Hello and welcome back to Nomad Dad Life! Today we continue our journey through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. If you haven’t read the previous post, please do so here. Colorado really is a beautiful state with a lot to offer. Every trip we took had new and amazing views. Today we will talk about our trip to Royal Gorge, Rocky Mountain National Park, and Pikes Peak. Colorado was months 6-9 in our travel journey, and we are really starting to figure out this lifestyle. Surprisingly, I haven’t driven my wife crazy yet, or else she does a really good job at hiding it! With us working opposite schedules before, we weren’t used to spending this much time together.
Royal Gorge
Royal Gorge is a place we drove past on our way to the Black Canyon. We didn’t know what it was at the time, but we are glad we found out. This ended up being our favorite day trip during our time in Colorado. Royal Gorge is a park and bridge near Canon City, Colorado. We only had about an hour drive from Colorado Springs so it was a nice short trip for us. We thought it would be a quick trip to get outside and keep our children busy for a while, but we ended up spending most of the day there.
The Royal Gorge is home to America’s highest suspension bridge. It’s no longer open to drive across, but you can walk the 1,257 wood planks and cross the Arkansas River 956 feet above it. The park and all the attractions are on the opposite side of the gorge from the parking lot and visitor center.
Attractions
The park had a huge three-story playground, splash pad, gold panning sluice box, target range, and a carousel. The carousel was closed, as it was the off season, but the playground was enough to keep our children busy for hours. There was an outdoor theater for concerts, restaurants, and a brewery all on-site at the park. The park also offers rock climbing and a sky coaster, which is a big swing that swings you over the gorge at 1,200 feet above the river.
Getting back across you can take the bridge or zip line for an extra fee. Obviously with two toddlers the choice was already made for us which option we could do. As we got harnessed, we reminded the children one more time how to cross the bridge by themselves and where to meet us. . .of course I’m kidding! We took the bridge back. Overall, it was a great experience for all of us, and one we would recommend checking out.
Rocky Mountain National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park was the only place we had been to previously. We were able to visit about 5 years ago when we were in Colorado for a wedding. We wanted to make sure we made it back when we knew we were going to be living in Colorado for 3 months.
This is one of the most visited National Parks in the system, so it was the opposite of the last National Park we visited in Colorado. We were there during the winter so the park wasn’t crowded when we went; however, some of the park is closed until summer. When we were here the first time it was the middle of summer, so it was cool to see how much it changes with the seasons, which is a lot! It’s tough to compare whether the summer or winter is better to visit the park, but there is just something about the mountains when they have snow on them.
The weather was nice enough so we were still able to get Arkyn and Ayla out of the vehicle so they could run around on some hiking trails and burn some energy. Most trails are well maintained in the winter, so they were able to hike the trail themselves. After the hike we headed to Estes Park before making a quick detour on the way back to Colorado Springs so we could stop at the New Belgium Brewery.
New Belgium Brewing Company
Fort Collins is only an hour away from Estes Park, which is nothing compared to what we have been traveling! New Belgium Brewing Company is headquartered in in Fort Collins, so I talked Fae into making a quick trip there. Their Voodoo Ranger Juicy Haze is one of my favorite beers so of course I wanted to have one at their brewery.
This brewery was huge, and it was the coolest one we have been to. It is multiple stories, has a huge outdoor area with many fire pits, play area for dogs, bike trails all around it, and a section for food trucks. We ordered some food from one of the trucks and went inside to wait and get our drinks. The atmosphere, food, and drinks were all amazing. They had plenty for the children to keep busy with while we waited for our food and sampled the beer.
The outside area was by far their favorite here though, and they made it a goal to pet every dog that came in. They went around asking everyone who had a dog if it was OK for them to pet them and they almost got to everyone before we had to leave! The brewery offers tours every day, which includes sampling the beer, so hopefully we can go back someday and do that.
Pikes Peak
What trip to Colorado Springs would be complete without driving up Pikes Peak? The inspiration for “America the Beautiful” had to be on our itinerary in Colorado Springs. Our first attempt to get to the summit was unsuccessful as the weather didn’t cooperate so they closed the road at an elevation of 12,500 feet. Our next attempt was successful, but barely.
We were able to drive to the summit, 14,115 feet, but it started snowing shortly after we got there. They closed the road again at 12,500 feet so we made it up just in time! They have a visitor center and cafe on the summit, so we decided to get some food and see what the weather would do. A big horn sheep came right up to the window we were sitting by in the cafe so Arkyn was pretty excited about that and asked everyone where it went once it left.
The snow didn’t stop, so the drive down the mountain with two toddlers was not the most fun thing I’ve ever done. Luckily the road wasn’t super slippery when we went down, so we were able to keep it in low gear and make it down without any issues. Still not the most fun experience we have ever had, but we made it and got to see the view from the top before the snow started flying.
Wrap Up
That’s going to finish our post for today. The next one will conclude our time in Colorado and lead us into our next destination, Anchorage, Alaska. Please follow our journey on social media as well by clicking on a link below.
Links
Rocky Mountain National Park: https://www.nps.gov/romo/index.htm
Royal Gorge Bride: https://royalgorgebridge.com/
New Belgium Brewing Company: https://www.newbelgium.com/
Pikes Peak: https://coloradosprings.gov/drivepikespeak
BJ Rylander
July 8, 2023 — 2:48 am
You are a great tour guide! Loved hearing about all these places in Colorado. Thank you!