We started early from Aspen this morning, walking over to catch the free city bus toward Aspen Highlands. One thing we’ve loved about Aspen is how easy they make it to get around without a car. From Highlands, we switched to the shuttle that would take us up Maroon Creek Road toward Maroon Lake.

The shuttle ride itself turned out to be part of the experience.

Our driver shared stories about Aspen and the surrounding mountains along the way. Aspen began as a silver-mining town in the late 1800s, booming after rich silver deposits were discovered nearby. When the silver market collapsed in the 1890s, the town went through decades of decline before reinventing itself in the 20th century as the ski and cultural destination we know today.

It was fascinating hearing about that history while looking out at a place now associated with ski resorts, beautiful homes and some of the most expensive real estate in America.

And then we reached Maroon Lake.

The Maroon Bells rise more than 14,000 feet above sea level, with Maroon Peak at 14,163 feet and North Maroon Peak at 14,019 feet. Their name comes from the reddish-maroon color of the mudstone that forms much of the mountains.

That rock also makes the Bells notoriously fragile. Unlike many of Colorado’s granite peaks, the sedimentary rock here fractures easily. Climbers have even given the Bells a rather intimidating nickname, the “Deadly Bells.”

From beside Maroon Lake, though, they looked completely peaceful.

We were lucky to have a beautiful morning. The mountains towered above the lake, patches of fall color remained around us, and every few steps seemed to offer another photograph.

After seven days of driving through Colorado, it felt good to simply stand there for a while.

No long hike. No rushing to the next viewpoint.

Just Maroon Lake and two of the most recognizable mountains in Colorado in front of us.

We eventually caught the shuttle back to Aspen Highlands and returned to the hotel. Bags packed, SUV loaded, and it was time to say goodbye to Aspen.

Our drive followed the Roaring Fork Valley through Basalt and Carbondale toward Glenwood Springs. After some of the huge mountain-driving days earlier in the trip, this stretch felt wonderfully relaxed.

We stopped in Glenwood Springs for lunch before beginning our final long drive across the Rockies.

And what a drive it was.

Soon after leaving Glenwood Springs, I-70 enters Glenwood Canyon, one of the most dramatic highway corridors we’ve driven on this trip.

The Colorado River runs through the bottom of the canyon while enormous rock walls rise on either side. Interstate 70 somehow squeezes through the same narrow space, sometimes right beside the river and sometimes on elevated sections built above the canyon floor.

The engineering is impressive once you realize how difficult it was to build a major interstate here while protecting the river and surrounding landscape. The final Glenwood Canyon section of I-70 opened in 1992 after years of construction.

And running beside us through it all was the Colorado River.

This is the same river that continues west through Utah and eventually carves its way through the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Seeing it here, much farther upstream and surrounded by the Rockies, gave us a completely different picture of a river we’d heard about so many times.

The canyon eventually opened up and we continued east toward Vail.

Driving through Vail was another reminder of how much Colorado changes within a few hours. Vail itself is a relatively young town, developed after the ski resort opened in the early 1960s. Its European-inspired village and huge ski mountain helped turn it into one of America’s best-known ski destinations.

Looking up at those slopes in October, it was fun trying to imagine the same mountains covered in snow with skiers everywhere a couple of months from now.

From Vail we climbed again, crossed Vail Pass and continued toward our final major mountain landmark of the trip.

The Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel.

At more than 11,000 feet above sea level, the tunnel carries I-70 directly beneath the Continental Divide. The westbound Eisenhower bore opened in 1973, followed by the eastbound Johnson bore in 1979.

Driving into a tunnel underneath the Continental Divide felt like a fitting way to finish our week of Colorado mountain crossings.

Over the past few days we’ve crossed Red Mountain Pass, Molas Pass, Coal Bank Pass and McClure Pass. We’ve driven the Million Dollar Highway, climbed through the San Juans and wound our way through some of the most beautiful mountain roads we’ve ever seen.

Today, instead of climbing over the Continental Divide, we drove straight through it.

Once we emerged from the tunnel, the landscape began its long descent toward Denver. The giant mountain walls slowly gave way to foothills, the roads widened, and eventually the Denver metro area appeared ahead.

