The Great American Road Trip: Kansas & Colorado

Most of my life since Covid struck has been defined by my attempt to get to China to teach English. I had plans to make the leap in May of 2020 and obviously it didn't work out. I went back to my previous customer service job in July of 2020, and I was honestly surprised when my recruiter from EF, the company I was hoping to teach with in China, reached out to me in September to say that China had reopened their borders. So I left my job in December, hoping to get overseas sometime in the next couple months. When that fell through due to visa issues, my recruiter told me they were hopeful that they could get teachers over there by the end of summer/beginning of fall. With that in mind, and knowing that Julia didn't have any summer employment lined up, I realized this was the opportunity of a lifetime to finally do the Great American Road Trip we'd always dreamed of.

I already had a loose itinerary that I had mapped out just for fun a few years ago (Yes, I really am so Type A that building an itinerary is a “just for fun” activity). But one day in April, Jule and I agreed that we would actually try to make a go of it. We were planning on focusing on national parks, with some cities thrown in here and there. We were also trying to check off as many states as possible, since we'd both like to visit all 50 at some point.

Truthfully, it was so much work on my end, to plan a monthlong road trip with different stops almost daily, and to coordinate activities, accommodations, and other little things like a dinner reservation here and there. I developed a packing list as well as a supply list of things we'd need to buy, figured out a camping equipment rental, flights and car rental, and found campgrounds as close as possible when the national parks in question were already full. Like I said, so much work, but it's work that I enjoy doing (and frankly, I had nothing better to do anyway). On July 3, we hit the road.

We flew from the Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown to Kansas City, MO via a layover in Detroit. Everything went smoothly on that trip and we didn't have to deal with any delays, which was a blessing.

A lot of people asked me, "Why did you guys start in Kansas City?" and the answer is twofold: we wanted to check off as many states as possible, and Kansas is somewhere neither of us had been; and the realer reason, which is that I found far and away the cheapest car rental in a Kansas City suburb (the Hertz in Gladstone, MO, for the record). Forgive me if it's rude to share something like this, but by picking it up in Gladstone and using a AAA member discount, the total cost of renting a car for a month was $1,050. When I initially started looking at car rentals, most of the others I found in Denver or at airports were more than double that figure.

After we landed, we didn't have to wait for checked bags because we were living out of carry-ons for the next month (which Julia had extreme trepidation about in the beginning, and now swears she'll never go back), as this trip was obviously going to cost a fortune, and we were trying to penny pinch anywhere we could. Checking a bag round trip would cost $70 for each of us, and we would also then have to lug a super heavy suitcase everywhere we went. For me, it was a no-brainer.

We got an Uber to our Airbnb and dropped off our stuff, then headed back out to explore Country Club Plaza and have a delicious steak dinner to celebrate the start of our trip.

At Country Club Plaza

Kansas City famously has more fountains than any other city in the world aside from Rome (The KC total is over 200). This is the JC Nichols Memorial Fountain, one of the better known ones in the city.

Country Club Plaza

We went back to our Airbnb after dinner, and in the morning, we went on a trolley tour of the city (I highly recommend if you find yourself in KC, and the price is a total bargain). We passed the Hallmark headquarters, which is miraculously still a family-owned business, as well as other landmarks like Union Station, the River District, City Market, and more.

Kansas City Union Station

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

The tour started and ended at Union Station, so we then walked up a pretty steep hill to our next stop: the National World War I museum.

National World War I Museum

The war by the numbers

Poppy memorial inside the museum

Selfie outside the WWI museum (Union Station is the building directly above my head, so you can see how much lower it was. Not totally certain I was going to make it up the hill, but we persevered!)

The WWI museum was fascinating, and full of so many incredible artifacts, that we definitely could have stayed for a couple of days. But we had tickets to see the Kansas City Royals baseball team, and what's more fitting than a baseball game on the 4th of July?

At a Kansas City Royals game (And there are fountains in the baseball park, too)

After the game, we went back downtown to explore the City Market area, and then we took a free streetcar over to the Crossroads Art District to have barbecue at Jack Stack Barbecue (which was delicious and I recommend).

Julia at City Market

City Market garden store

In the morning, we took an Uber over to the Gladstone Hertz to pick up our rental car, a lovely Nissan Altima that we both still wish we owned. We set off, and our route across Kansas went directly through Topeka, so we made a pit stop at the Kansas State Capitol, the Brown v. Board of Education historic site (which was the landmark case that proved segregated schools were unconstitutional), and had a nice breakfast nearby.

