Mike's Barbaric Yawp

Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Route 66, Grand Canyon, Navajo National Monument, Monument Valley, Arches National Park, Vail, Rocky Mountain National Park, Denver, Cheyenne, and Greeley Stampede

Planning

This was the third and final major trip that I had planned for 2025. Doing this much travelling was great, but burning all of my allotted vacation time by the beginning of July wasn’t ideal, as I have had to wait a full year before another major trip. It also was a fairly last-minute trip, where we only had about 2 months from when we started looking into the trip to departure…

Heading out west was always something that I’ve wanted to do. My son turned 21 a month earlier, so what better time to have him enjoy his 21st birthday than heading to Las Vegas? Originally we were looking at maybe a Vegas to Salt Lake City trip and hitting all of Utah’s Mighty 5 National Parks (Zion, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Arches, and Capitol Reef). But my son spent some time in the summer of 2024 in Colorado and enjoyed a day in the Rockies and wanted to show us around, so we modified our trip.

In doing a trip from Vegas to Denver, we had a major decision to make. There is so much to do out there, it’s impossible to do it all in one trip. I wanted to pack as much as I could into the four days that we had out there, and it honestly wasn’t enough time. I badly wanted to see Zion and Bryce, but they’ll have to wait for another trip (which I’m hoping happens in 2027 at some point) because a short, one-way trip meant I could do either Zion/Bryce, or Grand Canyon/Monument Valley. It was a very tough choice, but I didn’t feel like taking a trip out west and missing out on the Grand Canyon was really an option…

We chose to fly into Vegas and head east instead of starting in Denver, and the main reason for this was the show schedule at Red Rocks Amphitheater. Having been a ticket broker in a former life (really only about 15-20 years ago), Red Rocks is one of those bucket list venues that one MUST see a show in if that’s your thing. For me, it’s right up there with the famous Hollywood Bowl in LA, Radio City Music Hall in New York, the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and the Royal Albert Hall in London. I still have a few to visit… Sure, we could always just visit Red Rocks, as it’s open every day as a public park, but seeing a show? Priceless. I grabbed tickets to see Blues Traveler on the Fourth of July, which has been a staple at Red Rocks for about 30 years.

I didn’t realize it, but a one-way rental car from Vegas to Denver is EXPENSIVE! It cost about $500 more than it would cost if just picking up and dropping off in Vegas.

So the plan was to use two comped nights at the Vdara for my wife and myself (Friday and Saturday). My son was unable to get Friday off of work, so he had to fly in on Saturday. We got a comped room for him as well. Sunday night we booked a campsite on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Monday night I had booked a campsite (basically a guy’s backyard, lol) in Monument Valley. Tuesday we were camping in Arches. That Wednesday my wife booked an Air BnB in Vail, which was perfect. Showers and Laundry were clutch! Thursday, we camped in Rocky Mountain National Park, and Friday we stayed at a hotel stay booked near Red Rocks. We had never incorporated camping into a trip where we flew into our destination, so there were some logistics to work out. We put tents and blankets into a checked suitcase. It was pretty much the most minimalistic camping I’ve ever done.

Booking Campsites

There was no problem booking a last-minute campsite at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon’s Mather Campground. It’s huge and there were plenty of available spots. In Monument Valley, there are several spots to choose from.

I ultimately decided on Arrowhead Campground, which is basically a Navajo resident’s backyard with 7 sites. Looking at maps, it was the closest campground to the heart of the valley without staying at The View Campground, which didn’t seem as ideal due to the inability to choose a campsite.

Arches National Park and Rocky Mountain National Park were by far the most difficult campsites I have ever booked. (They’re also the most stunning — and CHEAPEST)! Arches only has 51 campsites within the park located in Devils Garden Campground. Since they are the only accommodations located within the National Park, they’re in very high demand. The sites get snatched up 6 months prior, and we were planning this trip in May for a late June/early July date. The best I could do was keep checking the site looking for a cancellation. As a fallback, I was looking into some rustic sites located on BLM land outside of Moab, or the Keyenta Campground at Dead Horse State Park. The bonus for that was that it was in a very dark sky location and was only a few hundred yards from a cliff overlook. The downside was that it was 46 miles from where I wanted to be. Luckily there was a cancellation. With only a few weeks left, I stumbled across an available site. And honestly, while every campsite there is absolutely beautiful and unique, Site 20 in my opinion is the best campsite of the bunch. We certainly lucked out!