The change in temperature through the day was quite something too. We had started the morning bundled up at Maroon Bells, with the cold mountain air making jackets and layers essential. As we left the high country behind and descended toward Denver, it kept getting warmer. By the time we reached the Denver area, the jackets were off and it felt like we had travelled into a different season in the space of a few hours. From a chilly morning beneath snow-dusted peaks to a warm Colorado afternoon, it was another reminder of just how much the landscape and weather can change across this state.

By late afternoon we reached Brighton and checked into our final hotel of the trip.

Seven days into our Colorado fall road trip, today gave us one last collection of places that showed just how varied this state is.

This morning we were standing beside Maroon Lake beneath two 14,000-foot peaks.

A few hours later we were following the Colorado River through Glenwood Canyon.

Then came Vail, another climb into the Rockies, and a drive beneath the Continental Divide through the Eisenhower Tunnel.

Tonight we’re in Brighton, with the mountains behind us and our bags slowly being packed for the flight back to Dallas tomorrow!

Today was our longest driving day of the Colorado road trip.

Durango to Aspen. Around 240 miles across some very different parts of Colorado.

It sounds like a tiring day on paper. Somehow, it turned into one of the easiest and most relaxing days of the trip.

We left Durango early and headed back into the San Juan Mountains, retracing roads that had already given us some of our favorite moments over the past few days.

Coal Bank Pass. Molas Pass. Silverton. Red Mountain Pass. Ouray.

A few days ago, we drove this stretch stopping everywhere. Today we could simply drive.

There was something nice about seeing these places again without feeling the need to pull over at every viewpoint. The mountains were familiar now. We recognized the valleys, remembered the overlooks and knew exactly where some of our favorite photos had been taken.

Silverton felt especially familiar after spending so much time there over the past couple of days. We drove through the little mountain town and continued toward Red Mountain Pass, once again surrounded by those enormous San Juan peaks.

The Million Dollar Highway was just as spectacular the second time.

Maybe even better from the opposite direction.

We took the curves slowly, enjoyed the views through the windows and eventually descended into Ouray.

From there, the landscape gradually began to change.

The towering San Juans gave way to wider valleys as we passed Ridgway and Montrose and continued toward Delta, Hotchkiss and the North Fork Valley.

By the time we reached Paonia, Colorado looked completely different from the place we had woken up in that morning.

Farms. Orchards. Open valleys. Long stretches of quiet road.

We stopped in Paonia for a relaxed break and lunch, which was perfect after spending most of the morning in the car.

Then we were back on the road for what became my favorite stretch of the day.

We took CO-133 out of Paonia toward McClure Pass, and almost immediately the scenery started changing again.

The road climbed gradually into the mountains before taking us over McClure Pass at 8,755 feet. After some of the huge mountain passes we had crossed earlier in the trip, this one felt wonderfully easy.

Then came the beautiful drive toward Redstone.

The road followed the Crystal River with mountains rising around us and fall colors filling the valley.

Yellow and gold trees seemed to appear everywhere. Every few miles brought another view worth slowing down for.

We continued through Carbondale and eventually turned toward Aspen.

For a day with so many miles, it never felt exhausting.

We deliberately kept things simple. We had already explored the San Juans properly, so today was about sitting back and enjoying the drive.

We started the morning among Durango’s mountains, crossed the familiar roads through Silverton and Ouray, passed through the open country around Montrose and Paonia, climbed McClure Pass and followed the Crystal River Valley before finally reaching Aspen.

Nearly 240 miles of Colorado changing outside our windows.

By late afternoon, we rolled into Aspen and checked into the St. Moritz Lodge.

After dropping our bags, we headed out for an evening walk into downtown Aspen.

And Aspen in fall is beautiful.

There were yellow and gold trees everywhere, leaves covering parts of the sidewalks and mountains rising behind the town. We wandered through the streets without much of a plan, enjoying the crisp evening air and all those fall colors.

It was also fun looking up at the mountains surrounding us and imagining what this same place will look like in December.

