Swemb Birt Day 6

 We left Ouray and headed to Cortez, Colorado so that we could wake up early and hike Mesa Verde National Park.  This would be our fourth national park of the trip.  Mesa Verde was interesting and held a lot of history.  We spent the first part of the morning listening to a 45 minute lecture about the ruins at Balcony house and then we hiked Cliff Palace, which was much cooler.

The boys were excited to leave Mesa Verde because we were headed to Pagosa Springs!  We had plans of getting dinner and going straight to the river to play in the hot springs.  

Swemb Birt Day 5

 Ouray!

This was our favorite stop on the entire trip.  Melanie and I went on a small walk to a waterfall that was across town when I realized my watch was going to die and I didn't bring my charger.  Ugh.   We had breakfast at the hotel, and then headed to walk around the town.  We bought a few trinkets  and headed up to Box Canyon to walk inside a waterfall.  It was very cool. Then we went straight for the hot springs.  It was AWESOME! We spent the entire day at the hot springs.  Each pool is heated and there are many places for kids to play including slides, climbing wall, and a mini wibit.  After the hot springs we went to lunch and went on a hike to baby bath tubs.  These are little holes in the rocks carved out by the water.  It was very fun to play in the river.

We ate dinner at Maggie's (the best burger in Ouray) and LOVED it!

Swemb Birt Day 4

 

After we left Pikes Peak, we headed to Fort Garland.  Not a town I would suggest to anyone.  Ever.  I found a little hotel called, "The Lodge" and it was 10 minutes outside of The Great Sand Dunes National Park.  This was the only reason we stayed.  The room we were given smelled like weed.  As if someone had just smoked right before we arrived.  We ended up getting two rooms and giving the room that didn't smell to Melanie and her boys.  We barely slept because the smell was so horrible.  The front desk lady said the smell was caused by the laundry room.  I had to laugh.  It was caused by weed!! Either way, we slept (barely) and then headed straight to the sand dunes.  This was an epic day.  We went up and down the dunes on the sand boards all day.  Everyone loved it.  

We left in the early afternoon, and then headed to The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  It was not great.  It was a long drive for an okish canyon.  We literally got our magnet, took a picture, then left.  We drove straight to Ouray, Colorado, which ended up being the high light of the trip. 

We jumped right into the hot tub when we got to Ouray!  The boys were all so excited to swim and stretch out for a bit.  We had planned a fun day in Ouray so starting off the night in the hot tub was the perfect choice.