There were a few options for camping at Rocky Mountain National Park, but I had decided that Glacier Basin Campground was the place to be. Not only for the scenery, but for the proximity of things we wanted to see. The way reservations there work is this… Most of the campsites are reservable 6 months out. There are a small handful of sites that are held back. Of this group, one set is released two weeks prior, and another is released 1 week prior. Even though searching for cancellations at Arches was nerve-wracking, trying to get a reservation at Glacier Basin reminded me of trying to get U2 tickets at Madison Square Garden. I had a campsite that I really, really wanted. It was released at the 2-week timeframe, and I was unable to get it! Now, it was crunch time! While I only needed one night, since it was so cheap but so difficult to reserve any spot, I made a decision to start looking for multiple nights starting 7 days out, even though we only needed the one night. What I mean is this… We had planned on being there on Wednesday, July 2nd. One week out was June 25th. Campsites are reservable for up to 7 days, so I started looking to book campsites starting on the morning of June 21st for as many nights as I needed to cover the July 2nd. On the second day (the 22nd), I got lucky and was able to grab one of the spots for the 29th. I site D131 booked it for four nights. Shortly before departing on our trip, I altered the reservation and cancelled the first three nights. This worked out VERY well, and I highly recommend anybody to do this if you really need to stay here at the last minute and want several opportunities to snag a campsite that sells out instantly.

Las Vegas

Our trip had a layover in Denver, and due to a flight cancellation, we ended up grabbing a different flight into Vegas. The bad news was that we were arriving later than expected, and I was nervous because I had a 3pm time slot booked for a surprise for my wife… The good news is that it was a plane that was meant to fly somewhere farther and it was already all fueled up. I guess planes need to land safely at a certain weight, so we ended up flying much lower on the second leg into Vegas so that it would use more fuel. We never got above 18,000 feet, so the window seat that I had was amazing! Watching the landscape change was surreal. Never having been out west, every moment looking out the window was surreal. I took plenty of video of things like the Glen Canyon Dam, but I won’t bore you with them here. I will, however, share a clip shortly after landing in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Strip was clearly visible, and the flight attendant’s speech about making wise choices was pretty fun.

Friday Night in Vegas

Everybody I had talked to said that the heat out west was unbearable. Sure, it was about 112F when we walked out of the airport terminal to grab our rental SUV, but I remember my wife and I looking at each other and just shrugging. It wasn’t bad at all. Hot, but not like here on the East Coast where the humidity is thick. The SUV was big, but crappy. I couldn’t even tell you what kind of car it was, but it was definitely beat on, and not something I’d ever buy…

Right behind the airport in Vegas is a Super Walmart. That was our first stop. We bought some cheap camping chairs, sleeping pads, and pillows along with a case of bottled water and some random road snacks.

It was our goal to be as budget-friendly as possible. Meals, like most things in Vegas, are typically very expensive. I thought we’d have lunch in a spot that we’ve always wanted to try, In-n-Out Burger. It was on the way from Walmart to our 3pm appointment. Of course, my wife figured it out. July 4th is our wedding anniversary, so why not renew our vows in our first moments in Vegas at the Little White Wedding Chapel? I had ordered some cheap rings and a veil on Amazon.

By bypassing Las Vegas Blvd on the way to the wedding chapel, it was interesting to get our first glimpses of it that far north. It’s pretty shady up there, with pawn shops and such. Everyone says that the area around the Stratosphere is a little sketchy. I’d have to agree. But the drive south was pretty fun as everything just got bigger and brighter. I had chosen rooms at the Vdara for a few reasons. First, the rooms were free since I spend way more than I’d like at MGM properties… I also had the option of the Bellagio, the Cosmopolitan, and the Aria but my wife didn’t. We needed her comped room for my son, so the Vdara it was! I didn’t want to be farther south in places like the Park MGM or the Excalibur. To me, they’re lesser properties and far from the things that I wanted to see like the Bellagio fountains and the Sphere. Also, I liked the fact that the Vdara doesn’t have it’s own casino. It makes for a quieter experience and the casinos of the Bellagio, and the Cosmopolitan are just a short indoor walk away. I slipped the nice lady at check-in a $20 bill and told her that it was our anniversary (which it kinda was), and she gave us a high-floor fountain view room.

