Day 1:
Our first official day of our vacation we began by going to Estes Park. Once there we took the aerial tramway up to the top of a tall hill where we could look out over some of the mountains:
We then continued on into the Rocky Mountain National Park. We drove along the Trail Ridge Road and stopped quite often to take pictures. We stopped to do some hiking around the Alpine Ridge Visitor's Center. We chose a trail that no one else was on and we hiked through the tundra out to the edge of the mountain where we could look into a valley where some elk were grazing:
After we had driven along the northern park of the road, we went along the western edge and started for the town we were staying in that night: Steamboat Springs. We ate a great restaurant that night called Mahogany Ridge Grill and Brewing Company. It was fantastic, and we recommend it to anyone that passes through Steamboat Springs! Here is a picture of the beer flight we ordered:
Day 2:
We woke up early and drove the two and a half hours to Vernal, Utah, which is just over the Utah/Colorado border. There we went to the Dinosaur National Monument park. It had a large exhibit where instead of removing the fossils from the matrix, they just built the building right around the rock with the fossils! It was very cool! We also did some hiking around that area too and saw some more fossils that hadn't been excavated.
Next we went back to Dinosaur, CO, where an older man at the welcome center recommended we go down the scenic byway to Grand Junction. Along the way we saw ancient American Indian cave paintings and we got to drive through some more mountains. We stopped at the Colorado National Monument in Fruita, CO and hiked around the interesting goelogical landscapes:
We then got on I-70 and drove through more mountains and national forests to reach our destination for the evening, Silverthorne.
Day 3:
We got up early again and drove another scenic byway through the Continental Divide over to Florissant, where we hiked in the Florissant National Fossil Beds. This national park has petrified redwood tree stumps, from an ancient forest that used to be in the area. The forest had at one time been essentially a giant redwood forest.
We continued on to Colorado Springs where we went to the Garden of the Gods. We hiked around the park quite a bit and saw some really cool geological formations:
We stayed in Colorado Springs that night and had the opportunity to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, The Melting Pot!!
Day 4:
We got up very early and drove to Pike's Peak. We drove up to the summit, where it was a cool 30 degrees (it felt great compared to the 110+ degree weather we've been having in Kansas this summer!)
We drove back down the mountain and stopped to hike a few different places. The views were great, but unfortunately it was a little hazy due to the wildfires in Nevada and California.
We then left Colorado Springs and drove to Denver. That evening we went to eat at the original location of another one of our favorite places to eat: Chipotle!
Day 5:
We drove to a suburb of Denver, Morrison, and went to a hiking area called Dinosaur Ridge, where fossilized dinosaur tracks and some bones have been found. This was one of Jonathan's favorite spots, since he had always wanted to see natural dinosaur tracks (versus seeing them in a museum). There were Ornithomimus, Triceratops, and other two legged dinosaur tracks. VERY COOL! Later that day we headed to the Denver Botanical Garden to kill some time and enjoy the flowers.
Rachel stayed in Denver while Jon returned to Manhattan for work. Rachel attended the American Sociological Association conference.
Tomorrow (September 16th), Jonathan will head up to North Dakota, where he will stay until the end of the year. He will be working as an "environmental inspector" as the Bekken company installs a new 100 mile oil pipeline that will transport the oil received from fracking south.
Rachel will be using her extra free time to take the GRE for PhD programs, and work on her thesis!
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