I truly couldn’t even dream up a more perfect way to ring in the next decade of my life and say hello to my 30’s then spending it with my hubby in the beautiful state of Colorado. Now that we are settled back in at home, I look at these photos and videos (literally daily lol) and it feels like that was all a dream? (so dramatic lol) A trip that I’ve always dreamed of, actually happened and for my 30th birthday! This whole trip was Brian’s gift to me and I couldn’t be more thankful for the actual best birthday gift I’ve ever received! I had multiple moments through out the trip where I just out of no where cried because I couldn’t believe where we were and why we were there. Haha!
Something that made this trip SO very special and fun was that we rented my DREAM car. I have loved Jeep Wranglers for as long as I can remember. When we were looking at all of the things we needed to book like airfare, Airbnbs and rental cars… since we were going to be in the mountains during the winter, I thought “hmmm… this would be the perfect opportunity to look into renting a Jeep!!”. We used a company called Turo which is basically like Airbnb but for cars!! People put their personal vehicles on here for people to rent for as long as they need and you can search for exact type and model of car! (which is what I did, I put in Jeep Wranglers around the Denver area). It was such an easy and smooth experience and I don’t think I will use any other way to get rental cars in the future! We stumbled upon our green beauty that had four doors and we were able to set it up where the owner dropped it off at the Denver airport so we could pick it up right after we got off the plane! I WAS IN LOVE and made my obsession so much stronger! :’)
Another detail that was such a huge highlight of our trip was where we stayed! We looked into a handful of Airbnbs, weighed the pros and cons, and ultimately landed on our cutie little cozy cabin nestled on Castle Mountain in Estes Park, CO. It was PERFECT for us, and only a 5 minute drive to the entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park!! Definitely smaller than our other options (they seemed to be more like condos, having your room that is inside a building that had other rooms to rent, which all in all, was not the vibe for this trip anyway haha) but it was the perfect little mountain getaway home. It had a full kitchen which is something we wanted because we were planning on cooking most, if not all of our meals to save money and time. There was a cozy wood burning fireplace, HEATED FLOORS (which were amazing especially with it being in the winter, it was between 15-30 degrees the whole time we were there!) and had the cutest front porch! There was also two floors which made the cabin feel so big! Ugh I loved it so much and I miss our little getaway home already!
Our main goal for this trip was to explore as MUCH as we possibly could, and I think we squeezed out every last bit of time we had in this beautiful state. We aren’t really people who go on vacation and stay put. (which is why I am not a huge beach vacay person haha) We visited the local coffee shops, we went on lots of hikes, drove tons of scenic routes, had our own photoshoot with a photographer, explored the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, visited Boulder for a few hours and so so much more!
This post is L O N G. It’s jam packed with iphone photos, film photos, Canon DSLR photos, photos from our couples photo session with Bold Love Photo and all of the memories we had within the five days we were there! I’ll talk about all the places we visited, where we hiked and all the fun details through out the post! I had so much fun putting this together because it gave me a chance to reminisce (again hehe) on my favorite trip we’ve ever been on!
Our first stop right after we picked up our Jeep from the airport lot was just 40 minutes away to the Red Rocks Amphitheatre! I’ve always seen photos of this place all over the internet but standing there, it felt so GRAND! It was incredibly beautiful and sooo massive! I am definitely adding to my bucket list to see a concert here at least once in my lifetime!
Home sweet home to our little cabin for the next 5 days! We wanted to get there before it was dark out so we could see the environment and view we were going to have and it was beautiful!! Once we unloaded the Jeep, we ventured off into town to the local grocery store to stock up with food for the week. (and birthday flowers and cake to enjoy tomorrow!)
While we were unpacking and getting settled in, Brian realized that we probably have the most amazing view of the stars out here and we INSTANTLY ran outside to see! My gosh, it was breathtaking! It was such a clear night and we could see SO many stars! I remember standing in our little driveway area by myself, Brian went back into the cabin for a minute, and I started crying (lol). Looking up at the most beautiful view of the stars, in Colorado (that I’ve been dreaming of coming back for the last 9 years since we last/first came), standing in front of my dream car that is OURS for the next 5 days, on the eve of my 30th birthday. It was a lot. I was flooded with emotion and I just felt so darn happy and grateful! :’)
Something that I SOOOO WISHED we knew about was the Northern Lights were visible from Estes Park this night!!!! Here is an article with photos and videos from someone in Estes Park that saw it! Gosh this would have been amazing to see and we didn’t know about it until Wednesday morning when Brian saw something about it online.
