As our last post mentioned, we rolled into Denver late at night, and rolled the sleeping kids into bed. I love Denver and the Front Range and we were going to spend two nights here.
Firs a little overview: Denver is a lovely city that is placed right where the High Plains meet the Rockies. It is roughly the same latitude as New York and Sacramento, but in a very different climate because of the mountains to the west. Therefore, it has great summer weather- sunny and dry, with a passing afternoon shower. Winters can be cold, but are moderated by the Chinook winds. Yes, it really is a mile high: 5,280′ above sea level.
It seems strange to me to see such a huge city that is not next to a lake or an ocean, especially considering that transportation is its stock in trade. Denver started as a mining camp during the Gold Rush. In 1858 land developers started the town proper, and named it to gain favor with Governor Denver of Kansas in hopes of being names a county seat. However, Governor Denver had already retired (LOL). Denver flourished because of the Oregon Trail along the North Platte River, then the Overland Express, and later on because of a spur line to the Transcontinental Railroad. Equidistant between Chicago and LA, it has become a transportation hub.
I have heard it said that everyone who went to LA in the 80s moved to the Front Range in the 90s, and they are still there. There are about 3 million people in the metro area, making it is the 19th largest city in the US and has grown 20% since 2010. With a large Hispanic population and a lot of relocated liberals, there is a diverse range of food, from authentic Mexican to vegan macrobiotic. It has lots of parks, museums, and cultural venues. You can walk the mile-long outdoor 17th-Street Mall and make a day of it.
It also has…
Water World
Not to be confused with the Kevin Costner film, this 67-acre water park is one of America’s largest. I’ve been to Denver, and seen many of the other sights, so four our cooped-up kids, this was how we were going to spend the day. We spent a day here, but should have spent more. If you come after a certain time (check the website) you can save a lot of money on the day passes. Since we are not early rises (and had a late night last night) by the time we go there, we only had to wait for 10 minutes.
There are water slides for all ages and abilities here. We did a couple of them, but honestly most water slides have begun to look alike to me. Lazy Rivers and Wave Pools are what stand out in my memory, and Water World’s Thunder Bay has one of the most daunting wave pools we have ever attempted. There was a moment when I saw my son facing a 6-foot vertical distance between crest and trough when I genuinely wondered if it was a good idea to be in there, but the thought was quickly erase by the smile on his face. It is good to have raised strong swimmers! We always enjoy a good splash tower, and this one had some features we had never seen before. Lastly, while it did not have a hot tub, it had a warming pool, which helped us to recharge our body heat.
After a long day, we went back to the Hyatt hut tub and slept well, ready for the next day’s launch into the Rockies!
Loveland Pass
Now we could see the Rockies! This was the day of driving for which I was most excited! Our original plan was to head up towards Boulder and Estes Park, but my son lost his Crocs in Omaha, and if we went over Loveland Pass, there was an outlet store. Having read Steven King’s The Stand several times, I wanted to see it and pass through the Eisenhower Tunnel. We headed west across the last of the High Plains and into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
We got out at the height of land at Loveland Pass at almost 12,000′.
We looked in vain for mountain goats on the crags above, visited the gift shop, and kept on rolling through a mile and a half long tunnel through solid rock. Our interior configuration of Blue Van was working well- just see how cozy everyone looks in this photo!
Once we emerged from the tunnel we were on the Western Slope, with Rocky Mountain National Park and Arapaho National Forest to our north Right, and the rest of the continental US downhill in front of us. Once we hit the Crocs store in the lovely and bustling town of Silverthorne, CO, we headed north, pointing toward Wyoming, with the bulk of the Rockies looming over us on the right. It just kept looking like this for hours.
We needed to break up this long day, so I started looking at Google Maps to find a town. For a detour east, we could spend the night at the Canyon Motel in Hot Sulphur Springs, CO (elevation 7,680′, population 663).
This was a trip into another world. The road into town took us through a winding canyon, with a steep gorge to the river, a train track running along the far side, and avalanche warning signs everywhere.
Have you ever been to a geographically-remote town of less than 700 people? It’s easy to miss. The road bends right, then left; you pass a gas station, a motel, a diner, a small store, and then it’s over. We had to turn around to go back to the motel. Hot Sulfur Springs is most famous for its eponymous springs, which have their own resort located on a side road, but we had booked at Canyon Motel, just down the road and far more affordable.
Do you know how motels started? “Motels” or “motor hotels” started after WWII to accommodate the new trend in cross-country travel. These small, locally-owned businesses flourished in the 50s and 60s. They were easily accessible, had affordable prices, and were located along the two-laned roads of the national highway system. They thrived until interstates and chain hotels relegated them to the back seat. The archetypal motel is a long building of side-by-side rooms that face a parking lot for easy loading and unloading.
The Canyon Motel is a classic example of a motel. We pulled in from the main road, met the lovely family that owned the place, and pulled around to park in front of our room. The rooms are small, narrow, and wood paneled. They are also clean, have AC, and are well cared for. Remember, this is not the Hyatt, this is a motel in a town of 663 people, and it is a fine example of a classic motel. You come here for the ride and the surroundings.
Hot Sulphur Springs
Have you ever hear of the Fun Scale? It delineates three types of fun: Type 1 Fun is fun when you do it, and fun when you recall it; Type 2 Fun is not fun at the moment, but fun when you look back at it. Type 3 Fun is a disastrous learning experience.
Hut Sulphur Springs Resort was somewhere to the right of Type 1 and getting close to Type 2. As soon as you pull in, you can see (or rather smell) why the second word is “sulphur.” The Hot Sulphur Springs Resort an Spa is a collection of natural hot springs heated from geothermal activity. It has long been believed to be healthy, but boy is it smelly. It feels good to get in, and you feel buoyant because of the mineral content, but any clothes that you swim in will smell like rotten eggs for months.
Still, I met some amazing people soaking at we “took the waters.” I talked to an independent farmer who was trying to make it in a modern economy; a truck drive who was taking his first family vacation in months; an affinity group of 50ish ladies who were on a retreat; an HVAC electrician who talked to me about how the shift towards green energy has affected his job. I had a great time talking to these folks, and I made it a practice to talk to everyone I could on the rest of our trip. We hear so much about people in Red States and people in Blue States, and “two Americas.” But we talked about the environment, the economy, immigration (but not politics itself) and found that we all agreed on a lot. There are problems, we need solutions, no one is really giving them to us, and it is frustrating. When we talked policy, people had smart, informed opinions; If I had started talking about politics, then it may have shifted to my team versus your team, and we’d be arguing about the uniforms, not the game itself.
It gave me hope for our country, that we are one nation with more in common that in contrast.
So, after a stinky, relaxing, informative day in springs, we cleaned up best we could and drove to find a good restaurant which, at this time of night meant driving back to the more popular tourist town of Winter Park, about 60 miles from where we had started the day 🙂
Last thing, and this one is important: we got back to the motel full and tired, but slept fitfully. I thought it was just me, but in the morning we all realized that we all hat slept poorly. Did you know that high altitude can do this to you? Be warned, when you first get to high altitude the lack of oxygen makes it hard to fall into a deep sleep– your body keeps waking you up due to lack of O2.
So, the next day, groggy and underslept, we rolled back out to Route 40 and turned north towards Wyoming and Yellowstone