The HENDRICKSON Family: Summer In Colorado

We had a great trip to Colorado in July. Here's the recap, day by day, with a lot of pictures of our adventures.

Day One - Tuesday, July 2nd

We drove out to the cabin, leaving our house by noonish. We all piled into our truck and headed west. We had one extra person with us, Justin, Sarah's boyfriend. It was a good trip, we sang, played games, and talked.

Between Limon and Colorado Springs, we got our first glimpse of the beautiful mountains.

Later that night, at the cabin, after unloading the truck and unpacking we played a game altogether called Blurt.

Day Two - Wednesday, July 3rd

Today, our plan was to visit the Royal Gorge, Guffy Gorge and Paradise Cove, and Cripple Creek. On our way out of the cabin, along the main cabin road, a bear and her three cubs crossed the road right in front of us! It was amazing to see this wildlife from the safety of our vehicle. We were able to make a left turn and follow/watch the four bears for awhile and I tried to take a few pictures through the trees.

First stop of the day, the Royal Gorge. We got out and looked all around, hiked a little bit, some of us got way to close to the edge of the cliffs, some of us got poked more than once by cactus, collected a few rocks, and ate a picnic lunch.

The next stop was Guffy Gorge and a hike for all of us back into Paradise Cove. The kids all brought along their swimming suits so that they could get into the water at the bottom of the falls. We watched some (slightly crazy) people jump from the huge rock faces from big heights. The kids said that the water was really cold. The deepest part of the cove/falls area at this time was approximately 7-10 feet deep.

Our last places to visit that day were the small old mining towns of Cripple Creek and Victor.

The sunset was AMAZING that night as we drove back to the cabin. We even saw a large herd of Elk.

Day Three - Thursday, July 4th

4th of JULY!!!! Silas and I picked out some heart shaped sunglasses and fun light up necklaces for us to wear on this fun day.

We took some pictures with Pike's Peak in the background.

We drove into Manitou Springs and did a little shopping and tried the water from some of the fresh springs fountains.

That afternoon, back at the cabin, we took a hike back behind the cabin in the Pike National Forest. Silas and I found some big animal tracks along our hiking path. They are hard to see in the pictures below, but after doing some research, I believe they may have been Mountain Lion tracks.

There are always beautiful wildflowers growing in Colorado.

We all took our turn to try to push the "Split Rock" apart a little more, like we do every year.

On our hike, Justin and Sarah spotted a deer laying up by some huge boulders, right off our path.

That evening we drove into Woodland Park to listen to the Symphony Under The Clouds, performed in the park this year, instead of on the high school football field. Also, performed on July 4th this year, instead of July 5th like they have done for the past many many years..... It was not as well done in the park. It was harder to hear the music and announcements and then to top it all off, there were NO FIREWORKS and NO DRONE SHOW. BOO WOODLAND PARK! Poorly done. In the brochures for this event stated that there would be fireworks or some type of light show, but there WAS NOTHING. NO announcement that there would be nothing. NOTHING announced over a loud speaker. NOTHING announced on Woodland Park social media pages. NOTHING. WHAT a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT! We would avoid this in the future and instead plan to watch fireworks in Cripple Creek or another small mountain town.

Back at the cabin, after the disappointment in Woodland Park, We all put on our 4th of July light-up necklaces, and Phoebe along with Silas performed a 4th of July dance/fireworks show for our group in the middle of the cabin living room with all the lights turned off. It was a funny, but fantastic, memorable 4th of July fireworks performance of sorts.

Day Four - Friday, July 5th

The day started off with some bb gun target practice off the front cabin deck

We spent a lot of the day at Eleven Mile Canyon hiking, feeding chipmunks, eating a picnic lunch, and fishing, floating, and swimming.

Silas caught a fourteen and a half inch Rainbow Trout!

Day Five - Saturday, July 6th

Today we hiked the Crags. It was about a 5 mile hike.

Look at that cool rock formation pictured below! Silas and Eric climbed up on the ledge, into a little rock overhang area.

Back at the cabin later that day we had some bb gun and slingshot shooting contests, a frisbee golf game, and some fishing down at the pond, before we roasted hotdogs and smores for dinner.

Phoebe tried to recreate her "smores all over her face" look from last summer.... Well done, Phoebe. What a sticky mess!

Day Six - Sunday, July 7th

The next morning, we packed, loaded the truck, cleaned the cabin, and ate the last of the ice cream for breakfast before we piled into the truck and headed back to Kansas.