YAAAYY BIRTHDAY!!! I woke up to tons of texts and calls with wishes, we made coffee and breakfast and were so excited to start the adventures for our first full day!
This was another emotional moment for me. Standing in front of the Rocky Mountain National Park sign that I’ve only seen in photos for sooo long, and I’m finally HERE! The tears pooled up and it was definitely a “pinch me” moment.
Something that was at the very top of my list of things to see/do on this trip was to do the hike to Dream Lake. The photos I’ve seen look like something from a magazine or on a postcard. I knew there was a possibility that our view of the mountains once we got to Dream Lake could be a little cloudy because there was so much snow falling this morning, but I was so ready for the adventure!!
And yet another emotional moment for me happened once we were about 10 minutes in on the trail. The pine trees were everywhere, you could see views of mountains through the trees, we were walking on the trail to get to Dream Lake, and I thought “OMG WE’RE HERE! We’re hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park! OMG!”
Yikes, okay. After I think a little over an hour of hiking, We MADE IT TO DREAM LAKE! The view was spectacular, somewhat cloudy because of the snow falling, I’m taking my first picture of it all and I hand my phone over to Brian so he could take a photo of me with this view and….. I FELL THROUGH THE ICE. Hands down one of the biggest rushes of my LIFE. Brian thought I was falling all the way through the ice and in the moment, so did I. Thankfully only up to above my knees were in the water because when I fell, I folded myself to catch on to the ground and I don’t know if my feet hit the bottom or I just stopped myself. Either way, UGH. My heart was POUNDING and I instantly started bawling because my first thought was that, it’s 17 DEGREES outside and now my boots, socks, pants are WET and I’m going to get hypothermia or freeze to death out here. BUT WAIT LOOK, YOU’RE AT DREAM LAKE! That was the only thought that came to me which made me shake off any anxiety and fear that I had. My heart was still racing out of my freaking chest but I wanted to take in the moment that I’ve been anticipating for so long. (but on the side and no longer on top of the lake lol SEEESHH) It was beautiful and took my breath away. (literally, in every way possible, because the air is also very thin up there which didn’t help at all haha)
Two things that were extremely helpful for our wintery hiking adventures were 1. our shoe spikes! These are great for getting extra grip and traction with all the snow, especially because most of this hike was uphill!
The second thing is almost crucial for winter hiking! We used two hiking apps called GPS My Hike and also Hiking Project. You get ZERO phone reception once you get into the park so you can’t rely on your phones GPS to see where you are going and if you are staying on track. You can search different trails on these apps and download trail maps when you have signal so you can use them once on the mountain and it will show you a little blue dot where you are on the trail as you walk! We definitely needed it during this hike because we somehow went off course on the way up! You can tell in the photo above that because of all the snow, you don’t see the trail at ALL, no trail markers, nothing! You have to either rely on trails apps or other peoples tracks (which they say is NOT something you should do because those tracks might be someone who is lost! (ugh so scary!)
My backpack was a gift from my momma in law and it was so great! VERY roomy and held so much! When I was searching for backpacks, I made sure there were side pockets that could hold my camera tripod and there were straps towards the top to keep it in place! There are tons of pockets inside to keep things organized and the material held up great in the snow!
Another (very short!) hike we did was Bear Lake! At this point we were a little scared to walk over anymore “frozen” lakes (lol) so we stayed on what was supposed to be the trail, but it was very snowed over and there weren’t any footprints from people walking on it before us so we went a little ways until the snow was getting too deep and turned around.
Got my Rocky Mountain National Park stamp in my passport book! ✔️
We went back to the cabin to change, eat some lunch and headed out to try one of the coffee shops on my list! We went to Inkwell & Brew and I got the Fireside latte which was phenomenal! One of the best lattes I’ve ever had!! I also got a Denver Post newspaper here because I wanted to get a newspaper dated on my 30th birthday!
