Happy Friday! Can you believe it’s already September?
Elizabeth has had away volleyball games on Monday and Tuesday nights this week and her first home game last night. We haven’t been home before 9:00 p.m yet this week, so I’m dragging a little bit this morning!
It’s funny how with teaching we go from summer time and everything nice and easy to once school starts complete chaos! I love it, though!
Monday in Ouray, CO we knew we had afternoon plans, so we decided to find a hike to do that morning. After a good breakfast, we made our way to the Baby Bathtubs Trailhead.
Weird name, so we didn’t really know what to expect, but it was a GREAT hike! Such an easy hike along the waterfall and the views were spectacular as we were looking down into the town of Ouray.
We were so impressed!
We went and ate a great lunch and then made our way to the Jeep Tour place. We had a scheduled Jeep Tour for four hours that afternoon with Switzerland of America Jeep Tours.
Chris and I debated on if we should just rent the Jeep and go on our own, but I am so glad we decided to go with a tour guide. It made it so much more fun! Our tour guide, Steve, was very knowledgeable and taught us a lot about the history of Ouray.
We went to Yankee Boy Basin with our Jeep Tour. We were so glad the rain held off all afternoon for us and we had great weather!
Some of the roads to Yankee Boy were extremely bumpy in the back of the Jeep, but that made the trip even more memorable. I know we wouldn’t have felt comfortable driving those roads on our own!
The scenery at Yankee Boy Basin was definitely magazine worthy!
We got done with our Jeep Tour around 5:00 that evening, so we ate a good supper and headed to our next destination which was Gunnison, CO.
There wasn’t much in Gunnison, CO, but it was a good halfway mark to where we were trying to get to next.
The drive there was beautiful though!
We stayed the night in Gunnison that night and then the next morning got up early and went to Crested Butte.
This was only about 20 minutes away from Gunnison and the COOLEST town!
We went on the Woods Walk trail and this was a very easy hike. Our problem this morning was that it was a little rainy and only 40 degrees! We were caught in shorts because we are from Missouri and we were freezing!
A lot of the shops downtown in Crested Butte didn’t open until 10:00 that morning, so we had to go ahead and get back on the road and missed checking out their downtown. We definitely want to go back to this area one day because it was so beautiful!
We kept driving up north towards Breckenridge.
We found a continental divide sign on the way there and I was so excited to see one! It was a goal on this trip to find one.
Again, it was freezing this high up at the continental divide. So it was a quick picture and back on the road.
We finally made it to Breckenridge that early afternoon. This was a very touristy town. The weather was rainy at this point too.
Our goal here was to let the girls shop. We shopped, and shopped, and shopped some more!
Breckenridge was BUSY! You can tell it’s definitely one of the hot spots for a Colorado vacation.
We loved how pretty the downtown area was. The girls found a Lululemon shop so they were extremely happy!
We ate supper at Empire Burger and it was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had!
We followed it with a cookie from Mountain Top Cookie Shop and I highly recommend this place as well!
That evening we drove to Dillon Reservoir in Dillon, CO to check it out.
It was beautiful but it started raining on us again as we got there, so we walked around for a little bit and then went back to our condo.
This was our night to “splurge” on a hotel and we had a super nice condo where we each had our own room! It was nice to have some separation from the girls instead of sharing just one hotel room.
Emily especially loved the complimentary robes after her shower!
Here is a quick two minute video of a recap from our time in Ouray that Chris did on his GoPro. I loved it!
Well, that’s all I have time for today. I’ll be back for a final recap next week and it’s the best one yet, so stay tuned!
What beautiful views on that first hike! The jeep tour sounds like a lot of fun and your condo looks so nice.
It was super fancy! Our one splurge of the trip!
Oh my gosh, what a GORGEOUS part of the country!!! You took some beautiful photos! This just had to be the best way to end your summer. Such great memories for your girls! Thanks for sharing.
Such a great way to end the summer! We didn’t want to go back home!
What a fun few days! I am in AWE of the beauty of Colorado. I haven’t been in a while because of health scared. Can’t wait till I can get back to the mountains. Did the girls have favorite places or least favorite places of the trip? When we travel to Colorado we drive from MN and always stop in NE on the way there and we always stay in Kearney, NE and the hotel there is NOT always my favorite place but once we get to our condo (in Colorda) I am a happy because we all spread out. I struggle to travel because I NEED space. lol!
How is school going in Missouri? My brother lives in STL and said that he’s heard horror stories (because of COVID), but I’d love to hear from someone who actually has kids in school in the area?!
Yes, we usually do a condo at the beach with our own rooms and haven’t stayed in a hotel like that for a long time. It was an experience! School is going great! We have less than 2% of our whole district that is quarantined right now, so I hope it stays that way!
I am so glad that you guys survived the hotel experience. I know that “small spaces” lead to a lot of disagreements in my family. Have you guys started to look at hotels with a bedroom (so that the girls can have a space separate from you guys) and a small kitchenette. Now that my mom travels all of the time for work she won’t stay anywhere that doesn’t have that separation space.
Also, so glad to hear that school is going well. Minnesota school JUST started back today. So we’ll see how things go here too.