I struggled with whether this should be an American Cities post or a National Parks post. Yes, we visited Rocky Mountain National Park…but only for a day! We also spent two days in Fort Collins and popped into Denver a few times as well. Which means that this post has a little bit of everything. That’s probably fitting since it’s the final post from our summer road trip.
I have to admit, we didn’t do a lot of research for this final stop. We were there to visit friends, I wanted to go to Rocky Mountain National Park, and Chandler wanted to go to a Rockies baseball game. That pretty much summed up our interests!
We had an amazing time.
From 2019-2022 we lived in Amman, Jordan. And for reasons unknown, a number of teachers we worked with there had resettled in Fort Collins, Colorado. I got to have lunch with my former teammate, Rachel, and we compared horror stories of our time working in US public schools. She had been working in Fort Collins, while I had been working in Coppell, Texas, and to say our districts hadn’t appreciated our inclusive, DEIJ-minded teaching approaches would be an understatement.
Neither one of us made it all that long – but I was heading back overseas and Rachel had transitioned to a fantastic job promoting the city of Fort Collins. We both felt like we had made it to the other side.
And because it’s a small world after all, our neighbors in Amman had also moved back to Fort Collins! We spent a day wandering through downtown Fort Collins – browsing through shops and hearing stories about their university days. We got drinks at one of my favorite breweries – Odell – where I enjoyed a Sippin’ Tropical Sour on tap.
That night we made our way to Denver for a Colorado Rockies game.
As many of you know, sports aren’t really my jam, but we had an incredible time with Andy and Nina. The stadium is lovely, the weather was perfect, and I’m not going to lie – the game was pretty “on the edge of your seat.”
My understanding is that the Rockies are one of the worst teams in MLB. We figured it’d be a quick game and we might even head out early – Denver is an hour’s drive from Fort Collins. The Rockies scored some runs against the Milwaukee Brewers early on and the game went back and forth from there. And then we got the news we’d never expected – the game was going into extra innings.
Again, I should reiterate that I do not like sports, but believe me when I tell you – I was riveted. I’m not going to lie, I cheered quite loudly when the Rockies scored the winning run. And I wasn’t alone – the crowd erupted, rave lights came on, and I feel like there were fireworks – but that’s probably just my imagination running wild.
It was a great game.
Needless to say, we got home pretty late. Which wouldn’t have been a problem, except that Chandler, Nina, and I were headed to Rocky Mountain National Park the next morning. In fact, I bought our timed entry tickets at the game! We had been inside Mesa Verde National Park on June 1st when the tickets initially went on sale, but luckily, Rocky Mountain reserves 40% of their tickets for purchase the night before. With a little bit of refreshing on my phone, we got our tickets no problem.
Nina was kind enough to drive us to the park the next morning. And since Andy had driven us to the game the night before, we were feeling pretty relaxed with neither of us having to be behind the wheel! The drive to Rocky Mountain took around two hours since we had chosen the Bear Lake Entry Pass. We weren’t some of the first arriving in the morning, so we had to wait a bit at the entrance and then again in the parking lot, but we were able to score a spot!
We had chosen to take the 3.6 mile round trip hike to Emerald Lake. Due to elevation, we still had snow on our hike! Which appalled Chandler, but delighted me and Nina. That said, the trail was gorgeous and green and we loved passing by all of the lakes: Starting with Bear Lake, then Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, and ending with Emerald Lake.
Bear Lake was easily the most crowded, as it’s the most accessible. We decided to end our hike there, so we set off right away. Nymph Lake was the smallest, but it was lovely with its abundance of lily pads.
Our anniversary was coming up – Chandler and I started dating on July 3, 2012 and we got married on July 5, 2016, so Nina offered to take our anniversary photo on the hike. Of course, I had to find the most beautiful lake for this to occur at, and it was easy to decide on Dream Lake.
While only slightly larger than Nymph Lake, it is one of the most photographed spots in Rocky Mountain National Park. Once we arrived, it was clear why! With the mountain peaks positioned behind the lake, the image was downright stunning.