It was getting to be evening, so we hopped in the car and headed over to Freemont Street. People told me that the gambling is much better there, and the entire vibe of Freemont at night is definitely something that needs to be experienced. The gambling sucked, but we had another cheap dinner at Dirt Dog. We then walked the length of Freemont to the Plaza Hotel and Casino where we were just in time for their fireworks! Yes, I love it when a plan comes together perfectly…

Freemont Street. Yeah, I really don’t know what to say about it other than it was crazy. Sure, I’d done my research and thought I knew what I was walking into, but seeing it for myself was mind-blowing. Multiple bands on stages scattered throughout the street. Street performers. Bars with bikini clad women dancing on them. Huge crowds. And if that wasn’t a sensory overload, the LED roof and the zipliners definitely were the icing on the cake.

I blinked and it was almost midnight. We had a long, long day traveling across several time zones, so we headed back to the Vdara and crashed out.

Saturday in Las Vegas

We had a pretty lazy morning. Grabbed Starbucks from downstairs and did a little light gambling. We checked out the botanical gardens at the Bellagio and went had an early lunch at Secret Pizza in the Cosmopolitan. If it’s a place you’d ever like to try, going early is way better than late since there typically is a very long line. I’d put a link, but it’s a secret….

We had to head back to the airport to pick up my son. so that was our next stop. He works second shirt, so he basically got out of work, took a shower, loaded up his car and headed to the airport. He already had a pretty full day, and his day was just getting started (unfortunately for him). He was hungry, so we stopped at another spot we wanted to try, Jack in the Box. They simply don’t exist out by us.

We then checked him in. He was in desperate need of a haircut, and was unable to get an appointment before his flight. So, we booked him a slot at the Barber Shop in the Cosmopolitan, which doubles as a Speakeasy. Look for the janitor’s closet. Definitely not a cheap haircut, but a pretty fun expeience. My wife and I burned through our freeplay while we were waiting for him to get his haircut.

By now, the day was winding down. Not really sure where the time went. We chose to have dinner at the Buffet at the Bellagio. I figured that it would be a good spot for dinner for people who hadn’t gotten much sleep. It was one of our one times to splurge on a meal. Since the Bellagio is pretty much the nicest hotel on the Strip, it must have the best buffet, right? WRONG! We were very dissapointed with it. the Borgata’s buffet in Atlantic City is way better… By now it was night time, and we ended up heading BACK to Freemont Street to not only show my son, but to gamble a little bit more. He really likes Three Card Poker, a casino table game I introduced him to while aboard a cruise. In the Bellagio, table minimums are almost always $25. Freemont Street? $5 to $10 tables. Much more our speed. We walked Freemont and settled in at the Golden Nugget. I held my own and my wife couldn’t lose. My poor son though…. He lost his shirt.

I have absolutely no idea where the time went. Saturday honestly was a complete blur. We stepped out of the Golden Nugget, and it was about 3:30am. My son was a trooper though. As we headed back to the Vdara, we stopped by the Welcome to Vegas sign. Honestly, that was the absolute best time to grab a picture there. 4am on a Sunday morning? absolutely NOBODY there. We had the entire place to ourselves, which is typically not the case at all.

Sunday – From Vegas to the Grand Canyon

We decided to let my son get a few hours of sleep, and we headed out at around 10am. Way later than I wanted to get going, but I was outvoted.

The drive to the Hoover Dam was quick! I knew it wasn’t that far, but wow. It felt like we just got out of the city and there it was! The dam was a pretty quick stop, maybe about a half an hour. After waking my son up who was catching up on sleep in the back, I dropped my wife and him off at the beginning of the dam and drove across it to park for free. (Yeah, I can be pretty cheap). I walked across and met them at the halfway point. Sure, the dam is an impressive engineering feat, but I was saddened to see how low the water was. And it will only get worse as the years go by. Will we ever see it full again?

The drive from the Hoover Dam south to Kingman was probably the most boring part of the entire road trip. There really wasn’t anything to see at all except for a few dust devils. The landscape just didn’t change.

