Our latest adventure was our family trip to Evergreen, Colorado.
The Car Ride There
We left at one o’ clock in the morning from Pampa, Texas. We piled the dogs, our daughter, and all of our belonging to hit the road. My husband likes to begin a long drive at night, especially when we take our daughter AND the dogs. The pups are pretty well trained not to need the restroom at night, and the same goes for our daughter! 🙂 It also saves a bit of time and money from snacks and drinks as well as we are able to speed through the night. My husband is such a trooper! He made the whole drive himself, so everyone else got a good night sleep and woke up to the beauty and majesty of Colorado.
Changing Plans…
So, we originally planned our trip to Colorado with the intention of hiking, fishing, and climbing mountains. We brought all our fly fishing rods and reels, gear, waders, and bait. We spent months leading up to our trip making our own flies to use for trout and fresh-water fish. So…when it snowed 18 inches the night before our drive up to Colorado…we were a little thrown off our game. However, we made do with some new activities and discoveries!
Winter Vacation It Is!
We arrived early in the morning in Evergreen. We decided to stay at Bear Creek Cabins, as it was less than a mile from Evergreen Lake. We had originally planned to do a whole bunch of fishing! But the lakes were frozen and the fates decided fishing wasn’t meant to be this trip…so the first thing we did was find a little park that the doggies and our daughter (who has NEVER experienced a real snow) could run around and let loose. After an 8 hour car drive…everybody needed a break from the car ride.
Everybody seemed to really enjoy rummaging around in the snow, even in our pajamas. Falling in the snow, even losing my car keys and phone out of my pockets for a brief moment, didn’t damper our time in the snow! Bringing a quick set of dry clothes that was easy to reach in the trunk of the car, ended up being the smartest decision we made that day!
Our cabin wasn’t ready until 3:00pm so we made our own little snack and continued playing in the snow and then drove around to explore the area.
Evergreen, Colorado is definitely a “touristy-not touristy” place, and we loved it! Though there is heavy traffic coming through and around Evergreen, it is close enough to get just about anywhere you would want to go in Colorado, but off the beaten track that you avoid most of the tourist traps.
Day 1: Winter Vacation
After we arrived and played in the snow, we checked into our cabin at BEAR CREEK CABINS. This ended up being one of the most incredible stays we have ever enjoyed! The caretakers were incredibly accommodating and wonderfully kind. They took care of every need.
The cabin we booked was part of a duplex system. We had a view of the creek that babbles through the property, plenty of room for the pups to do their business and run around, a grill outside that my husband was OBSESSED with! It was an Oklahoma Joe grill, so…go figure! We used that grill the first night to grill some chicken drumsticks, and it worked fabulously.
The room inside the cabin was one big family room with a small bathroom off to the side. The kitchen came fully equipped, with dishes, pans, pots, soap, utensils, plates, kitchen towels, potholders, and glasses. All I needed was a few spices and ingredients to feel like I was home! The rest of the home featured a queen size bed and a twin size bed. James and I, of course, took the queen while our daughter took the twin sized bed. There was plenty of outlets, a TV with a TON of channels (though we hardly had it on), room for TWO dog kennels, drawers to put clothes from suitcases, ample closet space, a table that expanded to fit four people, and our favorite….INDOOR FIRE PIT!
We spent the majority of this day settling in. We played with the dogs, ran to Walmart to get some cooking essentials, made a hot meal, and enjoyed the fire. After a long day in the car, it was nice to finally get some rest and stretch our legs!
Day 2: Winter Vacation
We began our morning by having breakfast at the cabin and then heading out to The Blue Quill Angler fly shop. They had an incredible selection for all things fly-tying and fly fishing, not to mention the fly rod and reel I needed to fly fish this season. I am still a novice in fly fishing, especially in freshwater, but the few experiences I have had learning how to fly fish, convinced our family that it was worth the investment. I bought the Sage Foundation Outfit in a six weight. This size was perfect because it offered me the greatest variety of fishing for where we live: trout, bass, panfish, crappie, perch. I was very excited to try it out! The Fly Shop was incredibly helpful and accommodating. They dressed my reel for me and got my outfit completely set up to me needs (I’m a lefty). I also admired and couldn’t help playing in their HUGE selection of fly fishing gear. James got a pair of sunglasses that he loved…its been nearly a month and he is STILL raving about them. We also got some bead heads for fly-tying (their prices were fantastic!) as well as some clippers for our daughter’s pack. All three of us fish with Orvis Fly-Fishing Sling Packs. We love them!
After we finished getting all our gear set up, we headed to Elk Meadow Park to play with the puppies, wear them out, and hopefully see some elk! Though we didn’t see any elk at the park, we saw bunches of them on the way! We trampled around in the snow, fell down, got pulled by the doggies, and had a blast!
