Roadtrip: Ohio to Colorado (Part One)

This past June, we set off in our 2011 Subaru Outback for a ~17.5 hour roadtrip to the mountains of Colorado. We built a platform for the Outback a few months prior in order to fully live out of our rig when need be, so we, including our dog Titus, were feeling excited and ready to go! We intentionally left without much of a plan, seeking to truly live on the road and find new adventures each day. Our only guide was that we wanted to see some national parks, be surrounded by mountains, and hike a 14er or two.

We left southwestern Ohio and drove slightly over five hours, making our first official stop in

St. Louis, Missouri. We knew that the Gateway Arch was a national park and a landmark that would be worthwhile to see, and we were so glad that we stopped.

Paying a few dollars for parking in the city and walking through the park was a great way to let Titus stretch his legs for more than just a quick stop. The park surrounding the monument was bigger than expected and we enjoyed a little walk through grassy flower-filled areas as the monument itself came into sight. We highly recommend seeing Gateway Arch as the sun goes down! Our hour or so stop had us wanting to make a trip back one day to explore more of the city itself.

Upon leaving St. Louis, we drove through the night and continued west. We decided to set our sights on Colorado Springs, Colorado after seeing that the city is right on the edge of where the true Colorado mountains begin when entering the state from the east.

We made our way into the Colorado Springs area in the late morning and although sleep was calling our names, we found ourselves immersed in Garden of the Gods.

We walked around the paved paths of the park for a little under an hour, admiring the climbers and the red rock formations. Garden of the Gods is definitely family and pet-friendly, but can be very crowded during peak hours of the day. Our dog is generally comfortable around people and other dogs, but can get excited and distracted at times when too much is going on, which we found to occur on a few occasions with the crowds.

That afternoon we found a local restaurant to sit and research for a place to stay that night. After calling around to a few different places, we found a nearby campground with openings for a reasonable price, Diamond Campgrounds in Woodland Park. When we originally set out on our trip, we didn't have any intentions to camp in traditional campgrounds/RV park settings, thinking we would solely rely on BLM land or other scenic locations. Given how tired we were from our drive however, the campground ended up being the perfect fit, with barely any other tent/car campers in the designated plots around us, and a private bathroom/shower close by.

We knew that we wanted to tackle the 14er Pikes Peak while we were in the area, so we booked our campground plot for two nights, knowing that we would be absolutely spent after a long, intense day of hiking. After a night of catching up on sleep, we woke up before the sun did and made our way to the infamous Pikes Peak. We knew that the 13.5 miles up and 13.5 back down the mountain would make for an intense day, but we were excited to be hiking in such a beautiful place.

The trailhead for Pikes Peak begins in Manitou Springs, taking you through switchbacks for the first handful of miles. At about 10,000 feet of elevation, 6.5 miles into the hike, there is a beautiful little building called Barr Camp, that offers stays for overnight guests. We stopped here and rested on a swing for a little bit, eating lunch and drinking plenty of water. If you wanted to shorten your hike and not summit the mountain, Barr Camp would be a great place to turn around and head back.

Full disclosure: although we do a lot of hiking back in Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and other surrounding midwestern states, we struggled with the elevation increases so early into our trip. While we were confident in our capability to complete an all-day, 27 mile hike, we started to really struggle once we were nine or ten miles into Pikes Peak. We experienced some altitude sickness at this point, pushing forward for a few more miles but turning around at around 12 miles into the way up. This was frustrating to be so close to the summit, but we knew that we had a long way back down the mountain and risked becoming more and more sick if we were to push through. We ended up being glad that we made the decision to turn back after experiencing worsening migraines and becoming more sick once back at camp. We were still happy with our 24 mile hike!

We slept in and spent the next morning in the town of Woodland Park, grabbing donuts and coffee from a local shop and sitting in a little city park while we enjoyed the views and made a game plan for what was next. After looking at the map, we made the decision to drive a little under three hours south, to Great Sand Dunes National Park.

In the heat of the summer, Great Sand Dunes can be crowded, so prepare to park and walk a little bit. The park is very family-friendly though, and we enjoyed watching people of all ages play in the sand at the base, surf the dunes at varying heights, and hike up the trail-less paths that you can create in order to make your way up through the sand. We enjoyed walking around and exploring the low-key national park that is drastically different than the majority of the state's parks and landscapes!

Here you'll see a picture of our dog, Titus, in Zach's backpack in order to give him a break from the hot sand and his big day of hiking the day prior.

After spending some time in Great Sand Dunes, we made our way back to the car in order to create a plan for that night and the next day. Southern Colorado is no joke in the summertime, it was HOT out there in the desert. We began researching dog-friendly hotels, knowing that we still needed some recovery after Pikes Peak and some air conditioning for Titus would be a good relief.

The three of us stayed at the Days Inn in Alamosa, CO that night, and after some amazing local Chinese takeout and showering off four days worth of excursions, we slept blissfully through the night. The wifi at the hotel allowed us to take our time with looking at maps and brainstorm what we wanted to see and do next on our spontaneous trip. Although we loved our time in the desert of southern Colorado, northern mountains were calling our names again.

As far as crossing some national parks off of our list goes, we concluded that we may not be this close to or this able to visit Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park again. Being one of the least visited national parks, and reading that only the shorter trails were dog-friendly, we decided to continue our trip (that was turning into a "loop" around Colorado) northeast and spend some time in the Black Canyon on our way back up the state.

We took our time with the four and a half hour drive northeast. We liked having a destination in mind, but had no time constraints and found a few different spots off of the beaten path to pull over, take in some views, make a meal and relax. One of our favorites was a dirt path that we saw from the highway that featured some water and views for miles. We additionally pulled off several times in the Curecanti National Recreation Area. The road winds up and down through the mountains in this area, and features pull-off zones for sight-seeing. Each spot was absolutely gorgeous!

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park was breathtaking. It is, however, located in a very remote area so plan for limited service. Due to some road construction, we spent our time only on the north rim of the canyon, driving around the perimeter and stopping at each little trailhead to take in the views. We are additionally (very) novice rock climbers and marveled at the idea of climbing in this intense landscape.

If we did not have a dog with us this would be a spectacular place for some serious hiking down into the canyons! The South Rim also offers a few more dog-friendly options. Given the park's policies around pets, we spent just under two hours at the park.

The remainder of our trip around the state of Colorado, including car camping on BLM land, running in Leadville, and hiking Grey's Peak will continue in the next post!