Colorado Road Trip Part II: Aspen, [CA]

I neglected to mention in the first post that a highlight of our trip was all of the Living Social/Groupon deals we were able to utilize. We lucked out with some phenomenal deals, pretty much every hotel had some kind of discount + free wine/dinner/spa credit/hotel credit/etc attached to it. We also stayed at all dog-friendly hotels so Tally could travel with us. Can't get much better than that!

Part II of the road trip found us driving from Steamboat Springs to Aspen. On the way, we stopped off to go whitewater rafting down the Colorado with Colorado River Runs (also a Groupon deal - yeah!). While the original plan was for Tally for ride in the raft with us, our insane snowpack melt had the river running much higher than normal, so the staff was kind enough to watch our dog while we rafted. We had an exciting trip through the "Canyon of Doom".

Next, we hopped back in the car and continued onto Aspen. We stayed at the beautiful Molly Gibson Lodge. We arrived in the evening and had fun dining al fresco and checking out the pedestrian mall with Tally.

 

We decided to spend the next day hiking Aspen Mountain. Now, Carter and I tend to "wing" things. Most of the time, this turns out well. However, when it doesn't turn out well, it is pretty much close to disastrous. This was Aspen Mountain. We had the bright idea to ride the gondola up and hike down (sounds good, right?)  It was about 4.5 miles with an elevation descent of 3,200 feet. While hiking the top trails were beautiful and we enjoyed a free classical music concert at the top, my knees just about fell off on the way down. We realized slightly too late that there weren't switchbacks and there were a few times I thought I would never get off that #$%$ mountain. It quickly became clear about why the employees tried to dissuade us from hiking down. Somehow, we finally made it back to the hotel hot tub. But I might need a knee replacement before I turn 31. 

Peaceful and beautiful at the top....

That night, we met another couple from Denver and checked out the Aspen nightlife. We had such a great time, especially when it came to people watching. Our take-away from Aspen, [CA] was that while we enjoyed the food, nightlife and scenery, it was a little too Rodeo Drive for a Colorado ski town. Stay tuned for Crested Butte and see why it tops the list as our #1 favorite town.