I have been to Colorado a few times now, because I have a friend, Gaile, that lives there.  We worked together at Factron/Schlumberger and still keep in touch.  Sometimes we stay in the area and other times we set out for surrounding states to see the landscape and enjoy all the sites, and of course, to spend our money on the local cultural crafts.
 

 

Colorado (12/18/91 - 12/27/91) On this trip, I came to spend my birthday and Christmas with Gaile and her family.  During this trip we did a good deal of feasting, partying and opening presents.  We also took a trip past Pikes Peak on our way to Colorado Springs to tour the "Rock Ledge Ranch".  This was a working ranch since 1868 through 1907.  At the time we visited they had a local choir singing carols.  Although we saw signs of ice and snow on the trip to Colorado Springs, the weather was beautiful the day we were there.  We stopped and walked through the Garden of the Gods.  I had to admit that I did feel closer to god that day with the awesome rock formations.

Even though we feasted at Gaile's house a great deal, that didn't stop us from eating real Mexican food and drinking margaritas while touring.  We did have a healthy lunch at Alfalfa's one day as well.

Also, during this trip, we drove up to Georgetown.  This is one of my favorite little mountain towns.  It's not too far from Vail and about a half hour from the continental divide.

When we got back to town we went to the Denver Botanical Garden, attended the Ascot dinner theater to see "Hello Dolly" and of course shopped.  You have many malls to choose from:  There's Southwest and Southglenn Malls in Littleton, Pearl Street Mall in Boulder and Larimer Square in Denver.

Utah (8/7/94 - 8/20/94) - We did a good deal of driving on this trip. After driving on I70 through Summit and Lake Dillion (9150 ft. elevation) in the Arapaho national forest, we reached our first destination.  Our first stop was Vail, with its chalet style ski lodges and cold snowy weather.  After a brief visit, we were on through the White River National forest which was scorched from fire. We went through a group of tunnels that led through the mountains.  Past Glenwood Springs around Grand Hogback area, which also had fire damage.  Driving along side the Colorado river a great deal of the way. There were areas on the trip where a lot of fire damage occurred.  It made news when 15 fire fighters died around July 5 or 6 that year.  We also viewed plateaus and canyons that were simply gorgeous.  We reached Grand Junction.  Grand Monument drive was a collection of plateaus and canyon areas. From a road that drove along the ledge of the plateau, we saw wild Utah juniper and Pinyon Pine, along with small animals.

We crossed from Colorado to Utah and saw more fire damage for about a half mile.  It was 85 degrees that day.  Lucky we had air conditioning.  Luckier yet, we didn't breakdown, because we didn't see any other cars for a long time.  We got off I-70 onto 128 and headed to Moab flat.  This was barren land, but awesome as well.  We continued to drive along side the Colorado River with great plateaus and rock formations on both sides.  The river was just deep enough for tubing and rafting, and we saw groups doing just that.  There were cow crossing signs, but hardly a car, or anything else in site.  Finally, we reached Arches National Park.  Arches actual rock formations were rounded from earthquakes, rain and erosion.  It was quite a site.  Leaving we followed route 191.  We spotted a few ranches, wind mills and a few power lines.  This was a beautiful area.  We settled for the night at Green River which was quaint.  It had a great little museum.  On the way to Salt Lake City we also stopped at Provo to see Brigham Young University campus.  On the way out of town, we almost got a ticket when we went through a stop sign while trying to read the signs.  The cop was nice though, and we promised we'd leave town.  In Salt Lake we had to visit the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, where they were holding practice.  They were wonderful.  We enjoyed a good film on the Mormon history.  We also had a real good dinner at the Market Street Grill.  We left Salt Lake City after a few days of touring and shopping.  I liked the friendly people, but didn't like the fish smell off the lake.  We left Salt Lake, connected with route 40, and headed for Vernal.  We went to a neat museum on Indians and dinosaurs.  They had a dinosaur quarry to see artifacts.  We climbed the rocks near McCorkee's Ranch, outside Vernal, to see the Indian petroglyphs.

We crossed the border again and headed for Steamboat.  I loved the town of Steamboat.  We stayed at a place called Rabbit Ears Hotel.  This small town has the most wonderful shops with great artists and crafts.  The restaurants weren't bad either.  Once we connected with I70 we went back to Georgetown.  Georgetown is another of my favorite stops.  If you are ever out that way, I recommend stopping at both Steamboat and Georgetown.

Once we rested from our trip, we got tickets for a concert in Denver.  It was held on the lawn of the Botanical Gardens.  The next day we stopped at the William Cody museum in Golden.  We also went to "The Fort" and had buffalo for dinner.  We rested in the area before I headed home.
 

One of the first places we stopped was connected to our hotel.  It was the Loretto Chapel.  This was a beautiful chapel with a specially built staircase.  They say it may have been constructed by a carpenter that may have actually been an angel.  It took six months to build and has two 360 degree turns with no visible means of support.  We were told that Architects state there is no way it should still be standing, but it has for more than 100 years.

Gaile and I attended the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum and other museums in the area.  We walked the strip where American Indians were selling their crafts on the sidewalk.  We stopped in all the shops and many of the art galleries.  I had been looking for a Southwestern rug and found the perfect one.  Gaile found a black cowboy hat for herself. We enjoyed a lunch at the ORE House and many of our other meals at Nellies in the Hotel.  Both places were delightful!  By the time we left the weather was back into the 70's. It was a lovely area and I wouldn't mind going back someday.