We had so much fun on our workcations last fall that we had started to discuss if we should do it again this summer. I have been considering a month-long workcation over each summer even before covid because the cost of two summer camps is quite expensive. A friend and coworker owns a condo in Avon, CO that he jets off to in the winters and rents the rest of the year. He said summers were slowest and let us know when that schedule opened up. We decided to overlap with the end of the school year since the kids were able to be remote and that would give them something to do while we were working.
We started and ended the trip in Denver, about 2 hours away from Avon. We arrived late afternoon on a Saturday and were getting hangry, so we immediately started looking for lunch. After quickly checking in to the hotel, we decided to try one of Denver’s many breweries, and Jaime found one that primarily had pizza (she’s the best!), called Black Shirt Brewing Co. It definitely hit the spot. Afterward, we drove around various neighborhoods to get a better feel for the city. Our favorites were Uptown, Central Park, and Highlands — they had a lot of character and booming business districts. We also stopped and saw several famous houses on Vine St that were built in the early 1890s. For dinner, we stayed near the hotel in Lower Downtown (LoDo) and had an amazing meal at The Pig & The Sprout. One interesting thing to note is that they charged a couple percent “Living Wage Fee” that they split between the kitchen staff. On our drive earlier we saw a lot of people hanging out along the nearby river, so we decided to take a family walk down there after dinner. It was very peaceful and beautiful. We sat along the riverfront and Edie dipped her toes in the water while we waited for and watched the sunset before heading back for the night.
The next morning we walked around LoDo some more and ate breakfast at a restaurant named Snooze inside the historic Union Station, which is now mostly a hotel, before packing up and starting the journey to Avon. First stop was a place called Dinosaur Ridge. It was exceedingly hot so we opted for the shuttle tour over the free hike, but it was worth it as the tour guide was great and we got a lot more out of it than just reading the signs. There are three main stops, all unique and impressive — a ridge full of hundreds of dinosaur footprints, an area where you can see large dinosaur footprints from the bottom (called bulges), and lastly seeing and touching actual dinosaur bones that are still embedded in the cliffside. Next up we decided to see how close we could get to Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre and were pleasantly surprised to find out that you can waltz right in and go anywhere you want when there’s not an event there! There were dozens of people running up and down the entire venue for exercise which seemed extra crazy to us since we had not yet acclimated to the altitude. The space is amazing and we’ll definitely have to come back for a show at some point. After leaving there, we went to the nearby Overlook Park and Buffalo Bill gravesite. It was a relatively quick stop to take in the views and then continue on with the journey. We stopped for lunch in what we thought would be a small highway town named Idaho Springs but it turned out to be quite a popular tourist town. It was super cute, and we ended up walking around and shopping for an hour or so after lunch too. We intended to stop by here again on the way back to Denver at the end of the trip though we weren’t hungry enough to stop. After an easy check-in at the condo in Avon we went to dinner at Gore Range Brewery in nearby Edwards, CO before settling in for the first week of our workcation.
Each evening of our first week, we ventured out to surrounding towns:
- Monday: We went across the highway to Beaver Creek and ate dinner at Coyote Cafe.
- Tuesday: We went into the more touristy Vail to go to Vail Brewing Co. We thought it was a brewpub, but it’s beer-only, so we drank a sampler flight and then found a real dinner place in another town called Minturn. The restaurant was called Thai Kitchen, and it was quite delicious. Worth the stop in this small town.
- Wednesday: We bought tickets for a late afternoon train ride on the Leadville Railroad which the kids loved and had incredible views. After the train ride, we explored the town a bit and had yummy pizza at High Mountain Pies.
- Thursday: We went to an escape room at Vail Valley Escape Room, walking distance from the condo (we escaped!) before having a hibachi dinner at Nozawa within our condo building.
- Friday: We went back to Vail for dinner and arrived early, so we tried to stop at Vail Brewing Co again but they had just closed for a private event. Luckily Vail has two breweries, so we headed over for drinks at 7 Hermits Brewing Company. We were celebrating Fathers Day so we had a fancy dinner at Mountain Standard, which I think was the best meal of the trip.
