Colorado

We all really enjoyed our time in our 32nd state: Colorado! Snow, sand, hockey, breweries, and tons of free campsites!

Vail

Vail was just a pass through on our way to Denver. We had to drive Vail Pass to get there. It gets to over 11,000 feet elevation and was snow covered in parts (in October). I can definitely see how it’s one of the most dangerous roads and shuts down frequently. We stopped here for lunch and let Lucy play in the snow. We don’t ski so that was enough snow for us. Off we went.

Golden, CO

I mean, come on. How could we not stop?! GOLDEN and the home of Coors Light. Unfortunately, Coors tours are not running due to Covid so we grabbed one at a local bar because why not?!

Golden had a lot of shops and restaurants in the downtown. A nice little stop.

Denver (and its suburbs)

We we’re very lucky to have amazing friends host us for a couple of days. Because they did a similar adventure in their van, Claud- get it? Jean Claud VAN Dam, not too long ago they knew exactly what we needed: a long hot shower, laundry, down time by the fire, and a brewery or two. So, Denver has 300 days of sunshine and we were there for some awesome weather. Lucy and Fin even got two pool days in!

We did check out:

1. Blue Moon Brewing - tons on tap! Who knew Blue Moon had so many different beers? Really nice building with good parking and a dog friendly patio Food prices were really high in my opinion.

2. Mountain Cowboy: I let John order me a flight and bonus points for having a pumpkin beer and a coconut beer on tap! Nice patio outside that was dog friendly. I didn’t do a great job taking pics here, so please enjoy the pups on the patio!

3. Black Shirt Brewing: Walkable from Blue Moon, good beers, and the pizza was good too. Again, pups on the patio.

Then, thanks to our other amazing friends we got tickets to the Colorado Avalanche game In downtown Denver. It was a blast, and they won! We grabbed dinner at Degree because everything was really crowded due to the game, and it was really good! I would like to check out more of Denver sometime!

Great Sand Dunes National Park

It’s pretty wild to see sand dunes with snow capped mountains in the background- but that’s about it for this park. We only spent a few hours here. There are a ton of hikes you can do, or you can rent boards (outside the park) to do sandsledding or sandboarding. We just did a short hike with Lucy because this one was dog friendly! As I’m typing this she’s snoring after her hike through the dunes.

Where we stayed:

1. Through Harvest Host we stayed at Potawatomi Trading Post. We got some coffee and a few other things… and almost a feral cat. Just kidding, sort of.

2. Our amazing friends’ new house

3. BLM outside of Great Dunes National Park

🚐💨 Next state: New Mexico