A few years back, when we were still living in Illinois, we set off on our first trip sans-kids. We had a week of time while the kids and dogs were with Oma and Papa, so we packed the truck, set our alarms for 1am, and aimed the GPS at Colorado. In the dark of night we woke and drove, headed West.
The itinerary was set – three days in Manitou Springs, one night camping at the hot springs outside of Steamboat, and three nights in Boulder.
These posts are the story of that trip in pictures.
After three nights in Manitou Springs, we had a delicious breakfast, stopped off at Ivywild Brewery to check things out, and then headed up towards Woodland Park to start our drive up to Steamboat for our night camping at the hot springs.
The drive took us about four and a half hours, navigating through small mountain towns and some of the most beautiful scenery. The drive was breathtaking, and we stopped a few times just to take it all in. This was unfamiliar territory for me, having never been this far west, and I didn’t want to miss a moment of it.
With the sun dipping below the mountains, we approached Steamboat springs, tired but excited for a relaxing soak. We wound through town, up and out a narrow road that would end at the Strawberry Park Hot Springs parking lot. We were checked in at the gate/truck and were ready to get soaking.
But first we had to get our tent setup, which was an interesting challenge.
We were in campsite 4, at the bottom of the hill next to the creek. We unloaded the tent and our important gear and hauled it down the steep hill to our spot to get things in place before it the darkness engulfed us.
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