For our only full weekend in Avon we looked for places to venture further than our evening excursions. We had a road trip out to the Grand Canyon planned for last summer that we had to cancel, so I looked at the stops we had decided on back then and decided to go to Moab, UT and some roadside attractions along the way. We started off with breakfast in Avon at Loaded Joe’s before starting the 4 hour scenic drive. The Glenwood Canyon about 45 minutes into the trip was gorgeous and we drove through there a couple other times during the journey. It’s crazy to go from all green mountains to desert mountains along this drive. Both are sights to see! Our first stop was about 3 hours in — Sego Canyon Rock Art. The town you have to drive through to get there is a little sketchy but the canyon itself was stunning. The roads are a bit rough and there’s literally nothing there, so it feels like you should turn around but luckily we kept going. The rock art was amazing — there are three main areas, all with different styles of art created over thousands of years. The only panel you can see from the car is a little underwhelming and we initially thought that was all there was to see, until we saw people coming around the corner raving about the art over there. We then continued deeper into the valley to the Ghost Town of Sego where only one old building is still standing and then headed back to civilization and the highway.
We continued towards Moab and had two more stops along the way. The first one was the Copper Ridge Dinosaur Tracksite. By this time, it was extremely hot, over 100 degrees hot, and the 500 foot walk up a small mountain felt like an eternity. At the top though, you are rewarded with some pristine dinosaur tracks completely in the wild. There are only maybe a dozen visible but they are huge and the kids loved standing in them. Next up we stopped at the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite about 15 minutes down the road. This one fortunately wasn’t on a mountain, it’s a short walk from the parking lot to an exposed area in the ground with hundreds of dinosaur tracks surrounded by a boardwalk so you can get close without damaging them. The heat was still getting to us so we didn’t stay long before hurrying back to the AC in the car and then making our way into Moab.
Upon arriving at our hotel, I was told they couldn’t find our reservation. After a few minutes of searching, they finally remembered that they had overbooked and I was the lucky one that they didn’t have a room for. They had already arranged for us to stay at the hotel next door so they walked over with me and checked me in there. It was actually a much nicer hotel with an indoor pool (vs outdoor in the heat) so we couldn’t complain too much. We went next door to the recommended Trailhead restaurant for lunch, then drove around town a bit and landed at Moyo for some frozen yogurt. We had a late night tour planned and the rest of our activities were scheduled on Sunday, so we killed a couple hours in the hotel pool. It was very much needed to keep cool! Afterward we took a nap and ran out of time for dinner before heading over to our evening plans.
For our late night tour, it was intended to be a sunset tour through an area outside of town called Hell’s Revenge. Similar to the hotel though, they couldn’t find our reservation. This seemed to be a theme in Moab… They tried to say we didn’t have a reservation or that we had to go to another location but ultimately admitted it just appeared to be an issue with their booking system. They had no space available that night, and luckily the hotel told me earlier in the day that Arches National Park is open for free after 7pm, so we rebooked on a tour Sunday morning and moved our Arches plans to Saturday night. Arches has been in the news a lot lately due to overcrowding and having to shut down by 9am, causing the morning line to start earlier and earlier. We were not looking forward to it, so this ended up being a perfect fallback plan. Sure enough, we could drive straight into Arches without stopping to check-in or pay for admission (saving $30). The drive in was amazing and set the tone for the rest of the park. Everywhere you looked was just stunning and seemed out of this world. We started at the Turret Arch and The Windows Section. The parking area was full so we just did a slow drive-through and then headed over to the Lower and Upper Delicate Arch Viewpoints. We stopped briefly at the lower viewpoint and then did the 20 minute hike to the upper one. The sun was starting to set and we had one more arch on the to-do list, so we hiked back down and started to race over to the Landscape Arch. The sun did set during the drive and we pulled over and took some amazing pictures. About 10 other cars joined us for the 5-10 minute pause. When we arrived at the Devils Garden Trail for the Landscape Arch we discovered it was too far of a hike during dusk. Instead we went to the closer Pine Tree Arch which we had to ourselves and could walk around and through it. On the way back to the car I took a quick detour to Tunnel Arch, only about a 100 feet off the path we were on. The sky was getting dark very quickly and it was nearly pitch black upon arrival at the car. We left the park with about 100 other cars and made a late night stop at Wendy’s before heading to bed.
