I track all of our travel spend in an app called Trabee. I started by naming everything by theme or location, but when we started duplicating states I decided to give them more creative names. This trip became “Escape from Quarantine.” And how accurate that was.
After being sick and our roadtrip disaster from Florida I went into hibernation. I remember finally feeling better the first week of March. We essentially did a month of lockdown before the lockdown. We had trips planned for March, April and May and I was already getting stir crazy. Then, on Adam’s birthday, the world changed. Everything was cancelled, closed and seeming very scary and uncertain. Our Colorado flight that was originally planned for the middle/end of April wasn’t going to happen. Each county in Colorado had its own rules and most things were not open. Southwest was great and let us push it back a month, and then another 2 weeks. I was certain I was going to have to push it back again, but on May 30th restrictions started to lift. After essentially 4 months of lockdown we were ready to distance socially in different scenery. What was a better place to spend time alone than the mountains and desert.
This trip was unique for so many reasons. Coming from an area that was hit so hard by the pandemic so early, our travels in 2020 exposed us to how communities were experiencing it differently based on geography, population and regulation. It also left us in essentially empty national parks that would fill up to record numbers in the following months. The airport was a ghost town, middle seats were reserved, no one yelled at me when I took my mask off to avoid puking in it on the rough DEN landing. It was the dawn of a different era of travel.
Rocky Mountain National Park
When we visited Colorado in Spring 2019 for a working vacation we visited the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park. There was still so much snow that Trail Ridge Rd through the park was very closed, even after Memorial Day. This also caused all the lake level to be extremely low on that trip. This time I was determined to make it to 12,183 feet.
A storm had blown through a few days before we left and of course Trail Ridge Rd was shut down. I had made a couple alternative routes if we couldn’t make it through to Granby but was crossing my fingers for a miracle. After a very rough landing, the first thing I did was pull up the Rocky Mountain NP Twitter and hold my breath. It was open! Just 16 minutes before they had opened the entire length through to Grand Lake.
The park required timed entry before 4p so the plan was to uber to our off site rental car and take our time driving through Estes Park. Except the car rental location we scheduled with on TripAdvisor didn’t exist any more. It had closed for renovations. I had received confirmation calls from Enterprise and not once did they mention their address or a location change. It seems it was switched on the back end without telling me. We had booked a return hotel nearby for its airport shuttle and would have to make a new plan after calling another uber.
The car finally picked up, we were short an hour and would be racing the daylight to make it to the highest point on the road. I wanted so badly to stop in Estes Park. The claim to fame for the couple minutes we did stop was getting attacked by chipmunks, angry the world had been shut down and no one was bringing them food. Although we didn’t have time to do any of the hikes I wanted to do on that side of the park, we finally drove it and wow was it amazing. It felt like being on top of the world. I learned what a marmot is and watched them play on the paths. And then descended to meet up with the farthest point we had made it to the year before. Except this time all the snow was melted. One year and 10 days apart the difference was incredible.
We stayed the night in an Airbnb in our favorite Colorado mountain town, Granby, and made a stop at the City Market (Kroger) for food. It felt like a familiar home.
Aspen
The next morning we woke up with the goal of making it to Aspen. We had decided on a hotel in Snowmass Village and had bought timed ticket for Maroon Bells the following day. I decided to follow the strange looking route Google suggested (which usually leads to me apologizing for going down some sketchy dirt road/not a road/isolated area). After much protest this particular road turned out to be the perfect idea. It had wonderful gorge views and cut time off our drive. I then got my first experience on I-70 driving into Glenwood Springs and Adam got his first meal dining out in 3 months.
After arriving in Aspen we took our first hike! Even though it had been 4 months since being sick, I was really worried I wasn’t going to be able to hang at the high elevation. I struggled moving across the house sometimes or had to stop doing all those fun, free at home workouts everyone was doing at the beginning of lockdown because I was too winded. And although it was hard, I did it! The hike gave us interesting views and terrain on the way up and sweeping views of Aspen at the top and on the way down.
Snowmass Village turned out to be a hard place to be in the midst of a pandemic and the spring/summer no less. Any open restaurants didn’t start dinner until late so we opted for pizza, a go to when we need road meals the next day.
Maroon Bells was worth the hype! To just see the first lake and walk around it is very accessible and close to the parking lot. We decided to hike a littler farther to a Crater Lake. We saw no one for the first hour of our hike. It was perfect and relaxing with great views the entire time.
When our time slot came to an end we started the incredible drive from Carbondale to Delta on Highway 133 through McClure Pass We ended up so high above the river and start of the highway that we were too nervous to stop and take any pictures. It was windy! Definitely rivaled some of our travel in New Zealand for coolest drive. Oh and I had the best tacos ever in Delta!
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Since we had gotten an early jump on the day with our hiking reservation we decided the fun shouldn’t stop. We dropped our groceries off at the Airbnb and made our way to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. A park that sees fewer visitors a year than most, we were interested in what it had to offer. Especially after just having visited the Grand Canyon 6 months prior. The two canyons are very different and cool to compare. We didn’t do any hikes, but stopped at every lookout and even drove down to the river, which made for a stressful drive down switchbacks.