For the remainder of my birthday, I wanted to grab a latte, do a scenic drive, and finally get behind the wheel of the Jeep! At this point in the trip I didn’t drive it yet because I wanted to save that moment for on my birthday. We did the Peak to Peak Byway (highway 7) and this entire experience was a top favorite moment from the whole trip! Driving the Jeep with a yummy latte in hand on one of the most breathtaking drives I’ve ever witnessed, on my 30th birthday! Ugh I will remember this part forever!
We got back to the cabin for some dinner and birthday cake to end a very adventurous and memory filled day. And to think this was all only our very first day here!!
We woke up bright and early on Tuesday because I booked us our own photoshoot while we were here in Colorado! Alyssa with Bold Love Photo made all of my dreams come true with this shoot! I wanted to take pictures with our Jeep and the pine trees and mountains in the background and we even got some snow, too! It was such a blast and everything I could have hoped for!
I absolutely LOVE these photos so much and I will treasure them forever! You can see a blog post with more of my favorites from our shoot HERE.
Next hike! We did a very easy hike on the Old Fall River Road (which is closed to vehicles in the winter) and tried to make it to Chasm Falls. (which we ended up turning around before we made it) We also did an easy hike on the West Alluvial Fan trail that gave us really pretty views!
I loved these aspen trees so much! I kept saying that it looked like there were eye balls on the trunks watching us!
We went back to the cabin to change out of our snow gear and headed out to coffee shop #2 on my list - Coffee on the Rocks! I got a S’mores latte which was super yummy! Something that was SO hilarious about this places was the amount of ducks that came out of NO WHERE once we left the building. We were standing on the deck part and they came flying in from every direction!
We did a little more driving and exploring with our lattes in the cupholder. It was getting to be around dinner time and we passed a huge sign that read “PIZZA” and we both agreed that pizza sounded SO good. I did some researching for the best pizza places in Estes Park and stumbled across a place called Bird’s Nest! The blog post that I found this from said they have unique and delicious pizza with a view of the rockies so we decided to go with this and I’m SO glad we did!
The building itself was so pretty with all the giant windows that indeed, gave us great views of the mountains all around us! Atmosphere and vibe- 10/10! Such a cool place! We ordered our own personal sized pizza’s and they had some very unique toppings! I got truffle salami, caramelized onions, spinach and roasted mushrooms and Brian got elk pepperoni, garlic and caramelized onions. It also comes with 4 cheeses on it! (asiago, grana padano, pecorino, and whole milk mozzarella- so yummy!) The crust was SO good! The edges were thick and crunchy but the middle was very paper thin, which I’m usually a thicker crust fan, but this was hands down one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had!
Wednesday! Our last full day here! We woke up and saw that it was a clear morning (we could see the sun shining on the mountain peaks from our window!) so we dropped everything, got in the Jeep in our PJ’s and went into RMNP to get to higher ground and watch the sunrise! It was beautiful and such a sweet memory!
We drove up into the park again to the Glacier Gorge Trailhead to do the Alberta Falls trail to Mill’s Lake! 9,200 feet in elevation! We were so thankful for a clear day since the last two days were overcast and very snowy, so the mountains were more visible! We started at the trailhead and were greeted with signs that said this was “Black Bear Country”. (gulp lol) We started the hike but with some nerves bubbling up.
Two things that made us feel uneasy at the start of this hike was that I wasn’t able to download the map for this trail because my apps started to not work that morning. (merp) So we just had to go into it relying on other peoples tracks. We get there and noticed that there were no cars in the lot for this trailhead and it snowed the night before making all of the tracks that were left behind a little harder to see, which you will notice in the first photo below. We were the first ones on this trail that day. So no GPS map to use and barely any human tracks to follow. In bear country. Gulp.