Right now, the slopes are covered in autumn colors. In another couple of months, they’ll be white with snow and filled with people skiing down them. Walking around Aspen and trying to picture exactly where everyone would be skiing gave us a completely different sense of the town.

Today was a slow, easy road-trip day, despite being our longest drive.

Tomorrow brings one of the places we’ve been looking forward to most on this entire trip.

Maroon Bells. 🏔️🍂❤️

There are some journeys where getting from one place to another is the boring part.

Day 5 of our Colorado road trip was one I had been looking forward to from the start. After four days behind the wheel, we left the SUV parked in Durango and handed transportation duties over to a bus, followed by a steam locomotive that has been making its way through these mountains for more than a century.

Our morning began with the bus from Durango to Silverton.

Before boarding the bus, we also spent some time at the railroad museum at the Durango depot, and it turned out to be an awesome start to the day. The place is packed with railroad history, old locomotives, vintage railcars, machinery and artifacts from the region’s mining and railroad days. Keanah had plenty to look at, and I could have easily spent much longer wandering around. Seeing the enormous locomotives up close also gave us a better sense of the engineering behind this railway. It was the perfect introduction to what was coming later, especially knowing that in a few hours we would be riding those historic tracks back through the San Juan Mountains ourselves.

We had driven the same stretch of the San Juan Skyway yesterday, crossing Coal Bank Pass and Molas Pass on our way south. I loved that drive, but sitting on the bus today gave me a completely different appreciation for it.

No watching the road. No thinking about the next curve. No checking the mirrors.

I could just sit there and look out the window.

And I absolutely loved it.

The mountains, the forests, the lingering fall colors and those enormous views around Molas Pass somehow felt different when someone else was doing the driving.

Before long, we were back in Silverton.

Lunch was at Lacey Rose Saloon, where we settled in for a relaxed meal before wandering around town for a while. Silverton has grown on me over these last couple of days. There is something about those old buildings sitting at more than 9,300 feet, surrounded on every side by the San Juan Mountains, that makes the place feel almost cut off from the rest of the world.

After lunch, we wandered around Silverton and found a few places that made the little mining town even more interesting. We stopped by the Silverton Harley-Davidson store, famously promoted as the world’s highest Harley-Davidson shop, sitting at more than 9,300 feet above sea level. From there we visited the Miners Shrine, a simple and moving tribute to the miners who worked these mountains and to those who lost their lives doing it. We also stopped at St. Patrick Catholic Church, a beautiful historic church that has been part of Silverton since the mining era. With the mountains rising behind the town and so much of its history still visible along the streets, it felt like we were getting a glimpse of the people who built their lives in this remote corner of Colorado long before the tourists and train rides arrived.

Dessert came next at Natalia’s.

Then it was time for the reason we had returned.

The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.

At 2:15 PM, we climbed aboard in Silverton for the 45-mile journey back to Durango.

Calling it a train ride feels inadequate.

The railway between Durango and Silverton was completed in July 1882. Crews had begun construction only the previous fall, building roughly 45 miles of narrow-gauge track through terrain that even today feels difficult to access. The original purpose was practical. The Denver & Rio Grande Railway needed a way to move gold and silver ore out of the San Juan Mountains.

More than 140 years later, trains are still running along essentially the same corridor.

That history becomes much easier to appreciate once the train starts moving.

There is the whistle.

The rhythmic clatter of the wheels.

The smell and sound of the locomotive working its way through the mountains.

The railway follows the Animas River for much of the journey, crossing it five times between Silverton and Durango. For long stretches after leaving Silverton, there are no roads alongside you. Once the line passes Rockwood, much of the country toward Silverton is wilderness without motorized road access.

Suddenly we were seeing a completely different side of the San Juans.

Yesterday we had looked down into valleys from the Million Dollar Highway.

Today we were inside them.

The train twisted alongside the Animas River, through thick forest and beneath huge canyon walls. Sometimes the river was right beside us. A few minutes later it would appear far below.

The railway itself was fascinating to watch.

You could look ahead through a curve and see the locomotive pulling the coaches around the mountainside. On the tighter bends, almost the entire train came into view.

At other points, the track seemed to disappear into the wilderness ahead.

And then came the Highline.