We decided to use Montrose as our base for a couple nights. After 2 days of go go go, slowing down was needed. Or at least as much as we slow down. Having done Black Canyon the day before we decided to sleep in and check out Ouray, Box Canyon Falls and a small section of the Million Dollar Highway. I was immediately in love with the feel of the mountain town. Box Canyon Falls was 100% worth the money to do once. I can’t wait to go back and drive the whole Million Dollar Highway some day and explore Telluride on the other side of the mountains.
Moab
After our “chill” day we were up with the sun and off to Utah and Arches National Park. Moab was starkly different from the lush green place we had just come from. We had originally wanted to make this trip in April or May before it got too hot in Utah, but since circumstance put us there in June this turned into a hot day. We opted not to do the delicate arch hike because of the heat and mostly drove around to the different lookouts and points of interest. While there were others there, I was amazed by all the opportunities for pictures with no one in them but us. We did decide to do one short hike later in the day that just ended up with sand whipping in our faces.
We stayed at one of the best Hyatt points redemptions you can get. The Hyatt Place Moab was, until March 2022, a category 2. Meaning it cost 8,000 points a night to stay. This usually equates to a $120-150 hotel room. When I originally booked for April it was around $350 a night if paid in cash. It felt like being at a resort. Beautiful pool and hot tub right up again red rock cliffs. Definitely my favorite Hyatt to date. After taking a dip it was time for dinner. Moab offers a lot of different options for food for being so remote. We opted for some delicious Thai food.
Day 2 in Moab we spent the morning in Canyonlands National Park to beat the heat. I was shocked to find out that Canyonlands, located nearly across the street from Arches, sees HALF the amount of visitors. 1.8 Million visitors to Arches in 2021, 900 thousand to Canyonlands. The only excuse I could see to not visit both is the price. Annual Passes are $80 and individual parks are $30 a day. Both are amazing parks. We visited 16 National Parks with our 1 year pass.
One thing I will say about hiking in places like Canyonlands in the desert is there are no trees or dirt to mark a path. Most are marked by cairns (rock sculptures) and spray paint. We ended up going the wrong way many times, so stay vigilant.
I spent the rest of the day living my best life eating left over pad thai, a slurpee, watching Guys Grocery Games and ordering Italian takeout. Our last day in Moab I took full advantage of our checkout time and sat by the pool in the sun reading. We had one of the most desolate 2.5 hour drives ahead of us.
Capitol Reef
Located in basically the middle of nowhere when coming from the East is Capitol Reef National Park. It really is an oasis in the middle of the desert. It stuck out to me that there was an orchard near the visitor center. We were also able to drive through a gorge to the Capitol Gorge trailhead which was really unique. It was the first time I really pictured people migrating across the plains to the west. Inside the gorge were carvings called the Pioneer Register. Mostly names and dates of those that passed through the shelter of the gorge on their travels.
We stayed at a great hotel in Torrey, which was the perfect spot to go back and forth from the park. It didn’t even cost $75 for the night, which is crazy. I just couldn’t believe the views we had out our window. This was the first place we went where you wouldn’t have known there was a pandemic going on. No plexiglass, no masks on employees. And you really felt for all the business that hadn’t been touched by the virus at all at that point, but had been shutdown or without visitors for months.
The next day we took two great hikes before making our way back to Colorado. Who says Arches NP is the only place to see arches? We had our first run in with what is still pretty common when on the road, closed fast food and fast casual dining rooms. We ate our Noodles and Company from the car and checked in at one of the highest rated Red Roof Inns in the country. Whatever that means lol It was clean, but this was the first time I felt uncomfortable during one of our stays on this trip. I decided I would be much more comfortable staying in Airbnbs on future trips.
Last Day
Unfortunately our trip was coming to a close. Luckily, after complaining on social media and sitting in the chat with Tripadvisor for hours I got an Enterprise rep to call back and waive the fee to return the car to the airport. This gave us the peace of mind to book the Hyatt we wanted to stay at and not worry about having time to drop the car off in the morning.
Our last full day we took advantage of the sights along our drive to Denver. We stopped in Vail and dreamed about never going home. We also got to spend a wonderful dinner with family. Even this introvert was ready for some people time. It was definitely a last day that left my heart and belly full.
Final Thoughts
This trip, like any in 2020, was very hap-hazardly planned and executed last minute. Definitely a new style of travel for us as I typically like everything to be planned out before we go. Hotels were booked the day before, plans were changed and it was still a wonderful time. I’ve tried to take this lesson to heart now that things are a little more stable.
Cost Breakdown
10 Days, 9 Nights
Chase Pay Yourself Back rocks! By being able to book hotels directly or on 3rd party site like travelocity, I was able to not only save on rates that were higher in the Chase Travel portal, but also get $12.49 cash back from Rakuten.