Route 66 from Kingman to Seligman

Even though we got a later start in the day than we wanted, In Kingman, we exited Route 93 and took a detour down Historic Route 66. It’s always fun to see the roadside oddities along the Mother Road, even though it’s a shadow of its former self. Our first stop was the Route 66 Museum, although we didn’t go in. We topped off our gas tank and headed out into rural Route 66. There wasn’t much, but it was surreal imagining what travel was like back in its heyday.

Seligman was what we really wanted to see. From what I understand, it is the town that Radiator Springs is based upon, the fictional town in the Pixar movie Cars. We stopped at various gift shops to shop for our obligatory souvenir pin, and we had lunch at the Roadkill Cafe. It was a decent place to stop. I personally wasn’t terribly hungry, so I grabbed an appetizer while my wife and son had entrees. However, I did make sure that I saved room for dessert. The pie that they serve is pretty much the BEST pie we’ve ever had. They’re made from scratch by “Grandma Betty.” I highly, highly recommend stopping here at least for pie.

We also stopped at Delgadillo’s Snow-Cap for a second round of dessert. It’s a cool, quirky little ice cream shop that has an immense history in Seligman.

From there, we jumped back on I-40. It was easy to imagine Mack falling asleep and Lightning McQueen veering off into Seligman from the interstate. We followed it until we hit the town of Williams, which is where the exit is to head north on 64 to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. I was anxious to see how the landscape changed. We slowly gained elevation, and it seemed that out of nowhere evergreen trees sprouted up and the landscape became wooded (which meant we were pretty much there).

Grand Canyon National Park

Upon entering the National Park, I flashed my America the Beautiful Pass and even though we still had to set up camp, we took a quick detour to Mather Point. I was impatient, and didn’t want to wait to see the legendary view. If you’re planning a trip to multiple National Parks that charge admission, I highly recommend saving a few bucks and grabbing an annual pass.

I had reserved a campsite in Mather Campground. This was by far the easiest campground to reserve a site in, but that’s because there are soo many sites (327)! It was also the least scenic. Located about a half mile from the South Rim, there wasn’t much of a view. After setting up camp, it was getting to be sunset, so we headed over to grab a shuttle bus and head to other viewpoints to catch the sun setting over the canyon.

I didn’t sleep much. I really wanted to grab my tripod and do a night landscape shot with the Milky Way, but there were clouds and I was exhausted. I took a pass on it, and decided to wake up for sunrise instead. I snapped some good pictures, and enjoyed watching the sun slowly take over the landscape below.

After sunrise, we headed back to the campsite to tear it down. We grabbed showers, and headed to breakfast at El Tovar. It’s a pretty upscale hotel and restaurant. This was our one major meal for the day, so we decided to tank up and enjoy ourselves.

Two days after we visited the Grand Canyon, there were some storms and that’s when the North Rim Fire destroyed the lodge there. I’m glad we missed it

After breakfast, we headed east on Desert View Drive (Route 64), stopping at various viewpoints along the way. I wanted to stop at each one and admire the view; I couldn’t get enough of it! However, my family was getting sick virtually the same view, so we ended up skipping a couple of them. The last viewpoint before the exit of the park, Desert View, we never headed to the view, but topped off our gas tank.

Navajo National Monument to Monument Valley

I have to say that the drive east out of the park was absolutely stunning! The landscape changes so drastically, and it was the exact opposite of the entrance from Williams. Immediately after leaving the park, the road descends down. After a significant turn, the road parallels the Little Colorado River and Dead Indian Canyon. Our next stop was Navajo National Monument, about 120 miles from the Grand Canyon. This was my favorite part of the drive. It seemed that every few miles the landscape changed. Each moment just kept getting better and better.

There were other stops that I wanted to make along the way, but time just didn’t permit it. I would have loved to take the trek up to Page and tour the slot canyons and visit Vermillion Cliffs, but that will have to wait for another trip.

Navajo National Monument wasn’t too far off the beaten path, but it seems like it’s a place that is often overlooked. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the ancient cave dwellings. If you’re passing through and have the time, it’s a very good opportunity to stretch your legs, hit a clean bathroom, learn a little history and enjoy a great view.

Monument Valley

By this point, I was anxious to get to Monument Valley and set up camp. It didn’t seem like it was that much farther, and we got to the intersection of Routes 160 and 163 in Kayenta. We topped off the gas tank and continued on. Once the town fades behind you, the first noticeable thing Agathla Peak. It’s an imposing rock towering over the rest of the landscape and is seen for miles.

