Visiting Grand Mesa National Forest

Rounding up the last two legs of our Colorado roadtrip with mountain views. While we were in Grand Junction, visiting Grand Mesa National Forest was on Keith’s list because fishing is his favorite thing. It was about an hour drive up to the mountain but the views were totally worth it. We stopped at the visitor center so Keith could get the details on bait and such and headed to the Mesa Lakes section.

As you can see the views were amazing. The first day we headed up it was about 35 degrees and Carly and I were totally unprepared! We bundled up the best we could and did a little hike around the lakes while Keith posted up to fish.

We headed up a second day which was much warmer and Dillon was able to join us. One of the families from Dillon’s team was actually staying in a cabin up on the mountain and we stopped for a visit. The sunset over the mountains was spectacular.

After driving the 17 hours straight through from College Station to Grand Junction at the beginning of our trip, we knew we wanted to break it up on the way back home. On our last morning we headed over to Colorado Springs and decided to take the Cog Railway up to Pikes Peak.

We first stopped for lunch at Lazy Dogs which we did not realize was a chain with a couple of locations in Texas. Typically when we are traveling I try to find local restaurants to check out but we were not sad with this find! Everything was delicious.

We opted to take the Cog Railway instead of driving mainly because Carly gets a little car sick and Keith really likes to look around alot and I was just not up for the nervous ride to the top! In the end we really enjoyed the ride and the little tidbits the tour guide shared along the way.

These mountains below are what inspired the author writing America the Beautiful to use purple mountains majesty as part of the lyrics. It was a little hazy the day we visited due to some fires but also as we reached the top it was snowing a ton. Still, the views were incredible!

Temperatures at the top are about 30 degrees cooler than the base of Pikes Peak so just note that if you visit. You also must grab the cinammon sugar donuts at the visitor center! I don’t know if it was just becuase we were so cold or what but these donuts along with some hot chocolate seemed like the best thing ever!

This was the only day I feel like we ate two really full meals which was crazy since it was our least physically active day. We could not resist after I found this cute little italian restauant, Paravicini’s in historic old town Colorado Springs. The restaurant was charming, the food delicious and the staff so friendly. I’m also determined to find this wine!

It was really nice to get away from the Texas heat and spend some time exploring Colorado. I definitely think we would love to go back again for more hiking or maybe even a ski trip. Grand Junction was such a surprise and had so much to offer and we are so glad we made the side trip to Arches National Park.

Now it’s time to start planning our next adventure! I’m reallly hoping to head somewhere this fall but our next really big trip will not be untill Spring Break when Carly’s drill team is going to Hawaii. Crazy, I know, but they are and Keith and I are here for it.

Where are you traveling this summer?