Last summer we went to Boulder, CO for a week. Flying into Denver we rented a car at the air port and drove ourselves to our Boulder Hotel. We have been wanting to get to the Colorado Rocky Mountains for some time now and finally were able to get the plan and action together in the same place and go.
We were staying there for a week and just plan on driving around and seeing the area while we were there. Boulder sets adjacent to several forest lands: Arapho National Forest, Rocky Mountain National Park and the Roosevelt National Forest as well as some state and regional parks and forests. Lots of areas to explore and discover. Loving the mountains and forests we were looking forward to simply driving around and exploring the mountains were enough of a plan for us.
One morning we headed out early after a light breakfast for a drive toward the north. We got onto some back roads to Estes Park , a small town in the Rocky Mountain National Forest. Nestled in a valley high in the mountains it was like being in the Alps or something. A very beautiful and friendly place with alpine looking shops and homes all around. We ended up there about lunch time so we got something to eat and did a little looking around. There were a lot of little shops geared to tourists and I think we stopped in just about every one of them the short time we were there. After finishing up in Estes Park we continued on driving and exploring.
Taking back roads we ended up in Fort Collins as we came back out of the mountains. It was getting to be evening when we arrived in Fort Collins so we thought we had better get some dinner and start heading back south to Boulder to our room, get a good nights sleep and head out again in the morning.