This was the part I had been waiting for.

It was easily the highlight of the ride.

The train reaches a narrow shelf carved into the mountainside with the Animas River hundreds of feet below. The famous section rises roughly 400 feet above the river.

Sitting beside the window and looking down was something else.

There are moments when the edge of the track seems impossibly close to the drop. Across the canyon are layers of mountains and forest, while far below you can see the Animas winding through the gorge.

Then you remember that engineers were building a railway through here in 1881 and 1882.

With 19th-century equipment.

It makes the whole thing even more remarkable.

The train crawled through the Highline slowly enough for us to take it all in.

I took photos, of course.

Plenty of them.

But this was one of those places where I kept putting the phone down because looking at it through a screen felt like missing the point.

The Highline eventually gave way to Horseshoe Curve and the long descent toward the Animas Valley. The landscape gradually softened. The sheer canyon walls became forests, then wider valleys and eventually the familiar surroundings of Durango.

Even after more than three hours on the train, I wasn’t waiting for it to end.

I loved every bit of it.

The old coaches. The whistle echoing through the canyon. Watching the locomotive bend around curves ahead of us. The Animas River appearing and disappearing below. The bridges. The forest. Those stretches where there wasn’t a road, building or car anywhere in sight.

And especially the Highline.

Eventually Durango came back into view and our 45-mile journey through the San Juans was over.

Yesterday we drove these mountains.

Today we rode through places the highway never reaches, on rails first laid when Chester A. Arthur was President of the United States.

That’s a pretty incredible way to spend an afternoon.

And just as we were making our way into Durango, Colorado had one last little surprise waiting for us. A beautiful rainbow appeared across the evening sky. After hours of mountains, canyons, forests and the Animas River, seeing that rainbow as we rolled back into town felt like the perfect final scene. We all loved it. One of those completely unplanned moments that somehow becomes part of what you remember most about the day!

Colorado Road Trip, Day 5!

Some road-trip days are about where you’re going. Today was about everything we saw on the way.

We left Ouray early this morning and headed south on US-550, straight onto the Million Dollar Highway. We’d been looking forward to this drive for a while, and within the first few minutes, it was easy to see why.

The road climbs quickly out of Ouray, with the mountains rising around you and huge views opening up almost immediately. There are sections where the road hugs the side of the mountain and you become very aware of just how high you are.

We took it slow.

Partly because that is the sensible thing to do on this road. Mostly because we wanted to stop everywhere.

Every few miles seemed to bring another view worth pulling over for. Mountains covered in shades of gold and orange. Deep valleys disappearing below us. Old mining country. Peaks stacked behind one another as far as we could see.

The fall colors made the whole drive even better.

We stopped around the Red Mountain area and continued up toward Red Mountain Pass at 11,018 feet. Up there, the landscape feels completely different. The trees thin out, the mountains become more rugged, and the colors of the rock start living up to the name.

Then came the descent into Silverton.

Seeing this little town sitting in the valley with mountains surrounding it from every direction was one of those classic Colorado views we had been waiting for.

We spent some time in Silverton, walked around and soaked in the old mining-town feel. There was no pressure to see everything because we knew we would be back again the next day for our Durango and Silverton train journey.

Since we had left Ouray early and were well ahead of schedule, we decided to keep moving toward Durango and have lunch there instead.

That turned out to be a great decision because the drive south from Silverton deserved just as much time as the Million Dollar Highway.

Our first big stop was Molas Pass.

At 10,910 feet, the views were massive. Mountains in every direction, forests stretching across the valleys and patches of fall color everywhere. We stayed for a while, took photos and did what we had been doing all morning: looked around and wondered where to point the camera next.

We also stopped at Andrews Lake.

This was one of those quieter stops that catches you by surprise. A mountain lake surrounded by trees and peaks, with the fall colors adding another layer to the scene. After all the dramatic cliffs and passes earlier in the morning, it felt peaceful.

Then came Coal Bank Pass at 10,640 feet.

Another stop. More photos. Another excuse to stand outside for a few minutes and take in the San Juan Mountains.

By this point, we had completely given up pretending we were following a schedule.