Once past that landmark, the road starts to slowly descend into Monument Valley. the entrance into the tribal park happens right at the rotary which is just beyond the “Welcome to Utah” sign. I think it’s a great idea to grab a selfie of that sign, since the sign pretty much mirrors the landscape behind it, which makes for a fun composition.

Before we set up camp, we took a left at the rotary and went to Stagecoach Restaurant at Gouldings for dinner. My wife and son both had the fry bread burger, which was enormous. Average to below average food and service, but there really isn’t anything else out there, so it fit the bill.

The campground was easy to find, and as soon as we parked, I was a little concerned about the wind. It was blowing the sand everywhere and I envisioned the fine red powder getting inside the tent and all over everything. For a moment, I contemplated trying to find a room elsewhere, but I was convinced by my family that this was where I wanted to camp, and whatever happens will be a great memory. They ended up being right! It was actually kinda funny trying to set up a tent in a hellacious windstorm as literal tumbleweeds were blowing past us. I know I won’t forget it any time soon

Sunset was fantastic. I was hoping that the wind would die down enough for me to set up my tripod and try my hand at a little astrophotography. There was a quarter moon, so the foreground was very illuminated, and I wasn’t able to catch as many stars as I’d like. Still, it turned out OK for my first real attempt at a milky way picture.

That morning, we tore everything down about as fast as we could, packed up, and headed over to the Visitors Center at the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. We wandered around and looked at the exhibits and gift shop. This gift shop had some very, VERY nice jewelry and blankets. I wasn’t prepared for the cost of them! I had no idea that a blanket could cost that much…

The bathrooms were very useful, as the campsite didn’t have running water and just had outhouses that honestly were a little sketchy.

The view from the visitors center is fantastic, with the iconic East and West Mittens and Merrick Butte

Next up was the scenic drive, which encompases a 17-mile drive on a bumpy, dusty dirt road. The loop takes around 2 hours to do, but I could definitely see it taking longer depending on how long you’d like to stay at each vantage point. One thing I will caution, the Navajo see this as their sacred land. Out of respect, it’s best to follow their instructions regarding walking off-trail or just going out on your own. They discourage it. …and that is smart, because who knows what evil lurks out there in the scrub. Scorpions? Snakes? I don’t even really want to think about it!

There have been a few times where my DJI gimbal has come in handy. This road was very bumpy, but you’d never know! I highly recommend one…

On the way from Monument Valley to Moab, there were a hundred places I wanted to stop at. I mean, we literally drove right by the Valley of the Gods, the Moki Dugway, Mexican Hat, and Goosenecks State Park. All we ended up really having time for was a quick stop at Forest Gump Point for the obligatory selfie.

Moab

When you look at a Google Maps satellite view of Moab, it’s an oasis of green in a sea of orange and red. Again, it was amazing to see the landscape constantly changing every few miles. Moab seems like an outdoorsman’s home. It serves as a launching pad for all sorts of activities. Camping, Rafting, Biking, Hiking, Mountaineering, Canyoneering, Off-roading. You name it.

We stopped for lunch at the Moab Grille for some reasonable comfort food. Again, this was our one main meal for the day… I really wanted to eat at the Twin Rocks Cafe in Bluff, but they are closed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. The surrounding landscape seems pretty cool, and the menu and prices were right up my alley.

Arches National Park

Since we had a campsite reserved, we did not need a timed entry pass to enter Arches. There is only one entry, and only one road in Arches. Traffic can be pretty crazy in the morning, and that’s one of the main benefits of securing one of the few campsites in the park. Once you enter the park, you drive up a set of switchbacks and gain elevation and leave the steep valley. Once over the ridge, the landscape opens up to amazing sandstone towers and structures unlike anything I’ve ever seen. We drove the length of the road, as the Devils Garden area is at the far end of the park. We made sure to quickly stop along all of the main areas like Park Avenue, Balanced Rock, Lower Delicate Arch Viewpoint, Fiery Furnace, Skyline Arch, etc…

We set up camp and went for an evening stroll down the Devils Garden path to see Landscape Arch. It was fairly flat. But it was hot, and we really didn’t want to kill ourselves because we had a pretty intense hike planned for the morning.