Kansas State Capitol

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site

Our trip across Kansas also took us through Abilene, President Eisenhower's hometown and the site of his presidential library. All presidential libraries were still closed due to Covid but we stopped to see the site anyway, which includes his and Mamie's final resting place and also his childhood home.

The Eisenhowers' final resting place

President Eisenhower's childhood home

President Dwight D. Eisenhower

We continued on, through cornfields galore. We stopped to do some shopping to get supplies for our trip, including groceries and some of the cheaper camping equipment we needed, and spent the night at our Airbnb, which was more than halfway through the state.

We were back on the road early the next morning, and finally crossed the Colorado border. It was still a few hours of driving through incredibly flat farmland before the Rockies appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.

Finally we could see the Rockies in the distance! (You can see them a bit more clearly if you look at the electricity poles on the left)

Our first stop in Colorado was Manitou Springs to go in the cog railway up Pike's Peak. We had tickets reserved, and I'd gotten a text from the train company that morning saying that we should park on the outskirts of town and take the shuttle in, which we did. We had lunch and explored a little bit downtown, and tried to then take the shuttle the rest of the way to the base of the mountain. But we waited more than 45 minutes as three full shuttles passed us without stopping, before we finally tried to hoof it up there on foot.

I'm a slow mover at the best of times, and with not being adjusted to the altitude, we were forced to take our time even more than usual, and we missed our train by about 10 minutes. I went to the ticket office and explained what happened; the clerk was very nice, explaining that they were sold out for the rest of the day, but we could wait on the platform and hope some availability opened up. Long story short, they squeezed us on the next train, and we sat on the jump seats right next to the door, which actually had more leg room than any of the other seats. So we ended up making out better than if we had made it onto the train we had tickets for.

The ride up was beautiful, but I either didn't read when I booked the tickets or at least didn't remember that one way was an hour and 10 minutes long, as we were traveling 9 miles up the side of the mountain. We've actually been on the only other cog railway in the US, which climbs Mount Washington in New Hampshire, and that ride only took about 45 minutes. But then again, Mount Washington is less than half as tall as Pike's Peak.

On the way up Pike's Peak

At the summit, which is 14,115 feet

We had 40 minutes to hang out at the summit before the train descended again, so we went inside and drank some water and sat down for a few minutes, as the altitude was already affecting us. I can't speak for Julia but I felt like I couldn't walk in a straight line. Unfortunately, I'm prone to migraines, and I had a feeling that one was coming down the pike. Much to my dismay, I was right, and by the time we got back to the bottom, the migraine had arrived.

Sometimes migraines last two days for me, so even though I admittedly felt like garbage, we decided to go to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs anyway, before we went back to our Airbnb. And Garden of the God was truly breathtaking, so no regrets (although the migraine causing me to throw up in the bushes was admittedly a low point).

At least I don't look as bad as I felt (like my brain might split in half)

We finished exploring there and headed back to the Airbnb, where I promptly passed out and slept for like 11 hours or something ridiculous (Julia ended up having a picnic dinner on the floor while I slept). Always keeping things interesting!

In the morning, I got lucky and the migraine had gone, so we walked into downtown Colorado Springs to visit a French bakery for breakfast. It was just as delicious as it sounds.

Downtown Colorado Springs

We then made the short trip up to Denver, which was only an hour drive. We parked downtown and wandered around a bookstore for awhile to kill time until our food tour started. Jule and I did our first food tour in Chicago in 2018 and have loved them ever since. What was even funnier about this one was that the tour guide happened to be a friend of Julia's from one of her summer jobs years ago. They met in Philadelphia when he was living in New York and she lived in Virginia but now he lives in Denver and is a full-time food tour guide. What a small world.

We walked around downtown Denver while we enjoyed our tastings, which included pizza, Colorado green chile, empanadas, a Native American fry bread taco, and ice cream. The tastings were so good that we literally went back to two of them and got takeout to eat later.

Larimer Square

Making new friends in downtown Denver!

Daniels & Fisher Clock Tower

Denver's Union Station

Inside Union Station

We walked around some more after the food tour finished up, and some of those photos above are from when we were on our own. And I genuinely liked Denver so I hope this doesn't come across as negative, but I thought we wouldn't have nearly enough time there, as we were only staying for one night. However, I was pleasantly surprised that I don't feel like we missed anything.

We picked up our takeout (which was pizza for dinner and empanadas for breakfast the following morning), I punched in the Airbnb address to Google Maps, and we set off before I realized Julia had told me to put in the Colorado State Capitol address and we then had to double back downtown because I am a fool. Again, always keeping things interesting. But we did see the capitol!

