Mountains, Landscapes and Lakes: A Trip to Colorado and Utah

All my Penn State friends who decided to switch to corporate lives spread across different states of the US. After visiting California for the winter, it was time to visit Colorado. Ankush (the genius) had bagged a high-paying job in Qualcomm and moved to Colorado. What more could you have asked for? My next destination for the 2022 Summer was Colorado. Colorado is known for its picturesque scenery with ginormous mountains, the so-called fourteeners, and gorgeous lakes. And summer is an amazing time to visit Colorado if you’re not planning on skiing. Colorado is also home to 3 amazing National Parks – The Rocky Mountains National Park, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Mesa Verde National Park. But it just doesn’t end there. If you plan a good itinerary, you can also visit Canyonlands National Park and the Arches National Park of Utah. And, of course, that’s what I did! And by the way, it was only Ankush and me who were driving all over Colorado. So, we drew an itinerary and decided to make it an 11-day trip visiting all the said National Parks except for Mesa Verde National Park.

In this blog, I have decided to write the journey as sections of the four National Parks that I visited: The Rocky Mountains National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. We spent about 3 days exploring the Rockies since it was just a stone’s throw away from Ankush’s house. We had one day to cover Canyonlands and Arches National Parks because of their proximity to each other (this was a strenuous one!). And, half a day for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison since there is not a lot to do if you’re not thinking of being too adventurous. Given my schedule, that was how much I could accommodate. So, I started my journey on the 22nd of July, a Friday, from State College to Denver to start exploring Colorado for the next 10 days.

The Rocky Mountain National Park

At the crack of the dawn on Saturday, the 23rd of July, we set out to explore the Estes State Park and the Rockies in a Jeep Grand Cherokee (4wd is a requirement if you’re going up the mountains).

Our first destination was the Bear Lake Trail Head. But unfortunately, we were not aware of the fact that we had to purchase a “timed entry access” to this road. Consequently, we were not allowed to. We just had to make minimal changes to the itinerary since Rockies was very accessible from where I stayed. So, we decided to cover the attractions of Estes State Park and then explore some parts of the Rockies that we were allowed past 4 pm.

There are a couple of attractions in the Estes State Park that one can cover in half a day. The first one is the Estes Aerial Tramway. It’s just a 5 min aerial tramway that takes you to the peak of Prospect Mountain which is at an elevation of 9000 ft. It affords a spectacular panoramic view of the Rockies. It is worth visiting. After having our breakfast at Eggs of Estes (must visit) we made a beeline to the Aerial Tramway and enjoyed the amazing view of the Rockies from a 9000 ft. It was absolutely gorgeous!

The next attraction is the Mustang Mountain Coaster which is just about 3 miles away from the Estes Aerial Tramway. This coaster ride is about 3 mins loop that affords a view of the Rockies as you ride the coaster down the 600 m loop at 40 mph. It’s a fun ride that doesn’t take too much time and you can ride as many times as you need for just $10 per ride. Ankush and I decided to go once and ended up going twice because it was totally worth it! We also paid a short visit to Estes Lake and decided to go back to exploring the Rockies.

We knew that we were not allowed to drive through Bear Lake Road. So, we decided to circumambulate the entire National Park starting at 4 pm! Yes, that was a crazy decision, but what’s life without some adventure? It was approximately a 100-mile loop. And, that probably was the best decision for the day. We had rented a 4-wheel drive and did not hesitate to go off-roading. So, we took the tougher route to reach the alpine visitor centre, the highest drivable point in the Rockies. The drive was absolutely stunning! We went all the down to the Grand Lake, spent some time and headed back home. To spend hours driving alongside the mountain with a lush green forest is a feeling of its own. It's better experienced than explained.

Our next day, the 24th of July, was a ride to the highest mountain in Colorado, Mt. Evans. It was a bright and sunny day when we started towards Mt. Evans. As we started gaining elevation, the sky turned foggy and cloudy. We drove along the edge of the mountain with a cliff on one side and a mountain on the other side. The more I explain about the beauty the more “cliché-r” it gets. So, I’ll just leave that to my videos. But there is one scene that I need to describe. To see a lake that is about 1000 ft below your altitude standing on an isolated mountain is an exquisite view. We hiked the summit lake and enjoyed the serene silence. The top of Mt. Evans was completely covered in clouds and fog. By then it had started to rain quite heavily too. After taking a couple of pictures, we headed back home.

We took a couple of days off before our next hike and visited Boulder downtown to have some good food. According to our plan, we had to hike Sky Pond Lake on the 27th of July. But we decided to do the Bear Lake trail since we had missed out on it on our first visit to the Rockies. This time, we made no mistakes; had our timed entry book and we were on time at the trailhead at around 11 am. We hiked all the way up to reach Emerald Lake. The Bear Lake trail is a chain of lakes and mountains. Every few hundred feet the hike offers a gorgeous view of another lake. The summit being the Emerald Lake, we also enjoyed Bear Lake right at the bottom of the trailhead, the Nymph Lake and the Dream Lake. One cannot decide where to spend more time because every lake has its own innate beauty and uniqueness. Having enjoyed the picturesque beauty, we headed back home. With that, we bid adios to the Rocky Mountain Nation Park.