Speaking of Skyline Arch, in the campground, there’s one set of bathrooms (which are very close to site 20). Next to the bathrooms is an outdoor amphitheatre, and behind that is the arch. While the arch was hidden behind another rock fin from our site, the first picture in this post is a view of the arch from directly across the road from our campsite taken at sunrise. It was cloudy overnight, and I wanted to take another Milky Way picture with this arch. I set an alarm and woke up several times to check and it was overcast each time. …and that’s a bummer, because when I woke up for sunrise, there really wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It must have cleared up at some point…

So that picture at the top of this post was taken standing along a rock fin. Here’s a photo taken in the opposite direction. The views were endless and amazing, and unlike anything I’d ever seen. I know that I’ve said that a lot here, but I simply do not have the ability to put into words how magnificent everything was.

We tore down our campsite as quickly as we could. We didn’t want it to get too hot. We secured permits to hike the Fiery Furnace, which is an area in the park that has suggestions of a trail and is a labyrinth of fins, pillars, arches, tight spaces, and dead ends. They only issue 60 permits per day, along with a handful of ranger-led guided tour permits. Getting these permits was almost as stressful as booking the campsites, but only almost. They sell out within minutes, and you have to plan to go for them the moment they go onsale. I figured that my fallback hike would have been to actually hike the Delicate Arch Trail. As much as I wanted to see that iconic arch up close, it just wasn’t really in the cards. Maybe next time.

It took us several hours to wander through the maze. We hit several dead ends, and we lost the trail at one point, as it took a really tricky turn that wasn’t marked at all. In fact, we were in the area looking for the way out. Another group of hikers came past us. Then they were GONE. There was no trace of where they went. After about a half hour, we were able to regroup and find the exit.

There are arrows periodically placed strategically into the rocks to show the way of the suggested trail. The purpose of them is to NOT be that obvious and to blend in with the surrounding landscape, so they’re very easily overlooked. There are also trails that have a “Dead End” sign. The key is to keep going when you see those signs. Yes, they are a dead end, but they typically have something pretty neat along the way like an arch.

We ended up coming across a few other groups of people, some of whom were struggling more than we were with getting lost. We helped each other out, even though they tell you in the orientation when obtaining the physical pass to keep quiet and try to keep a distance from other groups, we didn’t. In fact, we had a ranger-led tour catch up to us as well, and we kept close to them for the last third or so of the suggested loop.

It was getting into the afternoon. The sun was blazing, and it was about 100 degrees. We finally made it out. After firing up the A/C in the car, we departed, making one last stop at the entrance and visitors center to grab souvenirs. Our next stop was Colorado.

Vail

Again, the landscape was fun to watch change from the high desert to the actual Rocky Mountains. We didn’t really do anything in Vail, but the Air BnB was much needed. The National Park campgrouns are stunning, but most of them lack shower facilities. Considering the last showers we had were at the Grand Canyon, we were pretty ripe. So a shower, an actual bed, and a washer/dryer was perfect. Kudos to my wife for thinking ahead on this particular stop.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Leaving Vail behind the following morning, we headed over to the west entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park. There were several mountain lakes near the west entrance in the town of Grand Lake, each showing just a little bit more of the Rockies. As we left the town and approached the Gate, we saw a moose.

Rocky Mountain National Park also uses a timed entry system, but there are a few differences. First, if you have a campsite reserved, you don’t need a timed entry as long as you enter in the afternoon during a set time. It was 8:30 in the morning. In planning the trip, I knew that we would be entering the park early in the morning this day, so I picked up a timed entry for 8:30-9am. Truth be told, we almost didn’t make it… And, it was a tough time slot to book. The goal was to meander through the park and get to our campsite in Glacier Basin in the mid afternoon.

The first stop was the Kawunechee Visitors Center. We didn’t spend long here, it was mainly a bathroom stop and we wanted to quickly see if there were any souvenirs that were here that wern’t in the Alpine Visitors Center. My son was here the prrevious year and fell in love with the park. He visited it on a day-trip from Denver and wasn’t really able to spend the kind of time that he wanted. Also, since tour entered in Estes Park and went as far as the Alpine Visitors Center, they never made it to this side of the park.

The next planned stop was a place that I wanted to visit, mainly because of the chance to view wildlife. (Of course, we already saw the moose, so it wasn’t a priority). The other thing that I really wanted to experience was the small mountain stream that the trail followed.