After our big snow adventure, we decided to try a small chain called Illegal Burger for a bite to eat. We were quickly obsessed… especially our daughter. The moment we finished our meal, she was begging to come back before we headed back home to Texas. Though it may not seem like it, this was exceptional praise from our picky little eater. Their truffle fries and illegal sauce were the highlights of our meal!
We then tried to fish the stream at Bear O Lair Park, but the snow was a lot to trample through so we headed back home to make some dinner, run the pups, and enjoy some hot chocolate!
Day 3: Winter Vacation
We began our day with breakfast out! We went to The Bagelry for a yummy breakfast! I got a bagel breakfast sandwich that tasted amazing! James and our daughter opted for the solid traditional choice of a bagel with cream cheese. It was delicious and we definitely wanted to return before we headed back to Texas. Because our trip didn’t fully pan out like we planned, we decided to try something new! I had gone tubing before but James and our daughter hadn’t experienced something like that before. I made online reservations at Colorado Adventure Park. I printed out the tickets and filled out all the liability forms online before we got there. This ended up saving a lot of time and energy once we arrived. Colorado Adventure Park was about an hour and half away from Evergreen, CO. Though this may seem like a long drive, us native Houstonians, didn’t bat an eye. We checked the weather and made the sure the park was up and running before we left! Which was a good idea too; as we drove up the mountain, the weather got colder (of course) and worse. Once we got to our destination, however, the weather was beautiful and we were ready to begin our new adventure!
Tubing was a BLAST! You generally get an hour’s worth of time to head up the ski lift and down the slide, but we paid a little extra to get two hours. Though James and I were about done after an hour, our daughter soaked up every minute of the full two hours. The slides were much more exciting and intense than anything I have ever experienced before. Our daughter was ten years old and she had a blast going down the “most difficult” slide. The biggest advice I can give is not to wear a hat! I lost mine, and my husband had to do the walk of shame up the base of the hill to give me my hat back! 😀 We definitely want to do this again soon!
Day 4: Winter Vacation
James woke up with a massive headache and a hurt back (from tubing-we’re not so young anymore lol), so my daughter and I took on the Rocky Mountain National Park ourselves. It was quite an adventure…quite an adventure… One tip to all those who want to drive through the park and play in the “mini-parks” within the property, CALL THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK BEFORE YOU DRIVE THERE! Do not trust websites. Before we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park, I checked the website for road closures, but didn’t see any listed online. So my daughter and I took off like a rocket and didn’t think twice about it. After a two hour drive to the Rocky Mountain National Park, we found ourselves completely enraptured in road closure after road closure. No matter what road we took, it was shut down at one place or another…it took several hours to navigate ourselves in and out of the park. Be sure to take an extra map from the park rangers because there is NO CELL SERVICE in the mountains. Though that is something we all tend to know in the back of our heads, it can also catch us off guard, like it did me. Oops! We found our way out of there eventually and stopped for snacks. Though we did get lost, and couldn’t complete the scenic drives we had planned, we still got some pretty amazing photos and ended up having a fun adventure together!
Day 5: Winter Vacation
Our last day in Colorado was spent enjoying a really unique find, right outside of Denver. It’s called The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, CO. This place was really neat and something that none of us have ever experienced before. It is similar to a zoo and at the same time, nothing like a zoo. They have an elevated walkway that is above the nearly 800 acres of open habitats. You walk along the mile and a half walkway and view the animals. The animals are in separate habitats but can come and go from view as they please. You might see a bunch of them, or you may not see them at all, but we were fortunate enough to get to see most of them. They start you off inside their facility, watching a video that explains their message and the duty they feel towards their animals. They rescue them from horrible conditions, fix them up, and then give them a home and a family to be apart of. Paying for the ticket, along with a donation (required, but any amount will due; even five dollars), makes you feel like you’re contributing to something greater than yourself. We all walked along the walkway and saw so many animals: tigers, lions, bear cubs, grizzly bears, cougars, mountain lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, wolves, foxes, lynx, emus, alpacas, yaks, camels, donkeys, ostriches. It was incredible! On the walkway it was a little breezy and cool so we were glad that we bundled up a bit and made sure our glasses and hats didn’t fly away (again :D).
Coming to a Close:
We loved our trip to Evergreen, Colorado. We immediately want to return and do everything again! It was that good! After our trip to the sanctuary, we headed back to our little cabin, packed up, and then headed back to Pampa, Texas. We loved our time together and loved every moment. Though this trip was not exactly what we had planned, it ended up being exactly what we needed. A little nature, a lot of fun, and one incredible adventure.
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