Day 7--Estes to Arches

It was a little foggy when we woke up and made for a pretty drive as we headed out of the park. We were heading to Arches and the GPS showed it was going to take longer than Google had told us when we planed the trip. So we decided to take out the stop at Red Rocks Amphitheater to save some time. Good thing we did because it was still late by the time we reached Arches.

Our Estes Park Site

Our first stop was going to be a place that served crepes but they weren't open so we went to Coffee on The Rocks. What a beautiful setting with a creek, deck chairs, and flowers. It was cool so we ate inside. As we went to get in our car I noticed some animals across the creek, elk! So we grabbed the cameras and got some pictures.

This would empty the bird feeder quickly!

On our drive we noticed a place called The Baker's Brewery. How could we pass that up plus we needed to stop for gas anyway. They didn't have much in their bakery case but many of their menu items included good sounding breads. We shared a shrimp brushetta that was tasty and a flight of beers that were good as well. The bartender was friendly and fun to chat with. She was from Connecticut.

Kira was hoping to see a moose but no such luck. 

Driving through a tunnel

Love the rolling pin handles

After that unexpected stop we were back on the road. Our next stop was our linner ( lunch/dinner) stop at Rockslide Brewery in Grand Junction, CO. A nice place with more good food. The town reminded me of being on Route 66. After we ate we walked down the block to get some ice cream.

On the road...

We saw many distant storms

Rockslide Flight

Excellent Asian Salad

Across the street from the brewery

Back on the road!

I forget how long the trains are in the west.

About 6 we finally arrived at Arches. We found out some National Parks close at 6, then you can enter for free, not that we needed that. So we drove in and enjoyed the beauty. However, we didn't see any arches. As we continued driving we finally saw a sign for one. When we got there we discovered it was a three mile round trip hike. Not something to begin at 6:30 when storms surrounded the area and a long drive to the hotel was waiting for us. Then we found there was a short look out trail so we did that and just took pictures of it from a distance. Then we headed back out. Later we discovered there was a place with more arches but we wouldn't have had time to hike to them either. So this is a spot I want to return to, earlier in the day to have time to explore. The distant storms did make for a dramatic backdrop.

The only arch we saw.

Then we headed to our hotel in Richfield. It was a beautiful drive with the setting sun lighting up the rolling hills beautifully. I would have loved to make some stops for pictures but knew we needed to keep moving. Our GPS took us into a middle of a neighborhood about 20 miles from the hotel. Grrr, but we finally got there after 10 pm.

Photo by Kira

Photo by Kira

Click here for all the pictures from today's adventure.

Click here for all the photos of our trip.