And that was probably the best way to experience this road.

We stopped wherever we safely could. Sometimes for a proper viewpoint, sometimes because the colors looked too good to drive past. A journey that could have been completed in roughly two hours became most of our morning.

Eventually the high mountain scenery began to soften as we descended toward Durango. The road dropped through forests, the temperature changed and the landscape slowly shifted again.

We reached Durango earlier than expected and headed straight for lunch.

After a morning of mountain passes and constant photo stops, sitting down for a good meal felt perfect. We took our time, then headed over to the hotel and checked in.

And for once, there was no need to unpack knowing we would be loading everything back into the car the next morning.

Two nights in Durango.

That alone felt like a small vacation within the vacation.

Looking back at today, Silverton was beautiful and Durango was a welcome place to arrive. Yet the part I’ll remember most happened between those places.

We covered only about 70 miles today.

It took us hours!

Exactly as it should have!

Tomorrow, we get to see these mountains from a completely different perspective.

🚂 Durango & Silverton steam train day!

Some days on a road trip are about how much you can fit in. Today felt better because we had time to simply enjoy where we were.

Day 3 took us from Montrose to Telluride and then on to Ouray, right through some of the prettiest fall scenery we’ve seen on this trip.

The drive toward Telluride was beautiful from the start. The San Juan Mountains kept getting closer, and the fall colors seemed to get better around every bend. Hillsides were covered in yellow and gold aspens, with patches of orange mixed in and darker evergreens running through them.

It was the kind of drive where you keep looking out of the window and saying, “Look at that!”

Then we reached Telluride.

I had seen plenty of pictures before this trip, but the setting is something else when you’re standing there. The town sits deep inside a box canyon, surrounded by huge mountains, and in fall the whole place feels like someone turned the saturation up.

The gondola was easily our favorite part of the day.

It’s free, which still feels slightly unbelievable considering the views you get. We climbed from Telluride toward San Sophia, reaching 10,540 feet, with the town slowly getting smaller beneath us.

And the colors from up there! ❤️🍂

The Telluride gondola has an interesting story of its own. It opened in 1996 as the first and only free public transportation system of its kind in the United States, created to connect the historic town of Telluride with Mountain Village over the mountain rather than relying entirely on cars. The route climbs from Telluride to San Sophia Station at 10,540 feet before descending into Mountain Village, turning what could have been a winding mountain drive into a spectacular ride above the San Juan Mountains. Over the years, it has become part public transit and part Telluride icon, carrying locals, workers, skiers and visitors while offering some of the best views in the area.

From the gondola, we could see entire mountainsides covered in aspens. Bright yellow trees filled the slopes below us, framed by the rugged San Juan Mountains in the distance. Every few minutes the view changed, and every new angle seemed worthy of another photo.

We got off at San Sophia and spent some time taking it all in before continuing toward Mountain Village.

The ride down the other side was just as beautiful.

Mountain Village had a completely different feel from Telluride. We walked around for a while, had lunch, enjoyed the mountain air and then did something we were all quite happy to do again.

We got back on the gondola. 😄

Usually the return journey feels like transportation. This one felt like another attraction.

We rode back over the mountain, through San Sophia and down toward Telluride, getting another long look at those fall-covered slopes. Seeing Telluride appear beneath us as the gondola descended was probably one of my favorite views of the trip so far.

After spending a little more time around town, we got back into the car and headed toward Ouray.

The drive continued the theme of the day. Mountains, winding roads and fall colors everywhere. We weren’t trying to rush through it either. When the scenery is this good, the drive itself becomes part of the day rather than the bit between destinations.

By the time we reached Ouray, we were ready for a break.

We checked into the Hot Springs Inn, dropped our bags and rested for a while. After a few busy days, doing absolutely nothing for a bit felt pretty good.

Later in the evening, we headed out for a walk along the river toward the hot springs.

Ouray feels almost tucked away from the rest of the world. Mountains rise sharply around the little town in every direction, which makes the “Switzerland of America” nickname easy to understand.

The evening was quiet and cool as we walked toward the hot springs, with the mountains surrounding us and the light beginning to fade.