This stream was the Colorado River, about 10 miles from its headwaters. It is very hard to believe that this small stream carved out so much magnificence from the desert southwest. In fact, I wouldn’t have believed it if we didn’t basically follow the Colorado River from the Hoover Dam all the way up to its origin during the course of this trip.

Actually, I’m wrong. Lake Irene was the farthest my son’s tour went, and that was our next stop. We basically just quickly walked down to the water and back from the parking lot. The lake is at about 10,500 feet. Even though we had gradually gained elevation each day since Vegas, we really averaged only about half that. This was the first time I was actually winded.

Next stop was the Alpine Visitors Center, which is the highest National Park visitors center in the country. 11796 feet. They get a lot of snow! In fact, the road (and the visitors center) only opened this year on May 30th. There’s a picture in the entrance showing the building completely buried in snow. (There still was plenty of snow in early July, and a little further down the road we stopped and actually played in some..). We spent quite a bit of time here. We had lunch and did some shopping. They had a pretty expansive collection of Native American art, and I was able to buy some earrings for my wife. They were much, much more reasonable than the crazy ornate ones we saw in Monument Valley.

So it was now after lunch, and we had a little more time to kill before we could check into our site. During the short time that my son was in the park, he ended up hiking the very short Alpine Ridge trail. When he was telling us about his trip, he mentioned how much that short hike kicked his butt, being out of shape and at altitude. I wanted to do a high-altitude hike too, even if it was short. To me, that trail seemed kinda boring. My thought was to take the Ute Trail for as far as we’d like. It was at a similar altitude flatter, less crowded, and actually had a path along the rocks in the tundra, instead of a gravel path.

While driving down Trail Ridge Rd to this trail, we drove past the Toll Memorial Trail, which is very similar to the trail at the Alpine Visitors Center, being gravel, short, and well-maintained. We ended up taking this trail instead, because we noticed a herd of elk about halfway up the trail. Yeah, I wasn’t used to this altitude! This trail was actually about 500 feet higher than the Alpine trail, and I needed to stop several times even though there was less than 200 feet of elevation gain. Yup. I’m a wimp.

We set up camp, which was at about 8500 feet. Then we headed to do another short hike around Bear Lake and Alberta Falls. The area around Bear Lake (and Glacier Basin Campground) is the busiest area of the park. Not only are the entry passes to the National Park timed entry, but seperate timed entry passes are needed to access this area. I wasn’t sure what time we’d end up getting to our campsite. If we were early, I didn’t want to have to hang around and wait for a time, so I bought timed entry tickets much earlier (that I didn’t end up needing). Parking is limited in this area, but there are free shuttles that run constantly. The hike was decent, and we ended up bailing out on the return hike and just took a shuttle to get back to our car. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures during this hike, but I did grab a picture from Sprague Lake, which has a very similar view.

We had a pretty full day of traveling and hiking at elevation, so we all crashed out pretty early. I don’t even remember it getting dark. The cool air was a bonus. We went from being in 100 degree desert to snow. We were all tired and slept like babies.

Cheyenne/Buc-ees/Red Rocks

The more I look back at this day, we packed more into it than I would have thought possible.

We packed up our gear (which we’ve gotten quite good at) and left the campground. We grabbed a quick breakfast in Estes Park at the Stanley Hotel. It would have been great if we could have actually had a sit-down breakfast, but the only thing open as early as we were passing through was a coffee shop in the bottom floor. Still, it was pretty neat seeing this iconic, historic hotel. Reminded me very much of the Mount Washington Omni Hotel in New Hampshire. Different architecture, but still just as grand. It was the hotel that Stephen King’s classic novel The Shining was based upon and also used as a filming location for the movie Dumb and Dumber. It is also reportedly haunted.

Driving out of the Rockies was pretty fun. We took Route 34 from Estes Park to I-25. It’s a winding, twisting road that covers some incredible landscape as it drops down thousands of feet to the high plains north of Denver. We then headed north on I-25 to the Wyoming border, and Cheyenne.

The Wyoming Visitor’s Center, by the way, is FANTASTIC!

The purpose of the stop in Cheyenne was to visit the Big Boy locomotive 4004. I’ve made a few other posts here and here about my son’s quest to see all 8 remaining Big Boys. Cheyenne is also home to Union Pacific’s Steam Program where Big Boy 4014 lives as well as the Cheyenne Depot Museum. The only time 4014 and the steam shop is available to the public is during Depot Days, which is typically the third weekend in May.

