Hotel View of Colorado Springs

Here is our view from the window of our hotel room. Just look at those mountains in the distance!

Mountains and Rivers of Colorado

I told Daniel that every new state we come into, I say that it is the prettiest state so far. I never cease to be amazed at the beauty. I know I keep saying that, but it is so true.

We got up this morning and went to worship with the Mesa Avenue Church of Christ in Grand Junction. It was a very small congregation (smaller than the one in Albuquerque) but a very friendly bunch. We ate lunch at Arby's and spent that time to decide on what we were going to do the rest of the day. Up until late Saturday afternoon, we had only planned to drive from Grand Junction to Denver, with no specific places to go. However, Daniel's mom, Kay, called us and asked if we had thought about going a little south of Denver to Colorado Springs. She said that is where Pike's Peek and Garden of the Gods was located. So as we ate, this is what we decided to do. We also decided that we'd like to stay there a couple of days to rest up, since we've been driving a lot since we left San Diego.

Leaving Grand Junction, we followed the Colorado River for several miles as it winded its way through the mountains. I heard one of the ladies at church say that the river was at its highest. You can tell that in some of these pictures.


These mountains were so very different from the ones we saw yesterday in Utah. These mountains had much more green on them. So beautiful.We drove around mountains, between mountains and even through the mountains via tunnels.
We reached some pretty high elevations and passed through several alpine villages with snow slopes that still had some snow on them.
Finally, we reached Colorado Springs around 6:30 PM (local time). We booked us a room at the Hampton Inn and Suites. We are on the 4th floor with a lovely view of the mountains in the distance. We are within walking distance to several restaurants, the movie theater and Target. ;) I think we are going to like our stay here.

Red Canyon, More Dixie National Forest and Sunset in Escalante (Saturday Part 2)

We went from the snow covered mountains and lots of trees back to the other extreme. More desert and lots of canyons and rock formations. I took so many pictures of so many pretty and different landscapes. I had a hard time narrowing it down to just a few photos to post here, so I decided to make this slide show. These are pictures from Red Canyon, the area around Bryce Canyon, more of the Dixie National Forest and also parts of the Escalante National Monument.

It was dark by the time we exited from the mountains. We ended up traveling on this scenic bypass for 6 hours! We didn't think we were ever going to get out of there. We went from mountains to the low valleys and back into mountains over and over until we finally got back out to the interstate. It was late and we wished we had started out earlier. But we were very glad that we had gone that way. The sights we all see will always be remembered. And I just can't say enough how blessed we are by God to be living in such a beautiful country. America the Beautiful!

We made it to Grand Junction, Colorado right at midnight. We were so exhausted, we all slept in our clothes once we got into our room (which was FAIL, as Daniel puts it). But we were able to get some good rest before waking up Sunday morning.

Leaving Las Vegas and A Day in Utah (Saturday Part 1)

After waking up a little later than normal (9AM), we started our day off with breakfast at the hotel. We decided to go back to the Strip for one last drive by and also to stop to see M&M World. It is so funny to see what sights you see during the day while walking down the Strip.


We didn't get the chance to drive by the famous Las Vegas sign on the Strip, but this one will suffice.

We didn't stay too long. We still had a long way to go today. Our plan was to drive north into Utah, drive the scenic route East of Cedar City through the Dixie National Forest and Bryce Canyon Area, then travel back north to Interstate 70 to take us into Colorado. We hoped to reach Grand Junction, just across the state line to spend the night.Today was such a beautiful day (everyday we've had has been beautiful so far...not a drop of rain) and we were blessed to be able to view so many of God's creations. From the forests, to the valley's, to rivers and snow covered mountain tops. Utah is such a beautiful state and we got to see so much of it today.

Shortly before we crossed the border into Utah, near St. George, we happened on a little spot called Virgin River. Daniel said he'd love to know how that water felt. So we found a great little place to stop and hike down to the water. The water was cold but felt good as it was HOT out there!

From there, we entered Utah, into St. George and then traveled up to Cedar City where we fueled up and ate lunch. We turned onto the scenic byway which would take us through the Dixie National Forest and around the Red Canyon, Bryce Canyon area and Escalante National Monument.
We traveled up to the top of the large mountains where there was snow still on the ground. The temperature dropped to 58 degrees. We got out and played in the snow for a bit. It was beautiful. And the air was so clean and pure. It was easy to breathe. And the smell of the cedar trees was amazing too.As we came down the mountain, so did the streams created by the melting snow.
More about the rest of the scenic bypass in the next post.