Colorado – Garden of the Gods & Rockies

Colorado was a state that neither of us knew much about but upon researching, found a lot of things we liked. Plenty of hiking, biking, snow and wildlife so we were both super excited to go explore.

In the South of the state is Colorado Springs which is home to ‘Garden of the Gods’. We stayed at Buffalo Lodge Bike Resort as a base to go explore the Gardens, which were really cool to see. Almost red rock Utah vibe but with incredible mountain backdrops behind it. There is a rock formation which look like two camels kissing so we made sure to take a snap of that and walk the Perkins trail as otherwise I wouldn’t hear the end of it from James 😉
Buffalo Lodge was a fab spot too, set up by two cyclists and you can use the bikes for free there to go and explore. They have a mini cycling club which meet up a couple of times a week and host yoga sessions in the lodge or next to their pool which was heated. A welcome treat after a few weeks of hiking.

Buffalo Lodge Bike Resort

The Rocky Mountain National Park was the highest on our wish list of things to do in Colorado so we headed up North next. We were lucky enough to get a camp spot booked in the park – I say lucky because a week later, this campsite would close for the season and actually all the overs nearby had already closed. We were confused with the glorious sunshine as to why this would be but were later treated to minus conditions in the evening which meant water sources freezing over hence the closures.

Moraine Park was the name of the site and it was pretty big with views over the valley. The Rockies have a bus shuttle system which allows you to hop on and hop off at various trailheads which was fabulous for James as it meant 3 days of no driving. We were excited to test our fitness in the mountains and headed out to Fern Lake for our first trail. 14 kilometres up hill. It fell silent pretty quickly (apart from my heavy breathing!) as we made our way up to the gorgeous alpine lake. The start of the hike wasn’t as scenic however as there were a lot of burns on the trees from a forest fire in 2020. It’s really sad to see how it wiped out such a vast area but it is growing back at least. The alpine lake had lots of chipmunks running around which are so cute and even a pit toilet which is probably the most scenic wee either of us have taken.

Our second hike was to one of the more popular spots in the park – Bear Lake. We were aware of this so tried to head early and then combine a few trails to make it a bit more challenging. Bear Lake, Emerald Lake and Nymph Lake were all beautiful but Lake Haiyaha took our breath away. There had recently been a chalk deposit into the lake which had left it milky blue, similar to what you might see in the Canadian Rockies. It was stunning and James toyed with the idea of taking a quick dip before chickening out at the cold temperatures.

Lake Haiyaha

Luck strikes again with it being Elk Bugling season here – this usually lasts a couple of weeks and the male is essentially herding around 15-30 females of who he mates with each year, and then a couple of young bucks trying to steal his women. They make these really high pitched squeals all through the night and day and can be quite aggressive if you approach them. Well, this left us hostage in our tent one morning when we woke to them surrounding the whole car. Thankfully we had our cameras with us to capture the moment and felt almost part of the Nat Geo photography team!

One of the male Elks squealing

We were starting to feel the cold here though and it meant using our Diesel heater for the first time. It heats diesel and blows in warm air into the tent, allowing us to keep cozy and the tent to not condensate to much and us wake up with a damp duvet – a much needed item in these climates. However the £20 electric blanket James found on Amazon is a show stopper….soooo toasty sleeping with this underneath you and we now even have a little preheating system for the tent before we get in (30 mins before, turn blanket on high, and diesel heater on level 3, plus a hot water bottle when it’s just too much!)

We cannot forget the icon of America – Smores. I actually haven’t had Smores before and James has a few times. We decided to really live the American dreams and get our marshmallows, Hersheys chocolate and Honey maid biscuits for the Rockies. Let’s just say, they are so much faff I’m not sure we would do it again! Sticky marshmallow that often sets alight if you leave it to melt too long over the fire. Chocolate that doesn’t really melt as it’s too cold. And enough sugar to make you want to brush your teeth for at least 20 minutes after. Nice idea America, but you can keep that one!

Our final day, we took the scenic route out to Great Lakes. The drive indulged us with some spectacular leaves turning for Fall (again, lucky!) and we ended up grabbing some bagels in this tiny little town that was shutting down for the season. At the base of the town was the Great Lake, a huge glacier lake. We got speaking to a Canadian guy who had just taken a dip and was trying to take a swim each day to help him recover from a knee injury. We’d started to miss being in the water after so long so after a little persuasion, I managed to get James in up to his shoulders for an invigorating yet chilly swim that may have lasted all for 5 minutes!

Us in the Great Lake

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