on Thursday July 5th, Trevor and I embarked on a 2,586 mile road trip to Colorado and back. Trevor’s brother is in vet school in Colorado, and we planned to stay and visit him while he was on summer break. we asked ourselves, “why not make the trip there, and the trip home, one insanely good adventure?” so we did.
first of all, let me tell you about OUR DOBERMAN DEXTER!! he was a super last minute decision to bring… Trevor’s brother, Alex, has 3 Australian Shepherds who love to play, so literally, days before the trip (I’m talking TWO days), we decided to load him up and take him on our adventure with us. we never would have guessed how GOOD this 95lb dog would be! he was an absolute angel – which is incredibly surprising. ;) he likes the open road!
pretty much the entire time we were driving, (we did have some music breaks, girls gotta dance!) we were listening to an audiobook called The Passage by Justin Cronin. it’s a 36 hour audiobook, so needless to say, we have about 5 hours left and still don’t know how it ends. haha.
“So perhaps the greatest worry of all was that one day you would realize that all the worries of your life amounted to one thing: the desire to just stop worrying.”
― Justin Cronin, The Passage
Day #1: was a day all about driving and incredible sight-seeing. it was our longest day – 11.5 hours in the car and almost 730 miles covered.
first stop: THE GRAND CANYON. this place is insane. if you’ve never been. go. we entered at the Grand Canyon National Park entrance, and drove the roads East along the southern rim of the Grand Canyon, pulling over and jumping out of the car and any turnout we wanted!
back in the car! :)
then we made it to: HORSESHOE BEND. holy moly. THIS PLACE. is nuts. we made is juuuuuust before sunset – and it was more incredible the my imagination had let me think.
Day #2 was all about DURANGO, CO. it was our shortest day, we only drove a little over 4 hours, 260 miles. after the long day before, this was just the day we needed!
we love love love Durango. it has a special place in my heart because it is a special place to my mom. ya know? not to mention it’s just an awesome place.
we went to an off leash dog park that next to the river, ran alongside the riverwalk for some exercise, and had the best margarita and fajita enchiladas ever. then got back on the road!
we took Dexter running the night we got there and the morning before we left alongside the river-walk, this great trail that runs alongside the river! great way to get everyone some exercise. ;)
Day #3 – Durango, CO to our final destination – Johnstown, CO – about 6.5 hours & 379 miles.
Pagosa Springs:
this drive along the 258 North up to Denver was INSANE. so much pretty. it was so green and the perfect white puffy clouds were always in the sky – Trevor and i kept imaging everything covered in white snow. :)
We made it!!! :) these next few photos are just some random pictures we took when hanging out. we didn’t really take many photos at the house or just day to life for the next 5 days – just on our 2 hikes!
hike #1. just an awesome day. easy. and beautiful. everything in Colorado is so green right now and covered in wildflowers! the dogs had a BLAST.
this day. someone said, “hey, let’s do a hike guys!” wowzers. we thought we were getting into MAYBE, maaaaaybe a 10 mile hike. 5 in, 5 out. done. this bad boy ended up being a total of 7.5 in and 7.5 out – a 15 mile day filled with uphill, sun, rocks, creeks, tree log crosses, practically vertical climbing, snow, and the most gorgeous view at the top of Cirque Lake and Lake Emmaline. however, getting up to 10,982 feet of elevation was rough. BUT. we did it. and it was amazing. by the time we finished we were blistered and sore, but went for smoothies and didn’t get off the couch until the next day. ;)
aaaand now we hike the 7.5 miles back. haha.
our drive home! Arches National Park was a great debate in our car. we were thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis close to just driving past. “is it worth it?” “what will we do with Dexter?” …blah blah blah. at the critical moment, Trevor, to my delight, made the executive decision to get off at the exit and take the 30 minute detour to the Arches National Park entrance.
“Is it worth it?” HECK YES.
“What will we do with Dexter?” Well, he wasn’t allowed out of the car. :( dogs are only allowed in the parking lots – not on any trails. plus it was like 100 degrees out – so he didn’t mind staying in the air conditioning. ;) however, this did keep us from actually walking any trails – which was totally fine! we were able to see everything we would want to see. totally worth it.
THE END.
if you got to here, you basically went on our vacation with us. :)
hope you had as much fun as we did! xo
