Welcome back for Part 2 of our Colorado travel guide! In this post, I will be sharing what we did the rest of the week on our vacation. If you haven’t read my Colorado Travel Guide: Part 1 yet, I shared the first three days of us being in Colorado and what we did! Click here to read it!
Today I am going to pick up where we left off, which was Wednesday, Day 4 of our vacation!
Day 4: Rock Climbing in Chautauqua Park
I was really excited to rock climb today, but I also was SUPER nervous. I think we all were (except my dad) haha. None of us had really climbed outdoors on a real mountain before. I had gone to plenty of birthday parties at Adventure Rock, but never anything like this before! I was scared that I would fall or the rope would break, or I would have a panic attack while climbing.
But even though I was so nervous to climb, I pushed myself to do it because I knew in the end I would have a ton of fun. And that’s exactly what happened. Rock climbing was one of my favorite parts of our entire vacation!
We met both of our climbing guides at the entrance of the park at 8am and hiked about 30 minutes to get to the part of the mountains where we would actually be climbing.
The hike felt so long, especially because we had to carry our climbing gear with us and it was all uphill haha! But, it was all worth it! 😊
The views from the base of where we were climbing were incredible and as you can imagine, they were even better at the top!
Once we set all of our stuff down, the guides showed us how to put on our climbing gear and gave us some pointers before we actually started climbing. They knew that we were all beginners so they were super helpful the entire time and would tell us where to place our hands and feet when we would get stuck. This was such a big help because there would be times when I would have no idea where to place my feet on the rock and one of the guides would point at certain crevices or give me ideas on where I could move next.
There was also no pressure to climb all the way up or to do it in a certain amount of time. We were all able to take our time and climb at our own pace. The entire experience was fun and challenging because it was kind of like a puzzle! You had to figure out how to maneuver your body to fit in certain places and how to move from one spot to the next without letting go.
After making it to the top of the first climb, I didn’t feel as nervous anymore and I was excited to do it again! If you are someone that wants to try rock climbing, but are nervous because you’ve never done it before I recommend talking to the guides that will be with you and explaining what you want to get out of the experience.
I know my dad called the climbing company and told them we were beginner’s and that we wanted to do a course that would allow us to be successful. We wanted to be challenged, but also to succeed at the climbs we were doing. Being upfront to the climbing guides that will be working with you and helping you is important so that they can show you different climbs that are tailored to your specific skill level!
As you can see in the picture above, one of the guides climbed next to my sister for a little while to help her out! It felt good knowing that the guides were always there to help you out when you needed it.
We each climbed a total of 3 times before our time was up (we climbed 8am-12pm). The time flew by and when noon hit, we were all super tired and the weather was starting to get pretty hot. I highly recommend climbing in the morning, vs. the afternoon if you can because it’s cooler. By 11:30am all the shady areas on the base of our climbing area had gone away and we were sweating!
I am so happy that we all decided to do it! Rock climbing was one of the best parts of our entire vacation and it was something that we will always remember. It really was such an incredible feeling to reach the top and look around at the mountains and trees and see how far you came. Highly highly recommend it!
After climbing, we were all exhausted so we took the rest of the afternoon to relax at the hotel. Later in the evening we drove to McIntosh Lake, which was about 10 minutes from our hotel.
It was absolutely beautiful! There was a path that looped around the entire lake, so we walked the entire thing looking at the houses and watching the sunset over the mountains. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect night.
Honestly, I could picture myself living here! I have never said that about anywhere we have vacationed before, but Colorado was absolutely incredible and it was more than just a vacation spot. It felt really homey and a few places we went actually reminded me of Wisconsin! I already can’t wait to go back and explore more!
Day 5: Denver, CO
I was beyond excited for today because I have always wanted to go to Denver! I feel like Denver has become so popular recently, and I know tons of people that have recently moved there or have gone there for a vacation. I have heard nothing, but great things, so I couldn’t wait to check it out!
