Colorado / Utah Trip - Day One

Last week we took a trip to Colorado and Utah to hike for the week.  Brian and I did a similar trip in 2007 and have been wanting to get back out there.  We kept putting off a trip like this because the boys are young and we weren't sure how to do it with them.  But we decided we didn't want to put it off any longer and it was never going to be a perfect time.  Plus we decided to do no camping which made everything a lot easier.

The basic itinerary we planned out was to fly into Denver on Saturday, drive to Grand Junction, Colorado that day, and spend the night there in a hotel.  The next day (Sunday) we would hike in the San Rafael Swell area of Utah and then drive to Moab.  We had a condo in Moab and we spent 4 nights there.  We planned to hike around Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.  Then on Thursday we would drive back to Denver and spend two nights in a hotel there.  On Friday we planned to hike in Boulder and on Saturday we planned to do something in the city before flying out that night.

The last time I flew was when Carter was about 15 months old and we tagged along to San Francisco when Brian had a conference out there.  This time around we were flying Southwest and had a 7, 5, and 19 month old and I was a little nervous but it went fantastic!  We were super early to the airport and Gray was loving just watching everything going on outside the terminal window.

We had a direct flight to Denver and left Nashville at 8:55 am.  As soon as we started to taxi for takeoff, Gray passed out sitting on my lap.  He took a nice hour long nap.  Carter and Rylan were excited to be flying and about the bag of entertainment I packed them that they were easily entertained for the 2 1/2 hour flight.  Carter and Gray sat with me (unfortunately there were no extra seats and Gray couldn't get his own seat) and Rylan sat with Brian in the row behind us.

Getting ready to takeoff ...

And passed out ...

Once Gray woke up, he enjoyed sitting between Carter and me.

Suzy gave me the idea of bringing along window clings.  I had a bunch I bought a few years ago on clearance and they were a big hit.

Carter enjoyed taking pictures out the window for awhile ...

Getting close to Denver ...

Once we arrived in Denver, we got all our luggage (which was a lot to carry) and made it to the Enterprise lot.  We had reserved a standard SUV but got upgraded to a Toyota Forerunner which ended up being a blessing.  The boys really liked having a little more room (though nothing is ever enough and there was still plenty of fighting).  We brought along Gray's carseat and bought Bubble Bums for the big boys (which are inflatable boosters that are super easy to pack).  After a quick lunch at Chick-fil-A, we started headed west toward Utah on I-70.  It didn't take long for everyone to pass out!

The drive along I-70 is gorgeous and there was still a ton of snow.

Vail is about midway between Denver and Grand Junction (where we were spending the first night), so after two hours on the road, we took a break to fit in a little hike.  Vail may be one of the most gorgeous places I've ever been.  To get to the trailhead, we had to drive through East Vail and the homes there were amazing.  They were nestled in beautiful tall trees, next to creeks raging with snow melt, and with views of snow capped mountains.

Vail has an elevation of over 8,000 feet (Nashville is about 500 feet) and most of the hikes go straight up the mountains 2,000 to 3,000 feet (at least) to beautiful lakes.  We didn't want to push it too much since we weren't acclimated to the elevation so we chose to hike for awhile up Gore Creek Trail with no intention of reaching the lake.

The trail was all uphill but it wasn't terribly steep.

We got to hike through groves of beautiful Aspen trees.

This is the only complete family photo we got our entire trip!

These photos definitely don't do this area justice.  One of the coolest parts of this hike was coming across beaver dams and seeing the stumps of all the trees the beavers had crewed down.

We hiked about 2 miles and gained about 500 ft in elevation before we decided to turn around when we reached the edge of Gore Creek.  The boys flew back down to the trailhead since it was almost all downhill on the way back.

After we got back to the trailhead, we loaded back in the car and stopped at a gas station in Vail for Gatorades (we hadn't had a chance to fill up all our water bottles yet and only had water left over from lunch at Chick-fil-A!).  Soon we through Glenwood Canyon which is absolutely amazing.  There are so many places I'd love to spend more time in!!!

The kids were starving so we stopped for a super easy dinner at Burger King (they really wanted cheeseburgers and there were very few options).  We finally made it to Grand Junction around 7 pm (mountain time), did a quick stop at a grocery store for lunch and dinner for the next day since we were planning on hiking all day before driving to Moab, and then made it to our not-so-amazing hotel (a Comfort Inn - it was the only think with good reviews that wasn't over $200/night).  We unpacked only the necessities for the night and then went to bed.  The big boys had to share a bed for the first time.  Luckily they put up with one another!