Colorado and Utah National Parks

Day 1 – Heading West!

Our adventure started with an early morning flight on June 3 from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to Denver International Airport. We stopped by the Priority Pass lounge for snacks before boarding our flight.

Note: If you would like more information on how we access airport lounges, check our our post about the best Travel Credit Cards.

Once in Denver we set off to meet up with our friend’s Christian and Makayla (you may remember them from our Norway and Iceland adventure) who flew out several days ahead of us for a conference Christian was attending. If you have never flown into Denver, it’s worth noting that it is located a long ways from downtown Denver, 25 miles northeast to be exact. There is a train that connects the airport to downtown, but we opted to use a ride-hailing app for convenience. Uber and Lyft both service the airport, so we checked each prior to booking. Lyft was $32 compared to Uber’s $58… so it’s worth checking both!

We spent the afternoon exploring downtown Denver. We walked to Union Station then wondered through the LoDo and Larimer Square areas. We enjoyed Yard House for dinner, we love their food!

Day 2 – Denver

A rainy morning prompted us to search for indoor places to eat and explore. We ate brunch at the Delectable Egg before taking a Lyft to Urban Putt. Urban Putt is an indoor mini-golf facility that incorporates technology and unique challenges into the course.

For dinner we met up with our friend Bryan at Edgewater Public Market. This indoor market had a lot of great food options, so there’s definitely something for everyone!

Day 3 – Denver

We started off the morning by walking to the nearest Syrup for breakfast, this is one of our favorites in Denver. We then choose to walk around downtown for a couple miles before catching an Uber to the Denver Botanic Gardens. Admission to the gardens is $15 a person, but we felt it was well worth it, especially on a beautiful day! We spent a few hours exploring the gardens and seeing many different flowers and trees in bloom.

From the gardens, we grabbed another Uber and headed to the Cherry Creek Mall area for a little shopping and lunch at Machete Tequila + Tacos. While the girls shopped, I checked out the Lucid Motors showroom that was inside the mall. A salesman approached me and after chatting a bit he handed me a key to one of their demo cars. I took it for a few laps around the mall and adjacent neighborhoods. It’s great to see more competitors in the EV space!

Day 4 – Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Our Turo rental car was dropped off at our hotel Tuesday morning and we headed towards Black Canyon of the Gunnison, our first National Park of the trip! This was our first time using Turo and it turned out to be a great experience.

Along the way we stopped in Leadville, CO to stretch our legs and grab some coffee. Leadville is located 10,152′ above sea level which makes it the highest incorporated city in North America.

Black Canyon of the Gunnision is named for the cliffs that are typically shaded due to their extreme depth. At the deepest point it is nearly 2,800′ from the rim of the canyon to the river below. Some parts of the gorge only receive 33 minutes of sunlight a day!

When we arrived at the park there was lightning in the distance so we stopped at the visitor center to check the weather and chat with a Park Ranger about some of the hikes we were considering. We decided to start by hiking Warner Point Trail.

Warner Point Trail is is located near the back of the park. It is a 1.5 mile trail that is rated as moderate and follows the South Rim of the canyon. Once we got to the overlook, Christian and I did some scrambling before we started back down towards the car. We stopped at several viewpoints and lookouts as we worked our way out of the park.

Once out of the park we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Culver’s in Montrose. Then we continued on to Grand Junction, Colorado where we stayed at the Tru by Hilton for the night.

Day 5 – Canyonlands National Park

It took us a little under two hours to drive from Grand Junction, Colorado to Canyonlands National Park which is located near Moab, Utah. After a quick stop at the visitor center we headed to the trailhead for Mesa Arch Trail. This is one of the most popular hikes in the park so we wanted to hike it earlier in the day. The trail is under a mile round trip and the views of Mesa Arch are spectacular!

The next hike of the day was Upheaval Dome. This is a 1.7 mile out-and-back trail that leads to multiple overlooks of an unusual dome geologist believe was created by a meteor impact.

Shafer Trail Viewpoint along Grand View Point Road provided a great overlook of the canyon below. If you have a 4×4 vehicle and are up for a longer adventure, you can drive the White Rim Road that can be seen in the distance. This is a 100 mile route that takes 2-3 days and allows you to descend into the canyon and explore more remote sections of the park. A backcountry permit is required to camp overnight, or if you think you could complete the drive in a day, a day use permit is needed.

Our final stop in Canyonlands was the Green River Overlook before heading back to Moab. We ate a late lunch/early dinner at Moab Canyon Pizza Company and spent the remainder of our evening hanging out by the pool and fire pit at the SpringHill Suites by Marriott Moab.

Day 6 – Arches National Park

Our third park of the trip was Arches National Park. Our window to enter the park was between 7am and 8am, so after a quick breakfast we headed to the park which was less than 10 minutes from our hotel in Moab.

Note: Arches National Park is one of nine National Parks to require a timed entry reservation as of June 2023. Reservations are required to enter the park between the hours of 7am and 4pm. If you aren’t able to secure a reservation, you can enter the park before 7am without a ticket. Check out the National Park Service Website For more information on how to reserve your ticket.

Once in the park we headed to Delicate Arch Trail. Similar to Mesa Arch in Canyonlands, this trail is very popular so we decided to hike it first to avoid some of the crowds. It’s also nice to get an early start to enjoy milder temperatures since there is very little shade throughout the park. We made it to the arch around 8:30am and there were already quite a few people there.

Double O Arch Trail was our next hike of the day. It is a 4.1 mile hike that requires a bit of climbing and scrambling in sections as it winds along the top of rock ridges. I wouldn’t recommend this trail if you’re not a fan of heights!