Back at the inn, Ana and I found the perfect way to end the day.

We stepped into the open-air hot tub, surrounded by mountains, with the cool Colorado air around us and the warm water making it very difficult to want to leave. After a day of driving through fall colors, riding gondolas high above Telluride and taking in one mountain view after another, sitting there together felt pretty special.

Just the two of us in a hot tub, mountains all around, winding down after another beautiful day in Colorado!

Tomorrow, we drive the Million Dollar Highway!

There are some days on a road trip when the drive becomes as memorable as the places you planned to see. Day 2 in Colorado turned into one of those days.

We left Colorado Springs in the morning and headed toward Royal Gorge. The landscape was already beginning to change around us. Mountains were getting closer, roads were getting quieter, and patches of yellow were starting to appear among the trees.

Royal Gorge was our big stop for the day, and we started by walking across the bridge.

It is difficult to understand the scale of this place until you’re standing in the middle of it.

The Royal Gorge Bridge stretches 1,260 feet from one side of the canyon to the other and sits 956 feet above the Arkansas River. It was built in 1929 by a crew of around 80 men, and somehow they finished the entire thing in just seven months. For more than 70 years, it held the title of the world’s highest suspension bridge.

And you’re walking across it on wooden planks.

More than 1,250 of them.

Looking between the sides of the bridge and seeing the Arkansas River that far below was enough to make us stop a few times.

Then we got lucky.

A train appeared at the bottom of the gorge.

We stood on the bridge and watched it slowly make its way alongside the Arkansas River, almost a thousand feet beneath us. From that height, an entire train looked like a tiny model moving through the canyon.

That probably gave us a better sense of the gorge’s scale than any number could.

The gorge itself has an even older story. The Arkansas River has been cutting its way through this landscape for millions of years, exposing rock that dates back into the Precambrian era. Standing on a bridge built less than a century ago while looking at rock measured in billions of years puts time into perspective.

Our next stop was the raptor meet and greet.

This was one of those unexpected parts of the day that ended up being fascinating. We got to see the birds up close while learning about falcons and owls, how they hunt, how incredibly well adapted they are and what makes each of them such effective predators.

Keanah got a wildlife lesson in the middle of our Colorado adventure, although the adults were listening just as closely.

Then it was time to cross the gorge again.

This time, without walking.

We stepped into the aerial gondola and started floating across the canyon.

The gondola gives you a completely different view. The bridge we’d just walked across was now beside us, the Arkansas River was far below, and we could see the canyon opening out toward the mountains.

After peacefully floating across Royal Gorge, Ana and myself decided we’d been sensible for long enough.

The zip line.

Standing at the launch point and looking across the canyon makes you reconsider the idea for a few seconds.

Then you go.

That first moment is wild.

The platform disappears and suddenly you’re flying across Royal Gorge with hundreds of feet of open space beneath you.

The bridge is beside you. The Arkansas River is a tiny ribbon below. The canyon walls stretch out in both directions.

For those few seconds, you’re flying across one of the most spectacular landscapes in Colorado.

Easily one of my favorite experiences of the trip so far!

After Royal Gorge, we got back into the car and pointed west toward Montrose.

This was supposed to be the long driving part of the day.

It turned into one of the most beautiful drives we’ve done.

We followed US-50 through the mountains as the scenery kept changing around us. Mountain walls rose beside the road, rivers followed us through the valleys and small Colorado towns appeared between huge stretches of wilderness.

Then the fall colors took over.

Yellow aspens were everywhere.

Some mountainsides had huge streaks of gold running through the darker evergreens. In other places, the trees came right up alongside the road.

Every few miles we’d turn another corner and somebody would point out the window.

Look at that.

And then we’d find another view that was somehow even better.

This is exactly why we wanted to see Colorado in October.

When the sunlight catches the aspens, whole sections of the mountains seem to glow. Photos capture the yellow. Being surrounded by it while driving through the Rockies feels completely different.

The road eventually took us toward Monarch Pass, more than 11,000 feet above sea level.

The temperature dropped, the air felt different, and suddenly we were standing on the Continental Divide surrounded by mountains.