In no time at all, we had come to the end of our hike: Emerald Lake. This was our only hike of the entire summer that we’d had someone to join us! I think Chandler preferred it, because he’s always low level afraid that one of us will get injured and need help (he’s also always low level afraid we’ll run into a bear!).
But no one was injured and no bears were in sight. It was a perfect hike.
We made it back to Bear Lake in record time and after walking around the lake, we decided to add a stop to our exploration of Rocky Mountain National Park. I’m fairly certain we took Bear Lake Road back to its entrance and took a left to go deeper into the park. I don’t remember if our goal was Many Parks Curve or Rainbow Curve, but the traffic was insane. Full stop, like what we experienced in Yellowstone, and none of us felt like we absolutely had to continue on.
Instead, we took a break at an earlier pull out before turning around and heading out of the park.
We’d had a great time in Rocky Mountain, but there was still more to see! On our drive in, we’d passed through Estes Park and Nina had told us that the Stanley Hotel was there. That, of course, meant nothing to me – but Chandler was thrilled because it’s the hotel that inspired Stephen King’s novel The Shining. It was also used for the filming of the 1997 TV miniseries (but not the 1980 movie adaptation by Stanley Kubrick).
We had to pay to park – though you get a commemorative coin in return. Then we spent half an hour wandering the grounds and exploring the inside of the hotel. Of course it’s a fully functioning hotel, but it’s clearly still a tourist attraction. There’s a subterranean lounge complete with world-class magicians, a theatrical seance featuring their resident apparitionist, and various tours. Definitely a unique experience.
The next day we said goodbye to our friends and began our final journey back to Texas. We broke up the drive by stopping in Denver to shop at Fifty Two 80’s A Totally Awesome Shop. While not everything in the shop was vintage, it was an incredibly fun throw-back.
Needless to say, we found some memorabilia to take home with us.
After that, we made our way to Amarillo, where we’d spend the night before our final five-hour drive to Saginaw. We’d given up our apartment before the road trip and shipped the majority of our belongings to Dakar (a process that took a total of three months). Chandler’s mother was graciously letting us crash for a few days before our next adventure (more on that later!).
But before getting to the hotel in Amarillo, we made our way to Cadillac Ranch just after sunset. We didn’t have light for very long, but this roadside attraction was still a fun stop. There are 10 Cadillacs buried nose-down, apparently at the same angle as the pyramids of Giza (no, I do not know why). What I do know is that it’s been around since 1974 and since Cadillac has always been the car brand of choice for my mother’s parents, it felt like a necessary thing to view.
With that, our road trip adventures had come to a close. We’d had an incredible summer, but since neither of us particularly like road trips (surprise!), we were more than happy to call it quits. There’s no better way to see the American Southwest, but we had a few lows (mostly food & accommodations) to accompany all of our highs (literally everything else!).
One of our biggest surprises was just how many national park systems we’d visit in addition to the ones we had planned. When we started on our road trip, we knew we’d see 13 national parks, 11 cities, and two Navajo tribal parks. Well, we intentionally cut one park & one city and added two parks & another city, but in the end, we visited 17 national parks, 15 national forests, 11 cities, two national monuments, and two Navajo tribal parks.
Our bonus list included:
-Guadalupe Mountains National Park
-Cibola National Forest
-Carson National Forest
-San Juan National Forest
-Chimney Rock National Monument
-Canyonlands National Park
-Dixie National Forest
-Kaibab National Forest
-Coconino National Forest
-Los Angeles
-Giant Sequoia National Monument
-Sequoia National Forest
-Kings Canyon National Park
-Sierra National Forest
-Inyo National Forest
-Mono Basin National Forest
-Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest
-Caribou-Targhee National Forest
-Bridger-Teton National Forest
-Grand Teton National Park
-Gallatin National Forest
-Roosevelt National Forest
Honestly, it feels like a great way to say goodbye to the United States. We moved to Dakar, Senegal in August and aren’t really sure when we’ll return to the US. But after extensive road trips in the South and Southwest, I definitely feel like we made the most of our time back home.
Abroad With Ashley 