The next morning we started off by getting some donuts across town at The Donut Shop. When we told the owner we were about to head out to Hell’s Revenge, he pulled Jaime aside and told her how scary the ride would be, especially the first 100 yards. I honestly didn’t know anything about the tour we booked, only that ATV tours were the thing to do in Moab and I knew I didn’t want to drive myself, so the Hummer tour was the best option for us. If I had known what we were getting into I wouldn’t have done it, but it’s a good thing I was oblivious because it was quite an experience and I’m very glad we did it in hindsight. Hell’s Revenge was INSANE! It’s apparently where Land Rover tests all of their vehicles, and for good reason. It was driving up and down steep rocky mountains, both forwards and backwards (!!), tilting side to side and up and down in unpredictable ways. The tour guide had a very dry sense of humor too, complete with fake brake failure that sent us speeding down a steep hill (hilarious, right?!). It was terrifying and extremely fun. Jaime was squeezing Lydia’s hand so hard that Lydia had to shake her hand to get feeling back at each of our stops. The kids absolutely loved it — who knew we had adrenaline junkies! They want to go back and do the “Extreme 4×4” tour next time. We’ll see about that… After 2 hours of white-knuckled “fun”, we calmed our nerves over lunch at Moab Garage and then continued the day at Canyonlands National Park on the other side of Moab. We started at the main attraction, Mesa Arch, which was incredible and totally worth the visit by itself. It’s a quick hike from the parking lot and while there were a lot of tourists there, people nicely took turns taking photos so it didn’t feel crowded. The arch is on the edge of a cliff and it’s all deep Grand-Canyon-like canyons behind it, making for great views (and apparently great sunrises). Looking at the map, the main road is shaped like a Y so we decided to explore each end point. We started at the Green River Overlook, then continued down past Whale Rock to Upheaval Dome in the north west, then stopped at Buck Canyon Overlook on the way to Grand View Point in the south. On the way out through the north east, we stopped briefly at Shafer Trail Viewpoint and Shafer Canyon Overlook before our last hike out on Island in the Sky. Each and every one of these stops was mind-blowing. Arches and Canyonlands both gave us a newfound appreciation for national parks and now we want to visit many, many more of them. After finishing up there, we started the 4 hour journey back to Avon. We stopped for dinner and ice cream at Pablo’s Pizza and Graff Dairy in Grand Junction on the way back.
On Monday, we were back at work and school but left a little early to spend more time in Vail. We had lift tickets for Vail Mountain that said to check in at the main gate. When we get there, they told us to visit a tent a few minute walk away near the main ticket line. We get to the tent, which then tells us to wait in the long ticket line. After waiting 10-15 minutes in line, they told us to again go to the tent… I told them we were already there and I didn’t want to get out of line again without tickets. They had a manager hunt down our tickets, which were indeed in the tent but the person there hadn’t even bothered to look. With that minor detour out of the way, we took the gondola up Vail Mountain, taking in the views along the ride. At the top, they have a bunch of summer activities setup. Tickets are quite expensive to do everything ($100+ per person) so we limited ourselves to two tickets each for summer tubing. Think winter tubing in the snow but replace the snow with plastic tracks. There was a kids one for the girls which we did first and then a huge one for the adults. Lydia ended up being tall enough for the adult one, so Jaime let her use one of her two rides (for a total of 3 rides for Lydia). Tubing was over pretty quickly and we weren’t ready to leave yet, so we did the 1.7 mile easy hike called Fireweed along the top of the mountain. After that we headed down and went to dinner at nearby Garfinkel’s. Heading back across town to the more touristy side, we walked around some more, stopped and played at a playground, got another round of drinks at Vail Brewing Co, and then ended the evening getting ice cream at Joe’s Famous Deli & Homemade Ice Cream.
