CO Road Trip - Part I

 In July, our family took an amazing vacation to the beautiful state of Colorado. We loved experiencing the much cooler weather, being amidst mountains, and having lots of outdoor adventures. Many thanks go to my sister Kim for letting us borrow heavily from their CO trip itinerary several years ago. Their family had researched many great activities which we did and thoroughly enjoyed as well. Our kids did a wonderful job of traveling in the car and thankfully so, as we clocked many driving hours on this trip!

 

Our first night, we stopped in Amarillo, TX, where we enjoyed a tasty Cracker Barrel dinner...

...and then visited the iconic Cadillac Ranch. What a bizarre landmark! These 10 half-buried Cadillacs are open year-round for full (and legal!) visitor defacement.

It was fairly busy when we arrived, but the kids didn't let that stop them from finding their own section of vehicles to spray paint. They seemed to enjoy the complete freedom to paint whatever and wherever they wanted!

The next day we stayed in Amarillo and kicked off our hiking adventures by visiting Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

The temperatures were quite warm (upper 90s) that day, so we only did one main hike, the CCC trail. This trail took us down into the canyon for some very impressive views. Our God is such a talented Creator!

The kids all started out being wonderful hikers. They especially enjoyed their water backpacks.

We saw quite a few brightly colored lizards that the kids liked following.

Because of the heat, we didn't hike the full distance to the bottom of the canyon but turned back after 0.8 miles or so. The uphill return hike to our car was much more exhausting for everyone. Adley ran out of steam halfway back and cried, "I want air conditioning!!" 😆 Thankfully, she has a strong and loving daddy who carried her along the last portion of the hike back to the air conditioned car. Even with these troubles, though, the incredible views were so worthwhile!

After the CCC hike, we drove along the Canyon Loop through the park and got out for a few photo opps.

I'm not sure why this developed, but Cody got a kick out of traveling across the roads doing a crab walk.

We made sure to stop by "The Big Cave" along our drive. This point of interest involved a bit of hiking, though thankfully everyone did this one without complaint! It was a very cool landform.

Jaden and Cody had a blast climbing up all kinds of rocky ledges, both in and out of the cave.

We'd love to explore this state park again during some cooler months, but we still greatly enjoyed our taste of Palo Duro Canyon!

That evening, after a refreshing afternoon swim at the hotel, we visited The Big Texan for dinner. This restaurant is famous for their 72 oz. steaks that, if consumed in their entirety in one sitting, are given to patrons for free!

During our meal, we saw one gentleman trying to complete the steak-eating challenge. He was seated at a prominent table raised high off the ground so everyone could monitor his progress. The guy made a good effort but called it quits with still quite a bit of food left on his plate. Cody, however, asked us to take a photo for his cousins of him (supposedly) finishing his own 72 oz. steak. Here is Cody's "exceptionally full" face. Ha!

What a great start to our vacation!