Canyonlands and the Arches National Park

After the exploration of the Rocky Mountain National Park, our next destination was Utah! We had planned a visit to the Canyonlands National Park and the Arches National Park. We also planned to visit the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. So, we decided to stay at Grand Junction which was the centre point for all three National Parks. We could not fit Mesa Verde National Park into the itinerary due to logistic issues. On the 29th of July, we started our journey from Longmont towards Grand Junction. The drive was, in general, amazing as we passed through the Idaho Springs and White River National Forest. But, specifically, the last couple of hours when we passed through Canyons was just mind-blowing. We drove between huge Canyons on both sides. The drive itself was magnificent.

The next day at the crack of dawn, we started towards Canyonlands. Canyonlands National Park, which also extends to become the Grand Canyon National Park of Arizona, is a gargantuan eroded landscape that has formed gigantic canyons. We had planned to visit both Canyonlands and Arches on the same day. We spent the first half of the day roaming around Canyonlands. We visited the Mesa Arch, White Rim Overlook, Grand View Point and the Upheaval dome. The sheer 300,000 acres of brownish land with a tinge of Green is so incomprehensible to my mind. I have had the chance to stand in front of the mountain that stood redoubtable at a whopping 26,000 ft and I also stood in front of the Pacific Ocean. But never had I ever seen a landscape, so large, so monochrome, all eroded by rivers.

Having had lunch we headed towards the Arches National Park which is right next to the Canyonlands. It is interesting how one part is full of Canyons and the other is full of arches. Anyway, visiting the Arches National Park is all about taking short hikes to see some of the world’s largest formed arches. It is extremely interesting how these huge arches have been formed. Arches National Park is one single road that goes from point A to B with many arches on either side of the roads. We visited most of the arches, but in the interest of time, we had to cancel a couple of the. We visited the Balanced Rock, the Double Arch, the Windows, The Turret Arch, Garden of Eden. These are pretty much the ones in the south part that we visited. We did not have time to visit the other famous ones like Sand Dune arch, Devil’s Garden etc., basically, all belonging to the Northern part of the Arches. I recommend that you spend one day in Canyonlands and another day in the Arches if you want to visit each and every one of them. It is time-consuming since you will have to spend several minutes hiking to reach these arches. If you have just one day as we did, then visit the ones mentioned here and, quite frankly, you wouldn’t be missing a whole lot. After a certain point, it all starts looking the same.

Anybody who knows anything about the Arches National Park will ask to tell you that the visit is not complete if you have not paid a visit to the most gorgeous arches of all the arches; the Delicate Arch. And, of course, we wouldn’t miss it for the world has gone so far. Believe me, it is worth skipping all the other arches and visiting just this one. That is why I chose to dedicate an entire paragraph to this arch alone. The trail is almost a 5k round trip from the parking lot and the elevation gain is 150m. A pretty steep and strenuous trail if you’ve already had a particularly long day with several other hikes in the heat. And, that’s what happened to us. In other words, it took some noticeable exertion to hike all the way up after perhaps a long day. But it was all worth it. Not only is the arch beguiling but also makes a dramatic entrance revealing itself in a panoramic view. So you hike all the way amidst the rocky hills and more often on the sides of hills. You do not get to see the delicate arch until the very last second. It is not that you see it from a distance and keep chasing it. You’re blinded by all the hills from seeing the enchanting arch for 2.49 KMs. And at the very last second, boom! a massive, bewitching arch stands at the edge of an open-air theatre-like platform overlooking a gorge and flaunting its majestic beauty to its audience. With that panoramic reveal, one just forgets the efforts that went into that hike. Of all the archers out there, this one was undoubtedly the most beautiful arch. With this, our long day in Utah came to an end and we headed back towards Grand Junction.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

On our way back to Longmont we also paid a quick visit to the Black Canyon National Park. Black Canyon is a National Park that either takes a few days to explore or just about a couple of hours depending on how adventurous you’d want to get. Given our athletic prowess, exertion from the entire trip and time limit, we chose to do the latter along the South Rim Drive. Similar to Arches, Black Canyon is again a single road that affords visitors with eye-catching Panoramic views of gargantuan gorges carved out over a couple of millions of years.

The South Rim Drive is a short drive with a round trip distance of about 14-15 miles from the Gunnison Visitor Center. It offers several overlooks that are accessible with short hikes. Tomichi Point, Pulpit Rock, Chasm View, and Painted rock are a few of them. In my opinion, the best view is from Gunnison point right below the visitor centre. All these views are simply a testimony of persistence and patience. Everything that you see out there is carved out by the river flowing through these gorges. It took a whopping 2 MILLION years to form these gorges. We spent a couple of hours wandering the secrets of creation and started towards Longmont.

We had lunch in this beautiful small village called Crested Butte. If you’re anywhere near this village, I strongly recommend that you pay a visit. If you have watched, the Hobbit, you’ll feel that you just visited the shrine. It also has one lonely mount standing tall and majestic like the Erebor. The drive from Crested Butte to Longmont via the Gunnison Mountain Range and the San Juan Mountain Range through the Continental Divide was absolutely mesmerizing. You drive through the thick National Forests beside rivers and many times right next to gorgeous lakes. The entire drive was just sublime and serene. With that my Colorado trip came to an end.

On this trip, I saw the humongous mountains of the Rockies, the gigantic landscape of the Canyonlands, the monumental arches of the arches and the colossal gorges of the Black Canyon. The reason I’m emphasizing their sizes is that they are incomprehensible to the human brain. I cannot comprehend what 2 million years are. I cannot comprehend how much 300,000 acres is. I cannot comprehend the depth and height of the gorges and the mountains. These unfathomable concepts of creation give you a new perspective on life and that is what travelling is all about!!

Dream. Travel. Explore.

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