Colorado 4: More Time in Durango

 The next morning we got up early and drove to the place where you can stand in 4 states at once, which was a major attraction for the kids. They also both bought some reasonably priced Native American Jewellery. Then we returned to Durango for the afternoon to enjoy the motel pool and get some food in town, stopping only to check out the Canyon of the Ancients National Monument, where the kids were able to pick up another badge. 

At the time we drove past this, it was the funniest thing Bluet had ever seen.

Hi, we're in New Mexico and Colorado and Arizona and Utah. Where are you?

Ilona wearing her Native American jewellery while eating a sandwich and completing the workbook to get the National Monument badge.

Colorado 3: On the road to Durango

Up early the next morning, we hit the road for Durango, where we were going to spend the next two nights. On our way we spotted a waterfall off the side of the road where everyone else seemed to be stopping, so we stopped too. It was worth it. After checking out our hotel, we drove onwards to our first National Park of the trip - Mesa Verde. The national park service has instituted an excellent programme where kids can fill in a work book and get inducted as junior rangers, which means they get a rather nice badge. It's great, as it means the kids want to visit as many national parks and monuments as possible, which is exactly what the adults want too. Mesa Verde is a very interesting one - lots of old dwellings up in the mountains to look at, whole palaces even. Sadly you can't go in any of them at the moment, but it was still very cool. Then we went back to the hotel and used the swimming pool.  

Colorado 2: Denver to Salida

After our friends boarded the plane en route to Redding we drove past the house I used to live in in 1979, then visited the Armoury National Nature Reserve on the outskirts of Denver, where we were supposed to be able to see Bison. Instead we saw a pelican, some deer and lots and lots of prairie dogs, which were admittedly very cute. We then drove for a couple of hours west to the town of Salida where we spent the night in a motel that appears to have been given a recent makeover by some hipsters. It was pretty cool and had a hot tub, that made the kids happy. We picked up some food to make a picnic for the next day, and some microwavable dinner to take advantage of the Motel's facilities. And the girls got hats and sunglasses. Then we got to go in the hot tub at the motel. Oh, and I hit on the brilliant plan of offering them ice cream every day as long as they walked for at least two miles. It worked perfectly

Colorado 1: Denver, Boulder and Red Rocks

At the end of July I took Bluet and Ilona to Colorado for a week. In previous years I've taken them to the UK to see my family, but obviously that wasn't possible this year. I wanted to take them somewhere, but there are so many places to see in the US, it was hard to choose. I needed a reason. But as I lived in Denver for a year when I was 4, I thought that Colorado would be a great place to visit again. The first two nights we were there it turns out our friends and neighbours from just down the street were also in Denver so we hung out with them, visiting Boulder, where we saw a street magician, and Red Rocks, a concert venue where U2 recorded a live album back in the 1980s, which I bet is the primary reason any Europeans have heard of it. It's pretty spectacular, but nothing compared to the various large rocks we would see over the next few days.  

This was our little car that got us through all our Colorado adventures.

It was very hot, but a nice dry heat, rather than the humidity of the east coast. And by very hot, I mean around 30C

This is in Denver near Union Station

And this is the street magician we saw in Boulder