got back to Denver our friends drove us to some outstanding places near Denver and in Denver. We got great shots of animals.
Wow, appreciate this very much and any other information that you may have.
Grilled Filet Mignon with roasted Brussel sprouts, bacon, Roma tomatoes, and cheese casserole. Friends came over and the feast began.
Well, I'm sorry you had to work instead of being off and celebrating the Nations birthday.
Once we got back to Denver our friends took us to some park / area and it was absolutely gorgeous saw a lot of mountain goats, they were very cool. And the drive up that mountain was breath taking. Our friends showed us almost as much outside the Denver area as we saw on our week long drive of Colorado. Then after that drive they took us back into Denver we ate at a nice restaurant and then they gave us a tour of downtown Denver. Took us to the ballparks, LoDo and several other popular places in Denver - which is a neat city. When one sees a skyline of Denver there is one unique building that just stands out- the top of it looks like an old timey cash register and hence that is what the locals call the building. One of their son-in-laws works in that building. Then we had a midnight flight out of Denver back to Charlotte just longing to return to Colorado again. But, my next trip is going back to Wyoming and Montana, Colorado is a beautiful state, no doubt about it, but there is just something about Wyoming and Montana I love. I think it's the wild wide open spaces in those two states that lures me back to beautiful western territories.
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The drive up the mountain near Denver with mountain goats, sounds like Mt Evans to me, and is a good little day trip from Denver.
Your list is a great one. To it I would add:
An evening baseball game at Coors Field. The view and experience is fantastic.
Go over the Loveland Pass-any pass anywhere in Colorado is great.
A day at Winter Park and doing the Alpine slide is a must if you have kids, and is a lot of fun for any age (I’m 64 and I’d spend a half day on the slide in a heartbeat).
The small towns along 1-70, Georgetown and Idaho Springs, are neat to visit (so is Aspen). Gotta get a pizza at Beau Joe’s in Idaho Springs.
A drive up to Buffalo Bill’s grave and then back down through the Golden Gate Park is a great drive. I think that’s the name of the Park. The point is, go up the mountain from I-70, down the other side of the mountain through the park.
Any of those drives, other than to Aspen, are good day trips from Denver. Even Aspen is doable if you go over the pass from Denver instead of traveling by I-70, but it would be a long day.
The hike up to Hanging Lake near Glenwood Springs is a must in my book.
Keep jackets, water, energy bars, and flashlights in the car when you drive in the mountains. The weather can shift dramatically and car failures do happen.
I lived in Colorado for 10 wonderful years. I met many Southerners there-my theory is Yankees move south, Southerners go west.
Mt. Evans sounds right I will have to call my friend. We drove near Winter Park on the way to Colorado Springs from Grand Lake. The same friend took me to Idaho Springs on another trip ( I was leaving Wyoming and Montana and flying out of Denver) and he met me and took me to several places around Denver in 2016. That was the first time I had seen him in about 53 years.
On the 4th, I rode the motorcycle down to Ennis, MT to see the tail end of their festivities around their 83rd annual 4th of July parade. It's a great little town famous for the world-class fly fishing in the area. I would have loved to have attended the rodeo later that night, but the 5th was a work day for me, so I couldn't afford to get back home that late. As it was, it was a great motorcycle ride on a beautiful day in beautiful country. On the way back, I caught up to a late model Mustang GT and we enjoyed a, uh . . . spirited trip.
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I'll take the opportunity to double-down on the suggestion to see the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park whenever somebody is in the area. It's an absolutely amazing place - and never crowded, in my experience.
One other recommendation: on the drive to the Black Canyon, about halfway between Canon City and the Black Canyon on highway 50, you'll go up and over Monarch Pass, one of the great mountain passes in America. I highly recommend stopping at the little visitor center/gift shop at the top and taking the gondola chairlift up to the overlook above. It all seems a little cheesy, but it's fun and cheap and the view at the top is incredible. We went about 2 days after going to the top of Pikes Peak and the photographs we took at the top of Monarch Pass actually look better.
I agree with that theory . . . with the caveat that Californians flee their state to Colorado and Montana.
I wanted to do the gondola chairlift but for whatever reason we didn't make it there - can't remember why. Gunnison was the town I was trying to think of once you leave the Black Canyon. We spent the night there and then headed to Glenwood Springs the next day.
