hats & jewels: Where We Went...What We Did...Part 1

As promised, this is my first blog post about where we went on the first half of vacay and my synopsis of each. The second half will come soon. If anyone is planning a Colorado trip, this info may be helpful!

I have 3 kiddos, so I tried to be prepared ahead of time, in terms of trip-planning. I had an itinerary, hotel reservations, mileage and driving time from place to place, and printed information about each place we were going to. All of this info I put in a 3 ring binder to keep handy in the mini-van. I also put empty sheet protectors in my binder to add any pamphlets, ticket stubs, or other memorabilia from the trip. This way it's all in one place! (Of course, with the fires in Colorado Springs, we had to re-vamp everything at the last minute, but we did it!) Our final itinerary looked like this:

Saturday, June 30^th-Leave for Durango/Arrive in Durango
***Albuquerque to Durango: 3 hours 42 minutes (215 miles)

Sunday, July 1^st- Leave Durango/Drive through Silverton & Ouray, Arrive in Rifle, CO

***Durango to Ouray: 1 hour 49 minutes (71 miles)

***Ouray to Rifle, CO: 3 hours 6 minutes (178 miles)

Monday, July 2^nd- Glenwood Springs Caverns
***$22.00/adults $18.00/kids

Tuesday, July 3^rd-Hike in Rifle Falls, CO. and Cave Exploring
***$7.00 for 1 Day State Park Pass

Wednesday, July 4^th-Leave Glenwood Springs/Drive to Denver: 2 hours 51 minutes (157 miles)

Thursday, July 5^th-Denver Aquarium/Casa Bonita

***Aquarium info: $16.99/adults $9.99/kids

***Mermaids: 10 am-3pm every 15 minutes/ Parking: $7.00 per vehicle

Friday, July 6^th-Leave Denver/Drive to Pagosa Springs: 5 hours 25 minutes (277 miles)
***Walk the San Juan River--natural hot springs are along the trail.

Saturday, July 7^th-Leave Pagosa Springs: Drive back to Albuquerque

***Pagosa Springs to Albuquerque: 4 hours (214 miles)

MY NOTES ABOUT EACH PLACE:

1. Durango-Beautiful city! We ate lunch at a park and took a walk along the Animas River. We did not ride the Durango/Silverton train for cost reasons, however, it is something we would LOVE to do, eventually. There is free Trolley service in and near the downtown area. Durango's downtown area has sweet little shops with lots of fun things to look at. We also hung out at the train station and got to see one of the trains come into the station.

2. From Durango we drove through Silverton and Ouray. This drive has incredible views!!!

Be on the lookout for rivers and waterfalls along the way. They're fun stops. We stopped at a really neat yellow river (from oxidation) that wasn't even marked along the road. The kids had a great time exploring and playing in the water.

Silverton is a very small community. There is a small downtown area, but the highlight was watcing another train come into the station. Very fun!

The drive to Ouray has a stretch named "The Million Dollar Highway". There are various theories as to why it's called The Million Dollar Highway that you can read about HERE if you're interested. This drive can be a bit scary...hairpin turns and often, no guardrails. But it's an absolutely gorgeous drive! Take your time and do it if you can! Ouray is another quaint city with beautiful views along the way.

While in Ouray, we went to Cascade Falls. It's free to take the hike, which is steep at times, but not arduous. When we reached the falls, the kids climbed and explored for quite awhile.

3. After driving through Silverton and Ouray, we spent a few days in Rifle, CO, which is about 20 miles from Glenwood Springs. We had originally planned to go to the hot springs pools in Glenwood Springs, but when it's 95 degrees outside and the hot springs pools are 90-104 degrees, it didn't sound so relaxing.

We did go to the Glenwood Springs Caverns. SUPER FUN! To get my kids excited about caves ahead of time, I had them watch "Journey Into Amazing Caves". It's an educational IMAX movie and free on Netflix! I use it when teaching Science--it's informative and interesting for kids! There are a couple of different tours your can take. We did the more "Family Friendly" one. It starts with a tram ride up to the top of the mountain where there is a mini-amusement park. You can pay for all-day ride passes, but we just did the cave tour. It's a little over an hour long and goes into 2 seperate cave areas. Even my 3 year old was able to keep up on this tour.

We heard about a neat hike from a local lady, and since we decided not to go to the hot springs pools, we did this instead. Rifle Falls has 3 beautiful waterfalls side-by-side. You can hike all around them, up the sides, behind them, and above to see where they begin. There are caves all along the path. Luckily, the local told us to bring flashlights, and we are so glad she did! Some of the caves had cracks only big enough for my kids to fit through, but they thought it was cool to go in by themselves anyways. :)