Cohrsville Times: Summer Fun 2009

We had a blast this summer exploring the great state of Colorado. On Memorial Day weekend we made a last minute decision to road trip the state and it was a lot of fun. We packed our camping stuff and hit the road, stopping first at the sand dunes, which were really fun, like one giant sandbox for the kids. The boys also had a lot of fun sliding down the steep slopes and rolling down the hills. It took a good week to get all the sand out of everything, but it was worth it!

Here we are playing in the river that runs at the feet of the dunes, the boys were having so much fun, we could have stayed there all day.

After the dunes we headed southwest to camp at Mesa Verde. Unfortunately it started raining really hard that night and by the time I got the tent set up it had turned into a swimming pool. So we took everything out of the van and set it up in the tent and camped out inside the van that night. It was certainly an experience, not one I'd like to relive anytime soon, but it was actually more comfortable than I thought it would be and we all managed to get in a decent night's sleep.

The next day the sun came out and we had a great time exploring Mesa Verde and the four corners.

Next was a trip to Buena Vista for a Montoya family reunion, which was a great time. We all camped at the feet of the chalk cliffs just south of Mt. Princeton and the kids enjoyed playing in the river by the campsite, hiking up to a scenic waterfall and getting to spend time with some cousins they hadn't met yet.

The next weekend we made our annual trek to Glenwood with Becca's family for some fun and relaxation at the Chair Mountain Ranch. This year we took a road trip over McClure Pass through the vineyards of Paonia and down to Ouray, which is a beautiful part of the state. We hiked up to the waterfall outside of town and also saw the Box Canyon falls and really enjoyed exploring the town and being with family.

There are some great beaver ponds near Marble that always have a few hungry rainbow trout. This year Grandpa David and I took Tanner and Jackson fishing and caught a few wild trout on their Spiderman poles (we released them to catch another day).