Last Tuesday (August 11) was our longest travel day of this trip, about 250 miles, but we finally made it to Colorado! We’re staying at one of the campgrounds in St. Vrain State Park in Longmont, not too far from Boulder. Full hookup, lots of open space, but unfortunately, no shade…a bit brutal when the sun is out. The trailer was particularly warm after a long day on the road, so we decided to let the air conditioning do its job while we left to run a couple of errands and eat dinner out.

During our time at the campground, we saw prairie dogs, wild turkeys, pelicans, and jackrabbits. I captured a few scenery photos worth sharing…

Our primary destination from this part of Colorado is Rocky Mountain National Park. They’re one of a few National Parks that require timed entry tickets during the busy months. I reserved tickets for every day, not knowing what the weather would be like, and we looked at the forecast to see that Wednesday was looking pretty nice…so we hit the road for the just-over-an-hour drive West to the park, via the town of Estes Park. A big chunk of the drive is on very curvy roads, so it’s a slow go, but very scenic with non-stop views of the Rockies.

We spent about three hours driving along Trail Ridge Road, the main highway through the park, enjoying the many scenic overlooks along the way. I love the description of the Rockies as the ‘backbone’ of Western North America. They are majestic and awe-inspiring. It’s such a fascinating drive, starting in the montane ecosystem full of ponderosa pines, climbing to the subalpine ecosystem which is very wet, and then ultimately to the alpine ecosystem where trees cannot grow and plants survive best close to the ground. There is only a six-week growing season at these higher altitudes…just 40-50 days without frost (and we timed our visit perfectly in that short window). Parts of the drive are a bit scary, with tight curves, VERY steep drop-offs, and no guard rails. Mark was a real trooper navigating our Big-Ass Truck through all of this! The highest point on Trail Ridge Road is just over 12,000 feet (versus the visitor center where we entered at 7,800 feet), and we crossed the Continental Divide during our journey.

As we were leaving the park around 2pm, the rain started…and that became a trend during our time here…mid-afternoon rain that can last all evening. Apparently, it’s ‘monsoon’ season in Denver.

Thursday morning was time to head to the laundromat. In the afternoon, we headed South into Denver, and our first stop was the State Capitol…seems to be a recurring theme of this trip! The amount of brass in that building was unbelievable, and I didn’t envy the workers we saw polishing it. What a job! Colorado is known as the Centennial State because it became a state in 1876, our nation’s centennial year. So, they are celebrating 150 years of statehood this year.

From there, we headed down the street to the US Mint for our 2pm tour. Photography was strictly prohibited, unfortunately. The Denver Mint produces coins for use West of the Mississippi (Philadelphia covers the East), commemorative coins, and uncirculated coin sets. Coins have been minted here since 1906, and they’ve been giving public tours for the entire 120 years of their existence. We learned about the process, from the coils of metal, to the blanks that are cut, edges that are created, and the pressing of heads and tails using tons of pressure. Any that don’t pass quality control inspections are “waffled” and recycled. It was a pretty impressive building, too, modeled after a palace in Florence, Italy. Sadly, there were no free samples at the end of the tour.

On our way back to the truck, I quickly poked my head inside Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception to see the beautiful stained-glass windows.

We checked the forecast for Friday and it was looking really nice for the early part of the day, so I went online promptly at 7pm to try and get a timed entry pass for the Bear Lake area of Rocky Mountain National Park. This area of the park is really popular, and they have separate entry passes which are particularly difficult to get. The only one I was able to secure before our trip was for Sunday afternoon, and the weather didn’t look like it was going to cooperate. Each day at 7pm, they release some passes for the next day, and lucky me, I snagged one for 10am on Friday! Yay!

So, we were back in the truck to make the drive back to the park on Friday morning. On our way into the park, we came up on a huge herd of elk grazing along the side of the road…some of the males were ‘bugling’ to attract mates!

From there, we went straight to the Bear Lake area and took the ‘stroll’ around the lake. It was absolutely beautiful! Totally lived up to the hype! And the weather could not have been nicer! We found a bench in the shade to eat our lunches, and then headed to another section of the park that we hadn’t seen yet, along Fall River Road, and stopped at Alluvial Fan. Thanks to a flood that deposited thousands of boulders, it’s a really scenic area with multiple cascades. Thrilled that we made the return trip to the park and got to see these other amazing sights!

Saturday was a busy day with a huge variety. Our first stop was in Boulder, at the Celestial Seasonings tea company, to take a factory tour. It was really interesting to learn about the process and their history as the original herbal tea company. We learned about the ingredients they source, how they mill and blend them, and how the tea is packaged into tea bags and then boxes. They make about 100 different varieties of tea, and we got to sample several both before and after the tour. No photos allowed inside the factory, however.

From there, we drove into Denver and went to the Molly Brown House Museum. She’s probably most famous as the “Unsinkable Molly Brown”, a survivor of the Titanic, but we learned there was a lot more to her than just that! She ran for Colorado’s US Senate seat in 1914, before women even had the right to vote. She worked with the Red Cross during and after WWI and was very philanthropic.

Our next stop was supposed to be Denver’s Union Station, but there was a Savannah Bananas baseball game at nearby Coors Field and the area was, well, bananas! No chance we could find a place to park, so we headed to dinner. I was able to catch a couple photos as we drove by.

After dinner, we killed some time and then headed to St. John’s Cathedral for an 8pm performance of “Celestia”. It’s billed as an immersive light and music show which uses the church’s beautiful architecture as the canvas. We thought it sounded interesting, so we decided to buy tickets…and we are so glad we did! It was incredible! There was a choir providing live music and it was 45 minutes of a truly immersive experience. We thought it was similar to being at the Sphere in Las Vegas, just on a much smaller scale. The graphics were wonderful and it was obviously designed specifically for this building. From what we can tell, it’s the first time something like this has been done.

This first group of photos were provided by Celestia…

And this group is from what I captured, plus several videos since those will give you a much better sense of the experience.

By Sunday, we were both pretty tired, so it was a quiet day at the campground (plus a couple errands and a trip to the gym for me).

On Monday, we ventured to Boulder to do some exploring. Our first stop was “The People’s Crossing” which had some really cool rock formations. We opted not to do the full hike as it was pretty steep and a very hot day. Our next stop was the Colorado Chautauqua, based on the early 20^th century movement that was started in Upstate NY. This one was formed largely to help educate teachers from Texas and is designated a National Historic Landmark. Some of the original buildings are still there, and the neighborhood of cottages are now privately owned. From the grounds is an amazing view of the local landmark, the Flatirons, named by pioneer women who thought the flat, triangular faces looked like metal clothes irons.

Our next stop was the NSF-NCAR Laboratory, a government building for atmospheric research. The building itself is an architectural gem – designed by I.M. Pei and built from pink sandstone. The design was based largely on cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, and Pei’s intention was for the building to blend in with the nearby Flatirons. Inside were some interesting exhibits about weather (oh, and it was air conditioned which felt great on such a hot day!)

We made a quick detour through downtown Boulder and past the University of Colorado campus, and then headed back to the campground…our time in this area has come to an end!