It’s taken me so long to write this but better late than never, right?
The last part of our trip consisted of A LOT of driving. But we saw some pretty incredible things that made it very worth it. We also made our way back to Denver and the instant we were on the other side of the Front Range, I felt the change – far more people, traffic, etc. But Denver is a great city and we found lots of fun things to do and eat. 🙂 Here’s the recap of our last few days in the beautiful state of Colorado.
Thursday morning we left our winery B&B and drove down to the south rim of Black Canyon of the Gunnison. It’s a spectacular sight with soaring, steep black canyon walls giving way to the river below. Sean got the drone out and saw some neat views.
Painted rock is a famous part of the park.
We drove the incredibly steep road to the canyon floor and wandered along the river for awhile. It was a beautiful day to enjoy the scenery. Peaceful.
We went for lunch at Camp Robbers, a place I found online that had “exotic” meats like elk and venison. Sean had the elk burger. Back in Paonia in the late afternoon, we stopped in to the local brewery (below) and were pleasantly surprised at how good the beer was. We later ordered dinner from a local cafe that used mainly local ingredients and it was really yummy.
Of course Minerva had to go creeping through the vineyard. 😉
We watched another sunset and moon rise over the mountains beyond the winery. It was such a lovely place.
Friday was a very early start as we had a lot of miles to cover, starting with an almost five-hour trek to Royal Gorge. The views along the way were stunning – first we were winding through the Gunnison forest with lush green trees and then we were driving along the river with high rock walls all around.
I’d been to Royal Gorge as a kid and remember a little of the place. It’s a huge tourist attraction with all kinds of different stuff to do. We walked across the suspension bridge that swayed a little too much for my taste and Sean did the zipline over the gorge which he loved. 
In the afternoon, we drive up to Colorado Springs for the night and looked around for places for dinner. We ended up at Colorado Mountain Brewery to try some brews and some bison dishes. Sean’s bison wellington was yummy.
We randomly found a place called Carter Payne when searching for wine bars. When we walked in to the old church, it was like a mini food hall with a microbrewery, two small food stalls/restaurants and the wine bar. It was a really cool place that was definitely for locals. The folks who owned it were super friendly and we had a blast chatting with everyone and trying different drinks.
Saturday was 4th of July and we knew Garden of the Gods would be a popular place but we wanted to sleep in a bit as we were pretty tired from the epic day before. It was a zoo by the time we got there so we drove through and stopped at one or two places for photos, then left. After all the other amazing things we’d seen, this wasn’t as spectacular as sad as that is to write.
We’d noticed an Old West Museum by our hotel and decided to check it out. Again, I love the Old West aesthetic, history, etc. so I was fascinated by the relics, antiques and stories in the museum. This was a worthwhile stop that we both really enjoyed.
And then it was on to Denver, about 90 minutes to the north. Our first stop was the Denver Central Market where we got a pizza and enjoyed it outside before checking out the other stalls in the place. 
We grabbed a beer at Cerebral Brewing but the vibe was really weird and the people were unfortunately pretty rude with bad service so we did not linger.
We had an incredibly challenging time finding our hotel downtown. First, Sean had put the wrong one into the GPS which we realized after a half dozen or so re-routes around one-way streets and then we could not find the entrance to the correct hotel. When we did, the parking garage was very difficult to find and there was no valet because of COVID. I was extremely frustrated and upset, so went for a walk after we checked in to calm down.
I’d used points to upgrade us to a suite at Kimpton Born and it was GORGEOUS. Truly.
Amazing views of Union Station and the city, and easily walkable to everywhere downtown.
We had dinner reservations at Tamayo in Larimer Square, which was decorated for the holiday. The entire area was very festive and we enjoyed margaritas, calamari, tacos, and an excellent steak dish with poblano potato bake on their upstairs patio.
We walked quite a bit after dinner and saw many things still closed due to COVID. We found a wine bar and stopped for a glass before going back to our hotel where we could see firework displays all across the city – it was incredible and a perfect end to our trip.
The flight home was uneventful although the Denver airport was VERY busy, surprisingly. I was BEYOND ready to see my sweet little boy and he loved his moose. All in all, this was an amazing trip that we felt very lucky to be able to do with all the uncertainty this year has brought so far. Although Spain was our original plan, Colorado exceeded our expectations in many ways and reminded us of how much beauty there is in our own country. <3