We were all ready for food after the hike so we headed back to Moab and ate at Zax Restaurant. The rest of the evening was spent by the pool with a few games of ping-pong mixed in.

Day 7 – Mesa Verde National Park

It was time to leave Utah and head back to Colorado. After a quick breakfast, we started the 3 hour drive from Moab to Mesa Verde National Park.

Mesa Verde is known for the preserved cliff-dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo people. In addition to being a national park, it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest archaeological preserve in the United States. The most notable location in the park is Cliff Palace, which consists of over 150 individual rooms, 75 open areas and 23 kivas that were used for communal events. Construction of the site is estimated to have occurred between AD 1190 and AD 1280, and to have had 100-120 inhabitants.

The Cliff Palace is only accessible with a ranger-guided tour. We were fortunate to secure tickets but it’s worth noting that reservations sell out very quickly. The tour we selected sold out within minutes of being available for purchase.

Note: Cliff Palace reservations are made available 14 days in advance at 8:00 am MDT. They are booked through the Recreation.gov website. For more information on tours, check out Cliff Dwelling Tours on the National Park Service website.

Tours of Cliff Palace typically last around an hour. We met our ranger near the parking lot and then he took us down to the dwellings to see them up close while he shared information about the park and it’s history.

Cliff Palace is near the very back of Mesa Verde National Park. Once we finished our visit, we took the ~45 drive back to the park entrance and started towards Pagosa Springs, Colorado where we had an AirBnB for the night.

We stopped in Durango for food at 11th Street Station based on a recommendation from friends we have that live in the area. We made it to Pagosa Springs just in time for Christian to check out a local antique shop before they closed. There was a festival and car show going on, so we made a pass through the area and browsed some of the small shops in the area. We ended the night with a round of mini golf before returning to our AirBnB.

Day 8 – Great Sand Dunes National Park

From Pagosa Springs it was a two hour drive to Great Sand Dunes National Park. The dunes in the park are the tallest and widest in North America, the tallest being Star Dune at a height of 750′.

We decided to hike High Dune which is a popular “trail” and actually has a higher summit than Star Dune since the base starts at higher elevation. Since the dunes are large piles of sand, they are constantly changing and there aren’t any physical markers to guide your journey to the top. Most trail guides advertise High Dune as a 3 mile hike but we ended up closer to 3.5 miles with the route we chose and having to park farther away due to the main parking area being full.

Medano Creek flows between the parking area and dunes. There are no bridges or paths to avoid the creek, so visitors must cross it prior to climbing the dunes. The shallow creek varies between 50-100′ wide and 1-4″ deep. It also surges every ~20 seconds due to small ridges of sand that are constantly forming and failing.

When Ashley and I approached the creek with our boots on, we met a man leaving who suggested it would be best to just take our boots off and walk across. We didn’t like the idea of putting wet, sandy, feet back into our boots, so we took the challenge of navigating the creek with our shoes on. Ashley, Christian and I made it across dry thanks to waterproof boots. Makayla was hiking in trail shoes and ended up with wet feet but that didn’t slow her down and we started up the dunes!

The hike/climb/trek up the dunes was TOUGH. Imagine walking across a sandy beach but instead of a short jaunt, it’s over 2 miles with more than 600 feet of elevation gain. It was truly 2 steps forward, 1 step back, as each step you would sink and slide backwards. It took us nearly 2 hours to reach the summit where we were greeted with a view of the dunefield from above. We spent some time at the top taking in the views and catching our breath before starting back down. The descent was MUCH easier and we made it down in under 30 minutes.

As someone who dislikes sand, I was apprehensive about the idea of an entire park being dedicated to piles of sand. It turned out to be one of the more unique stops on our trip!

Once back to the car we removed as much sand as possible and started our ~4 hour journey back to Denver. We stopped for In-N-Out Burger in Colorado Springs for dinner. On the way out of Colorado Springs we passed SCHEELS and decided to check it out. We knew SCHEELS was a sporting goods store, but was surprised by how large it was when we pulled in. The surprises continued once we got inside and discovered an aquarium, Ferris wheel, arcade, candy shop and even an animatronic Abe Lincoln! They also had huge selections of shoes, clothes and outdoor gear. Too bad the closest one to Kentucky is in Illinois!

Our final hotel stay of the trip was the DoubleTree by Hilton Denver International Airport. Christian and Makayla had a (very) early flight home so after cleaning up and sorting out our luggage we called it a day.

Day 8 – Homeward Bound

Christian and Makayla’s flight departed at 5am so they left around 3am. Our flight didn’t leave until 10am so we were able to get a little extra rest before taking the hotel shuttle to the airport.

We flew standby home and were fortunate to get on the first flight from Denver to Louisville where my parents picked us up, thanks Mom and Dad!

Final Notes

This was another great adventure and we enjoyed visiting five new National Parks. This was also our first trip since Ashley has been pregnant. She did an awesome job at safely navigating the terrain and hiking with us even though her is body is working for two!

The parks we visited on this trip are each located in remote areas. If you plan to visit any of them yourself, I recommend downloading offline maps if your phone will be your primary source of navigation. There were large portions of our route where we didn’t have any cell service. This also goes for hiking maps!

In addition to offline maps, make sure to pack plenty of sun protection if visiting any of the parks above. They each had minimal amounts of shade due to lack of vegetation. For the Great Sand Dunes, long pants and boots did a great job a keeping out most of the sand. Gaiters would be great if you have them!

If you’re interested in the route we took, click the photo below or use this LINK to open up Google Maps and display the general path our trip followed.