We did a lap in the Depot Museum, and it was pretty informative about the railroad history of Cheyenne, and the Union Pacific’s influence on the town. I wanted to explore Cheyenne a little more, and maybe have lunch at the historic Albany and maybe browse through the western store The Wrangler. However, we simply did not have the time.

After visiting 4004, we drove over the Route 85/Central Ave bridge, which is as close as we got to the Steam Shop and 4014. Crazy to know that such history was tucked away in a very unassuming railyard.

We headed back south into Colorado towards Denver, and when I saw a sign for Buc-ee’s on I-25, I figured we had to make the time to stop. Wow! That place is crazy! I topped off my gas tank at what seemed like one of hundreds of pumps. Inside was a sensory overload. I didn’t visit the bathroom (which I hear are outstanding), but we did grab several selections from the wall of nuts, and several BBQ sandwiches to try. The place was insane!

We quickly checked into a hotel near Morrison, and after dropping off our stuff, we jumped back in the car and headed to Red Rocks Amphitheater. As I’ve said, it’s been a bucket-list concert venue for me. Blues Traveler has made it a 30-year tradition to play the venue on the 4th of July (which I didn’t know until planning this trip). The show sells out every year. I’ve seen them once before back in the mid-90’s, so it’s been a while. They still sounded great. The seats we had were perfect. They were close enough to still see the stage clearly, but high up enough that we could enjoy the expansive view. Being the 4th of July, it seemed like everyone in the city below was setting off fireworks. I’ve never seen anything like it. I wasn’t really too concerned about filming a great video, so here’s a low-quality production of the Star-Spangled Banner. I was blown away by the constant fireworks everywhere. This video is an attempt to show it, but isn’t even close to what it was truly like.

I will mention that we parked in a lower lot. The stairs were pretty tough. Yes, I’m out of shape, but it was much more than that. …it was the altitude. Traffic getting out of there wasn’t bad either. Piece of cake! It was unfortunate that it was our last evening on vacation, our flights out were the following afternoon.

Greeley Stampede

For our last day on our trip out west, we checked out of our hotel in Morrison and headed back up past Denver to Greeley CO, where there is a pretty major rodeo called the Greeley Stampede. We have seen a much, much smaller scale rodeo in Lake George, NY, but it’s not really even in the same ballpark. It was a full-on county fair, along with a rodeo during the day, rides, food, etc, and a major concert at night! Now, we couldn’t stay for the concert, but we did see the rodeo. My wife tried rocky mountain oysters. I couldn’t bring myself to do it (they smelled pretty bad). My favorite thing that I saw there was an activity called Mutton Busting, where kids try their hand at riding a sheep bareback for 8 seconds. It is absolutely hysterical to watch, and I wish that local fairs here in New England had something similar.

It seems that the smaller kids had an easier time of it. The heavier they were, the more quickly they slid to the underside of the sheep, where they were apt to get trampled. These were tough kids!

On our way to the Denver airport to catch our flight home, we had about 2 hours to kill. My son had commented that he saw everything that he wanted to see, with the exception of a bison. So I figured we had the time, so I googled a bison farm when in the car and set the GPS. It wasn’t far out of the way! The bad news, is that once we got there, we quickly realized it wasn’t a bison farm. …it was a meat packing company! Whoops!

What worked out perfectly was that we were now off the highway, and the best way to get to the airport was to cut through the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. They have an auto-tour which was perfect! He not only saw his bison, but we also saw about a million prarie dogs.

We cut it pretty short, but we had just enough time to drop off our crappy rental, check in at the terminal, and catch our red-eye flight home. We had a connection in Baltimore, and we didn’t arrive back in New England until daybreak the following day.

The main memory I have from that morning is stepping out of the airport terminal and being smacked in the face by the humidity at 8am. It was awful! Even when comparing it to camping for several days in the desert southwest in 100+ heat, it was pretty bad.

Looking back on the trip, I realize that we barely scratched the surface of things to do in Vegas. I also like to visit Death Valley, Valley of Fire State Park, Zion, Bryce, and Canyonlands National Parks. Maybe even Page AZ too! We’ve got way too much planned for this year, but it’s my hope that 2027 will see us out west again!