Big family vacation out to the Rocky Mountains. We flew into Denver International Airport and spent the night in the city before taking off the next day. A trip out to Mt. Evans to drive on the highest paved road in the United States. At the top a short hike takes you to the summit and a panoramic 360 degree view. From there, we drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park and out to Fort Collins for the night. The next day and day after were full of driving up to Jackson, Wyoming and then through Tetons National Park on the way to Yellowstone National Park. We spent 3 days in Yellowstone making it all the way around both loops and visiting the major thermal areas and Yellowstone Canyon and Falls. It was pretty interesting to see the volatility of the land, the heat, the smells, the colors, etc.

The next leg of the trip took us back down to the Denver area through a 2 day road trip. Stopping by the Garden of the Gods before sunset, we stayed the night in Colorado Springs getting up early the next day for a bike ride down Pikes Peak. Following breakfast at the office, we all boarded vans and rode up to the top of the mountain before it actually opened to the public. At the top we each got a bike and began the 3 hour trip to the bottom. The views were amazing and the change in weather was extreme. We headed back up to Denver and checked out the city before our flight back the next day.

[link-gallery gallery=”West_flightOut” name=”Flight Out”]
[link-gallery gallery=”West_coloradoRockies” name=”Colorado Rockies”]
[link-gallery gallery=”West_tetons” name=”Tetons”]
[link-gallery gallery=”West_yellowstone” name=”Yellowstone”]
[link-gallery gallery=”West_coloradoSprings” name=”Colorado Springs”]
[link-related url=”/tag/mountain-west-trip-2007″ subject=”Link to all trip related posts”]