Colorado State Capitol

We realized I lost the car key inside the car when we got to the Airbnb, and this was after I had left it inside a different Airbnb another day, so Julia held onto them for literally the rest of the trip, because clearly I’m a menace. We watched some Shark Week that night while we ate our pizza dinner, then got up early the following morning to make the 45 minute drive to Boulder. Julia worked in Boulder at a summer program a few years ago so I was counting on her to be my guide, and she did a great job. Jule had worked at the University of Colorado - Boulder, so she showed me around there first, and then we explored downtown.

At the University of Colorado - Boulder

Downtown Boulder

Hearts on a String statue at the Pearl Street Mall

While in Boulder, we also picked up the tent and camp stove that we rented from Dick's Sporting Goods, so we didn't have to buy them and then figure out how to get them home from halfway across the country. Highly recommend if you find yourself flying somewhere and you want to tent camp when you get there! We got back in the car and went to our final stop, Estes Park. We had a late lunch at a tavern downtown and then went to our campsite for the evening, which was 5 miles away from the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. Once we figured out how to set up the tent (laughing a lot along the way), it was nice to have some time to relax, as the last few days had been pretty action-packed.

Driving into Estes Park, you can see the hotel from The Shining

View from our campsite in Estes Park, CO

Our trusty rented tent from Dick's, which was brand new with tags on when we opened it, so lucky us!

Double rainbow over the Rockies!

Julia and I both showered that night and slept in our clothes for the next day, because we got up while it was still dark, took down the tent as quickly as we could, and motored over to Rocky Mountain National Park to see the sunrise over Sprague Lake. On our way there, Julia had to slam on the brakes at one point because an absolutely massive elk just delicately stepped over the guardrail into the road. It wasn't more than 10 feet from us, no exaggeration. There's no zoom on the photos below.

Despite the short delay caused by our friend above, we still made it to the lake in time for sunrise, and boy, was it worth it.

Sunrise at Sprague Lake

Definitely worth getting up early!

We then continued on down to Bear Lake and walked the loop around that lake as well. It's a completely flat trail and stunning the whole way around.

At Bear Lake

It's important to know your limits when it comes to hiking, and I don't pretend to be the picture of fitness. I'm obviously a big girl and I also have asthma, to boot. But I had some interest in seeing Alberta Falls, which was supposed to be an easy trail. Julia had been to RMNP during the summer she worked in Boulder, and she was wary that even the "easy" trails weren't actually that easy. So I spoke with an elderly park ranger who confirmed that the Alberta Falls trail was definitely easy; "just a gentle slope down and then a gentle slope up, and it's less than 2 miles," he assured me. Well, it definitely wasn't what I personally would call a "gentle slope" either way, and it was nice to have it confirmed that I'm significantly less fit than someone literally in his 80s. But we got a workout in for sure and still got to see Alberta Falls.

We made it to Alberta Falls! (And took a lot of breaks along the way)

The best part about getting up so early is that we did these three hikes (really two walks and one hike) all before 10am. So we had the rest of the day to take a leisurely drive along Trail Ridge Road, the high altitude road that runs through the park, which crests at more than 12,000 feet. The views last for days, and Julia found out that she's afraid of heights (LOL). We also got to visit the Alpine Visitor Center, the highest elevation visitor center in the National Park System at 11,796 feet.

Driving Trail Ridge Road

Female and baby elk along Trail Ridge Road

We drove almost the length of the road because we were on a desperate hunt to see a moose. We had never seen one, despite visiting New England several times in the past, and it was Julia's dream to see one in person. We even went so far as to walk the Coyote Valley trail, a known moose hangout, in an effort to see one, but failed. I think it probably didn't help that we were at Coyote Valley at midday when it was pretty warm; we probably would have had better a better chance of seeing one if we were there early in the morning or at dusk.

Julia heroically doubled back all the way down Trail Ridge Road and we exited through the same entrance station that we came in, as we were going back east to work our way towards South Dakota. We left the park and headed east toward our Airbnb in Greeley, CO. We made a stop for provisions from CVS and had to visit multiple stores, infuriatingly, to get fuel for the camp stove we rented, but thankfully we found it eventually. We dropped our stuff at the Airbnb and then went out for dinner on a whim to a scratch kitchen called Gourmet Grub that ended up being absolutely delicious, and I would go back in a second. We ended the evening by watching more Shark Week in our Airbnb before going to bed early. It had been a long day and we were getting up early again to continue on to South Dakota, via a quick trip through Nebraska.