Looking online for things to do for free in Denver, I came across Dinosaur Ridge - a site where several of the first dinosaur fossils and footprints were found, and only about 20 minutes away nestled at the beginnings of the Rocky Mountains. We headed over there on Thursday to check it out. It was pretty cool, with lots of information along the way about the geological history of the region. At one point it started to rain so we took shelter under a rock shelf formed from the indent of a brontosaurus' footprint!
On the way home we stopped and had a look around a tiny historic town, Morrison, that was bustling, then carried on Red Rocks which was also very busy that evening. It is named, unsurprisingly, for the huge red coloured rock formations in the area. Here they form a natural outdoor amphitheatre that has seen some of the biggest musical acts play including The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix. That night Jackson Browne was playing and a lot of people were arriving.
We walked one of the trails and saw lots of deer, including a couple of fawns, a skunk (minus the smell, besides maybe the scent of decay) but no rattle snakes despite many warnings around the place. No pumas either. Didn't stick around to hear the show, but headed back to Denver for Señor Burritos and Sweet Action Ice Cream!
The following day brought more Sweet Action Ice Cream as a quick break from packing before we picked up the rental car. It was a total nana car but that came in super handy later as we ended up not leaving Denver until around 5pm which meant it was dark when we reached Pagosa Springs. We had planned to camp around there but didn't fancy pitching the tent in the dark only to have to wake up really really early to take it down again so drove on to Sleeping Ute Mountain rest area and set up camp in the back of the car, discovering that all four back seats folded down completely flat to make a reasonably comfortable "bed". The drive before it got dark had been gorgeous, some of it winding through the mountains, a lot of it driving across mountain plateaus. Any thunderstorms thankfully missed us but we could see a couple in the distance and the lightning was spectacular (and maybe somewhat distracting for the driver).
Woke up with the sun after a few hours kip and hit the road again, this time headed for the Grand Canyon. Were treated to a gorgeous sunrise over a crazy desert landscape, with ravens flying off to rock formations that shouldn't have been passed over for the role of Mount Doom. It wasn't long before we left Colorado, passed through the very corner of New Mexico and came out in Arizona. Stopped to try see the Four Corners Monument (at the point where these states and Utah all meet) but it said it was closed for repairs and in fact the gates to the park it is in weren't even open yet at that hour of the morning, though there were already half a dozen or so cars parked up and waiting.
After several hours of driving we finally found a town just big enough to get some breakfast (only just, there were actually horses roaming the streets). The girl at Speedy's gas station recommended Golden Sands cafe, which we finally found after a detour several miles out of town in the wrong direction. There we breakfasted like kings on a stack of blueberry pancakes smothered in syrup, omelette with hash brown potatoes, biscuit with gravy and hot chocolates. We were the only non native americans in the place, and the decor was matched to its clientele. With our bellies full we headed on through more amazing terrain, and less amazing weather, to the Grand Canyon National Park.
*Sweet Action flavours we sampled:
Ginger Lemon Cookie
Vegan Mint Chip
Cherry Chocolate Chip
Saigon Cinnamon
Pistachio
Baklava
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