We started the hike which was so beautiful! The sun was shining and the trail went through beautiful pine trees! This was another thing that made us feel nervous. The last hikes we did were more out in the open and this one we were in thicker forests, making it harder to see what was up ahead of us (bears lol). But we kept going! We were constantly watching for animal tracks in the snow off of the trail and saw lots of bunny and bird trails, until about I would say 30 minutes in, I spotted something different off the trail to my left that was VERY fresh. It was the size of my hand, looked like a wide palm and then 2 inch claws above the palm. I froze, and instantly said to Brian who was ahead of me “HEY!……” he looked down where I was pointing, said “oh my god, that’s a bear! Those are from today, go!” And we turned around so fast and were speed walking back the other way! To show you how scared I was in that moment, I didn’t even THINK to pull out my phone to take a picture of the tracks haha. It took us 0.0005 seconds to realize what it was a turn RIGHT around. (SO thankful it was downhill this time haha) We were in no way prepared to deal with a hungry bear that just woke up from hibernation so we just wanted to get out of there.
Once we made it back to the trailhead (and trying to catch our breath lol) we just stood by the fence and looked out to the mountain and trees, and we just stood there in silence for a few minutes, thankful we didn’t run into the bear and that we made it out of there alive. (very dramatic haha) I felt somewhat defeated that we didn’t make it to where our destination was but we decided to end our hiking adventures for the trip there haha. (I’m glad this didn’t happen on our first day!)
Since our hiking adventure ended a lot earlier than we planned on, we still had basically a full day left! We went back to the cabin to change, I grabbed my Canon DSLR and I wanted to drive around to take landscape photos in RMNP with my big camera (and a few new headshots for me in my favorite place) since this was my last chance to.
^^ LOL me still on cloud 9 that we have been driving a JEEP around this whole time. Ugh I loved it so much!
We left the park and decided to go get one last coffee to take with us on another scenic drive so I could take more photos. Instead of going to a new place, I loved the Fireside latte soooo much from Inkwell & Brew that I decided to go back and get another one! That says a lot!
We went down highway 34 along the Big Thompson River and this was another favorite drive we did! The river cut out this valley through the mountains and the giant rock walls were so close I could almost touch it out the window at some points! You just felt so small compared to what was around you! It was stunning!
We made it back to the cabin for some dinner and took a few photos of us with our little home before the sun went down. This was also the most snowfall we saw since we were there! It felt like we were literally in a magical snow globe!
Our last morning. We woke up pretty early to leave the cabin by 7am to make it back to the airport by 9am. It was a very clear morning so we were greeted with one last look of the mountains out our window with the sun shining on the peaks.
I’ve always seen photos of cloud inversions on mountains and it’s such a beautiful sight! The ones I’ve seen though are when people are actually ON the mountain so their viewpoint looks like they are up in the clouds! When we were driving through downtown Estes Park to get on to the highway, I saw that there was an inversion happening!!! It was so cool to see and it would have been crazy to be up on the mountain that morning!
^^ our last mountain selfie :( with our new Colorado hats!
You can definitely say that I love me some souvenirs! ;) Haha!
I had multiple cameras with me on this trip, one of them being my moms old Pentax K1000 film camera! I was so excited to capture Colorado on film and couldn’t wait to get the prints back! I also got the digitals of the film scans! Here are a few of them! You can see an entire post about my film shots from Colorado HERE!
Here is a little recap of everything we experienced on this trip incase this is helpful to have all in one spot instead of scattered through out this post!
WHERE WE STAYED
Airbnb Cabin on Castle Mountain in Estes Park, CO
COFFEE
Inkwell & Brew in Estes Park, CO
Coffee on the Rocks in Estes Park, CO
PLACES WE ATE
DELICIOUS pizza at Bird’s Nest in Estes Park, CO
(VERY spicy) tacos and bowls at Bartaco in Boulder, CO
SCENIC DRIVES
Peak to Peak Byway (Highway 7) **my FAVORITE for sure!
Highway 34 along the Big Thompson River
really anything that is inside the Rocky Mountain National Park!
HIKES WE DID
Bear Lake, Nymph Lake, Dream Lake
Old Fall River Road
West Alluvial Fan Trail
Alberta Falls Trail
HIKING APPS
GPS My Hike and Hiking Project
WINTER HIKING TIPS
Use shoe spikes for better traction in snow, download trail maps while you have service to use offline once on the mountain (you will not have reception and snow covers the trail and markers so you will not know where you are going), hike with layers and bring extra socks!