A few hours earlier, we’d watched a train crawl along the bottom of Royal Gorge.

Then we’d flown across that same gorge on a zip line.

Now we were standing above 11,000 feet.

As we continued toward Gunnison, there was one sight that was much harder to enjoy.

The water was incredibly low.

Seeing parts of the Gunnison River and the Blue Mesa area looking so dry was sad. Huge exposed sections that should have been underwater stretched alongside the road.

This wasn’t just the normal end-of-summer drop either. Colorado has been dealing with extreme drought in the Gunnison River Basin, and Blue Mesa Reservoir was down to around 17 percent of its capacity at the beginning of October.

You could see the effects right in front of us.

It was such a contrast to everything else we’d seen that day. Golden mountainsides, beautiful valleys and spectacular fall colors, then a landscape showing very clearly how badly this part of Colorado needs water.

We continued through Gunnison and eventually toward Montrose.

It was a long drive, but it never felt like dead time between destinations.

There was always something outside the window worth looking at.

Another mountain.

Another valley.

Another hillside covered in golden aspens.

By the time we reached Montrose, we’d walked almost a thousand feet above a river, watched a train pass beneath our feet, met some incredible birds, floated across a canyon, zip-lined over Royal Gorge, crossed the Continental Divide and driven through some of the best fall colors we’ve ever seen.

Tomorrow, Telluride and Ouray.

There’s something mildly ridiculous about starting a vacation with a 4:30 AM alarm. At that hour, nobody is excited about anything. You’re just moving through the house in the dark, checking bags, chargers and wondering what important thing you’ve forgotten.

But this was the start of our Colorado fall trip. Ana, Keanah, Mummy and me. A week of mountains, fall colors, long drives and a part of the country we’ve wanted to explore properly for a while.

Our flight from Dallas got us into Denver just after 8 in the morning.

Bags collected, we headed over to SIXT to pick up our SUV. There’s always that little moment when the road trip starts feeling real. Until then, you’re still travelling. Once the luggage is in the trunk, CarPlay is connected and everyone has claimed their seat, you’re officially on the road.

Before pointing the car south, breakfast came first.

After the early start in Dallas and the flight to Denver, we were ready to sit down, eat properly and get some coffee. It was a simple stop, but exactly what we needed before starting the drive.

Fed and considerably more awake, we set off for Colorado Springs.

The drive south from Denver was easy, which was exactly what we wanted for day one. We had deliberately kept the schedule light. With Keanah and Mom travelling with us, there was no interest in turning the first day into an endurance event.

By afternoon, we were heading towards the place I’d been waiting to see all day.

Garden of the Gods.

You see plenty of photographs of this place before visiting Colorado. Huge red rocks rising out of the ground with Pikes Peak somewhere behind them. It looks impressive on a screen.

Then you get there.

The scale changes everything.

Our first stop was the Visitor & Nature Center, where the terrace gives you one of those views that immediately makes everyone reach for their phones. Red sandstone formations in front of you, mountains behind them and a huge Colorado sky above it all.

It was our first proper “we’re in Colorado” moment.

The rocks are enormous when you’re standing underneath them.

North Gateway Rock. South Gateway Rock. Cathedral Spires. Kissing Camels.

Some formations are obvious the second someone tells you their name. Others require you to stare at them for a few seconds, tilt your head and eventually say, “Ohhhh, I see it now.”

And, naturally, we stopped for photos everywhere.

The schedule quietly stops mattering.

Balanced Rock was our final big stop inside Garden of the Gods.

It’s one of those formations that looks slightly impossible. A huge chunk of red sandstone appears to be balancing on a much smaller base, almost as if someone placed it there for the sole purpose of becoming a Colorado postcard.

Of course, we took the classic family photos.

After leaving the park, we drove through Manitou Springs. We didn’t make a big stop out of it. We simply drove through, looked around and soaked in the small mountain-town feel from the car.

And that was enough.

Day one was meant to ease us into Colorado.

We had started before sunrise in Dallas. A few hours later, we were walking between giant red rocks with the mountains around us, taking far too many photos and getting our first glimpse of what the next few days might look like.

Tomorrow, the road takes us further into the mountains!