The first thing we did was go to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. It’s located just Northeast of Denver and has hiking trails, a driving tour, and wildlife viewing areas. We did the driving tour because we wanted to sit in the car in air conditioning vs. walking outside in the heat. We were expecting to see tons of animals while we were driving, except we saw basically none haha. I think there was a few prairie dogs, but that was it. We were so disappointed. I don’t know if we just weren’t lucky, but after doing the entire driving tour and seeing almost no animals, I would not recommend going here.
On the other hand, the Denver Botanic Gardens, which we went to next was absolutely incredible! We spent over 5 hours here and honestly could have stayed longer if we didn’t have more sights we wanted to see in Denver.
It’s only $12.50 for adults or $9 for students to get into the Gardens and it is money well spent! It’s more than 24 acres and has so many different pathways, trails, garden areas, waterfalls, flowers, a Japanese Garden, and more.
As you walk along the pathways, you discover different gardens with all different shrubbery, flowers, and architecture. It was really awesome because each garden was so different from the next!
It was so funny, we all must have taken just hundreds and hundreds of photos here because every single flower, building, waterfall, or tree that we saw we would stop and take a photo by. I mean the photo opportunities here were endless! But at one point, we were like okay no more photos, we have enough. But then, we’d see another waterfall or a cool plant and we’d get out our phones again to take more pictures!
Towards the middle of the Garden, there was a really cute outdoor restaurant we ate at that overlooked a large pond. It was gorgeous with tons of lily pads and plants in the water! We sat and enjoyed some pizza for a little while before exploring the rest of the Botanical Garden.
There were a few times that we thought we had seen the entire Garden, but then we’d find a new trail that would take us to a whole new section with tons more to see.
There was so many bright and colorful flowers all over the garden, it was absolutely gorgeous!
If you have the time to spend an entire day here, I highly recommend doing so. There is just so much to see and explore and trust me you don’t want to rush through it.
Our last stop of the day after the Denver Botanic Gardens was Downtown Denver! We were so excited to check out the actual downtown area, look at all the high rise buildings and shop!
The downtown area was beautiful and I was surprised how clean and well-kept the entire city was!
This photo above is the outdoor mall! We stopped in a few of the stores, but didn’t end up buying anything. The stores were all the same as the ones we have back in WI, so we didn’t feel the need to get anything while we were there.
Since we only had a couple hours to spend downtown, we didn’t get to check out too much of the city. What we did see though was so pretty! I definitely want to come back to eat at some of the restaurants, go to the Denver Zoo, check out a few of the museums and the aquarium, go to a sports game, walk through Larimer Square, and see a concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater. Like I said before, there is just so much to see and do here! I can’t wait for our next trip back 🙂
Day 6: Our Last Day in CO
Today was the final day of our vacation before we began the 15 hour drive back to Wisconsin. My brother had to leave early, so he flew back to WI last night, so now it was just the five of us.
Since we didn’t actually hike in the Rocky Mountains on Tuesday, that’s what the plan was for today. My parents and two sisters went back to the Rockies for the day to hike, but I honestly was so exhausted from our entire week of hiking, biking, rock climbing, and walking that I decided to stay back at the hotel and just have a relaxing day instead.
I will insert a few photos that my family took from the Rocky Mountains though, because it was so beautiful up in the mountains!
While they were hiking, I laid by the pool and read a book, went to a few shops that were located near our hotel, and walked around Longmont (the city we stayed in).
If you’re planning a trip to Colorado soon, I definitely recommend staying in Longmont. It was such a pretty town, with tons of restaurants and hiking/biking trails, and it was such a short drive to Boulder, Denver, Estes Park, and the Rocky Mountains.
When my family got back from the Rocky Mountains, we had dinner at T.G.I. Friday’s which was right next to our hotel, and then had to start packing our things for the long drive home in the morning.
It was an absolutely incredible trip and if you haven’t been to Colorado before, you need to go! For those of you who have been there before, what city did you stay in? And what are some of your favorite things you did? Let me know!
Have a great week!
XO
Cassie
