Colorado Road Trip

When our youngest daughter Amy made plans to fly from New York City to visit her Colorado cousins, Julie and I realized we could join the festivities by re-routing our summer drive to Montana. 

Then, our son Jay, who also had never been to the Elizabeth home of his Uncle John and Aunt Toren, said he wanted to catch a ride with us.

Before we knew it, a couple of months had passed, and we were up before dawn, picking Jay up in Brentwood and by 9 AM, motoring through Las Vegas.

A road trip is always a time when memories triggered by songs on the radio or passing landscapes fill our minds, but we're also laughing at new inside jokes (that Frisco kid was a friend of mine) and seeing some places for the first time.

Heading east on I-70 rather than continuing north to Big Sky as usual brought to mind my first extended road trip as an adult with my old friend Pat Welch during the American Bi-centennial Summer of 1976, almost exactly forty years ago.  Pat and I had been blown away by Utah, but as we drove deeper into Colorado, the view became more strikingly green and gorgeous.  So it was again on this trip.

For anyone who spends all their time living in the city, driving that stretch of road can be quite eye-opening, so much so that we pushed beyond our goal for the day to reach Grand Junction and drove another three hours to beautiful Frisco, where we checked into the historic Hotel Frisco.

The sun was setting by the time we walked down the street to dinner at Tavern West, but the village was buzzing with activity.  I'm not sure how Jay arrived at this particular restaurant choice, but it proved to be a great one.

Between three of us, we shared a huge Tavern West Chopped Salad and a BBQ Platter of ribs and beef brisket, and it was all delicious.  For a late night meal, we couldn't have eaten any more, especially accompanied by our $5 micro-brews.  Actually, Julie had a generous pouring of Pinot Griggio instead of one of the excellent beers on tap.

In the morning, we took a stroll down to the lake, but we didn't linger too long before hitting the scenic road again, past Denver to the rural community of Elizabeth, where huge homes on large lots seem to cater primarily to horse lovers.  It's a beautiful area.

Driving to John and Toren's place feels like winding to the middle of a maze, with a series of right turns eventually culminating in a long driveway beside a beautiful windmill.



Amy had arrived the day before and already been hiking with her cousins.  We spent a lot of time catching up with the Colorado contingent, and then we all dove into a delicious BBQ pulled pork feast, with Chinese cole slaw and other great side dishes.  John had just received his new smoker for Father's Day, so this was the inaugural attempt at making this menu, but I dare say it won't be the last, because everyone jumped for joy over the meal.

At this point, I'll refrain from continuing on with more details about Brett, Bree, Bradley, breakfast, Boulder and brewery tours, because Jay recently confessed that he often doesn't finish reading my blogs because I drone on far too long.  I've already done that again here, so I'll let the pictures tell the story.  As always, click on the photos to see bigger versions.


Frisco (Near Vail)

Elizabeth (Near Parker)

Coors Brewery in Golden

(Environmental activists, please note: this is the world's largest zero waste-to-landfill brewery, and also where aluminum cans and recycling aluminum cans were invented.)

Boulder, Colorado (TV home town of Mork and Mindy)

Mork and Mindy's House

 New Belgium Brewery (Flat Tire Beer) in Fort Collins