On Tuesday, we went into Glenwood Springs for an early dinner at Russo’s. It’s a low-key place but the food was one of the best on the entire trip. Heading back towards Avon, we had permit tickets to hike up to Hanging Lake. My friend that owns the condo said it was his favorite hike in the area and highly recommended it. We were looking up how to get there and noticed that it’s rated “moderate to difficult” which spooked us a little. We asked him for more specific details and he said it was “more moderate than difficult” so we talked ourselves back into it. When we arrived, the park ranger told us it was 1 mile straight up the mountain, and all stairs. We were again worried but she reassured us that there are 7 bridges along the path where we could take breaks as needed. The trail starts out on a flat paved bike trail which was easy enough. As soon as you veer off that trail though, it’s straight up large jagged rocks or loose dirt on steep inclines. The kids didn’t bat an eye but it was pretty difficult for Jaime and I. We didn’t end up stopping at any of the rest areas, partly because the kids were always far ahead of us and partly because we just wanted to get to the top as quickly as possible. The gaps between the bridges aren’t consistent and the gap between the 2nd and 3rd bridge was so far we almost gave up there. Everyone coming down told us it was worth the hike which helped keep us motivated. There’s a lot more trail after the last bridge and the trail gets more treacherous and scary at the end too. After about 1 hour and 45 minutes non-stop, we finally arrived at Hanging Lake. It was absolutely worth the effort and we collapsed for a while listening to the waterfalls into the lake. Jaime and the girls went even higher on the trail to visit another waterfall called Sprouting Rock while I remained at the lake. The hike back down was easier in spots and more difficult in other spots. It took about 1 hour and 25 minutes to get back to the car, right before the sun went down, and we drove back to Avon in the dark.
On Wednesday, our vacation had officially begun with school ending the day before. We checked out of the condo and headed about an hour and a half south to Buena Vista, CO. We surprised the girls with a white water rafting trip with American Adventure Expeditions and they absolutely loved it! Our guide seemed a bit new and we got stuck several times but it was still a great time overall with just enough adventure. Of course our crazy kids want to try a harder Class of river next time. After rafting, we went into town and had a delicious lunch at House Rock Kitchen and ice cream at Louie’s. We then checked into the Mt Princeton Hot Springs Resort just outside of town. Jaime took a nap while I took the girls to a few of their many hot spring pools, including one with a 400′ water slide where the girls spent most of their time. Once those pools shut down at 5pm, we picked up a rested Jaime and went to another set of resort pools that were open until 9pm. They have a total of 7 pools and 5 hot tubs, all different temperatures. Once we were done swimming, we went back into town and had another delicious meal at Simple Eatery. Back at the resort we had a riverside cabin so we ended the evening drinking some local beers on the balcony overlooking the river.
The next morning we started with breakfast in town at Jan’s Family Restaurant and then went back to the first set of pools for more swimming. Jaime got to enjoy the 400′ water slide a couple times this round too. After checking out we started making our way back towards Denver. We made a stop in Breckenridge, which was jam-packed with tourists. It was like a zoo there and we were very glad that we didn’t spend any more time here this trip. We had lunch at Breckenridge Tap House and dessert at Mountain Top Cookie Shop before heading (quickly) out of town. The girls were fascinated with ghost towns and mining companies we’d occasionally pass by throughout the trip, so we booked our next surprise for them — a gold mine tour at Hidee Mine. It is down a bumpy dirt road and takes you completely back in time. There’s a tiny old west town built outside the mine that seemed to be mostly for show now. We panned for gold outside in the rain before our tour started. It’s not a huge mine by any means but it felt more real than previous tours I’ve taken and the best part is that you get to literally chisel out your own (fools) gold from the walls at the bottom! We were the only people on our tour which made the experience even better. Back in Denver we checked into our new hotel and spent the evening strolling the popular 16th Street Mall and eating dinner at Mellow Mushroom.
Our last morning began by meeting one of Jaime’s friends from high school for breakfast. We met her and her daughter at Denver Biscuit Company in a neighborhood called Colfax. After eating and catching up for a while, we drove about an hour and a half north to Estes Park. There we did a drive-by photo op of Stanley Hotel, famous for being in The Shining and then went into town. We walked around and did a bit of shopping before the main event — a guided tour through Rocky Mountain National Park with Green Jeep Tours. We originally intended to do a self-tour but the park recently switched to ticketed timed entries and while we had a chance to get tickets the night before, we decided to play it safe by booking a tour, which would also give me a break from driving in mountains. We are SO glad we did a tour! The weather (and terrain) varies wildly at different altitudes, dropping over 20 degrees, raining, and even hail for a brief period. The sights were incredible and it was the perfect end to a great trip. After the tour we ate dinner at Penelope’s Burger & Fries before heading back to Denver. We had to get up at 3am for our flight home, so it was a bit rough, but it was luckily pretty uneventful.