Honeymoon

Yawn, just another amazing vista in Colorado! This time from McClure Pass on our way south to Paonia to visit friends. This was right after our quick stop in Marble. This town of 100 people was once a booming quarry that provided all the stone for the Lincoln Memorial and other famous buildings. We walked…

We spent two nights in Steamboat Springs at the historic Hotel Bristol (another place where we got a great mud-season rate). We loved this fun little ski town. Mmm…one of our favorite things about Steamboat was Winona’s for breakfast. Loved the eggs benedict so much that we went two days in a row. While in…

We took Trail Ridge Road from the park over to the other side. The summit is at 11,500 feet, quite a feat for our tiny little car. I’ve never even hiked that high! Amazing views from the snowy top and lovely vistas of the Colorado River on the other side. A great drive!

Our first morning in Colorado we visited Elk Fest in downtown Estes Park. This community fair was packed with tepees, pioneer crafts, live wolves, lots of things made of antlers and bison jerky. We bought our first real “souvenirs” of the trip at this festival. From there, we entered Rocky Mountain National Park and hiked…

Word to the wise: Wyoming is incredibly huge and mostly full of vast fields of nothing. Outside of Yellowstone and Jackson, there appears to only be sagebrush and the occasional pronghorn deer. It’s not ugly – there really isn’t anything around to offend – but it is super harsh. How on earth did the pioneers…

The next day, we drove the long way through the Tetons to Jackson. At a coffee shop, we booked two nights at the Cowboy Village Resort. For $100/night we had an adorable log cabin with kitchen all to ourselves. Plus, the hotel had an indoor pool & spa, great staff and close proximity to downtown.…

The Grand Tetons were so, so beautiful! Especially, at this quiet time of year with loads of fall colors. We were completely blown away by seeing them for the first time on the drive down from Yellowstone. As Teddy Roosevelt said, “the Tetons are what mountains are supposed to look like.” On the way, there’s…

Each evening, as we returned from hikes to the campsite, we would listen to NPR’s news of the day in the car. With wine in origami cups and jalapeño olives, this was our daily “cocktail hour.” It was about this time in Yellowstone that the economy really hit bottom. It was surreal to hear about…

It hadn’t occurred to me that Yellowstone might be named “yellow stone” because the massive amounts of yellow rock until we got to the mineral stained canyons of Inspiration Point. This was our favorite part of Yellowstone by far! We did an eight mile hike along the river with no trail guide. So each new…

We left Sundance and headed to Yellowstone, kicked out of eden as my mom said. We passed Craters of the Moon and Macks Inn on the way, and were in Montana for about 15 minutes before crossing into Wyoming. We camped the first night at Norris near a field of sulfur springs. It was a…