travel diaries | colorado video

travel diaries | colorado part three

Our last full day was Friday and we chose to spend it exploring around Vail. First we headed to the gondola to go to the top of Vail mountain and see all the summer activities they had going on.

10,000 ft was a little chilly but the views were gorgeous and we enjoyed walking around a bit.

We decided to ride the gondola back down, do lunch and souvenir shopping in the villages and then ride the other gondola to the top of the other mountain in the Vail resort.

I was sooo hoping to see a moose on this trip and told Beau I would bring him one back. We found a fun stuffed moose in the village that made moose noises and he sleeps with "Mr. Moose" every night now. I had to take this picture for him, too!

After exploring both villages in Vail, we headed up to Piney River Ranch, just 8 miles from our hotel, but a solid 50 minute drive. The first 5 minutes were on normal roads but it was a full 45 minutes in on a gravel road to get to the trailhead! It was beautiful, though! We had heard that this area had the best chance of spotting moose, and it was closing in just 3 days for winter!

We did about an hour and a half hike into the area before we came back to the trailhead to try and spot moose close to dusk.

Sadly, there were no moose sightings but we really enjoyed this location! We headed back to the hotel and got ready for our last dinner before heading home.

We headed to Fall Line, such a cute little place in Vail village! We ended up with mac and cheese as an appetizer (SOOOO good) and this delicious steak with  a wedge salad. It looks like Mark got a lobster roll or something like that...the food on this trip was so good!

We had such a great time in Vail and were so lucky to get away for some adult time while my family watched our kids. We don't take these vacations for granted and hope to have many more in the future! Thanks for following along so far! I'm hoping to post the video I put together soon!

travel diaries | colorado part two

When I asked Mark if he wanted to do anything specific while we were in and around Vail, his answer was "Maroon Bells". One of his friends had told him about Maroon Bells and that is all that he requested. I initially didn't want to go because it is past Aspen, which was two hours from where we were staying and I really wanted to enjoy the area we were in...but I thought about it and decided to appease him (#imagoodwife) so that was the plan for Thursday. 

Mark started the morning with a free fly-fishing lesson on the lawn and in the creek right outside our room. He loved it! I loved sleeping late and enjoying the hotel room to myself. :)

When he was done with that, we started the drive toward Aspen and Maroon Bells. We devoted the whole day to the drive and decided to just enjoy the journey as well as the destination. We stopped by our favorite bridge again:

We accidentally stumbled upon the Continental Divide and we both excitedly braved the cold and windy pass to take in the scenery. 

It was a beautiful drive through Independence Pass, which was going to close in just a few days on October 1 for the winter. I saw a big group of big horn sheep right off the road as we drove through, and the yellow leaves of the Aspens are a favorite on these drives!

We pulled into posh Aspen and enjoyed the perfect fall weather and a great view on the patio in town. 

Our table was on the right side of this building:

After lunch and a little wandering around town, we headed down to catch the Maroon Bells bus. We succeeded on our second attempt to get on the bus (hopped on the wrong bus first! whoops!) and headed about 20 minutes up into the park. 

It was gorgeous!!! The bells are the two peaks in the center of the photo. We spent a little over an hour exploring the area before we had to catch the last bus back to our car. 

It was beautiful the way we saw it, but we would also love to see it when the sun wasn't right in our eyes. If we ever go back, we'll have to allow more time! 

It was a great excursion to Aspen and Maroon Bells and I'm so glad we did it! There's one more day to cover, coming up next!