Originally we had thought we may leave from Kanab and spend a day driving to Albuquerque, get a room for the night and then spend a day driving home from there but I really didn’t want to spend 2 full days driving back to back so we ended up finding a room in South Fork Colorado and spent our first day driving there. Our first stop an overlook where the Colorado River connects with Lake Powel. It was just an okay view and not really anything to do.
This was still a mostly driving day and we drove a few more hours and had another brief stop at the 4 corners.
It’s about as exciting as expected. We took a picture, walked around all the states a bit, used the bathroom and got back on the road. We drove a few more hours and got to Pagosa Springs, CO early in the evening. We just parked right off the main road downtown and walked down a little trail to some natural hot springs we had visited on a ski trip a couple years ago.
It was a great break from driving and we were only an hour from our Airbnb. We had a drink and the pools were really hot.
When we got to hot the ice cold San Juan River was right there to cool us off.
After the springs we walked down the road a bit to RiffRaff Brewing and put our name in for a table. Then we walked to a playground and let the kids play. Then we went back to the brewery and had a beer.
It got cold and dark and the kids got restless but eventually we did get a table and had a nice dinner. Then we drove the last snowy hour over the continental divide into South Fork and our AirBnb. It was a sparce but giant and nice place in a great location. We watched TV for a bit and got to bed. We slept in the next morning as it was our last night in a bed until we got home. We tried to eat up a bunch of our leftover foods the next morning then drove over near Alamosa and the Colorado Gator Farm.
We have been to this place a few times now and it is pretty fun.
The gators were pretty lazy but it was still kinda cool out.
After the gators we said by to the Noels and drove on to the Great Sand Dunes NP. They were having a very crowded day but we got a spot at the picnic site and cooked our lunch while the kids played.
After packing up lunch I dropped off Heath and the girls at the parking lot and then drove up past the picnic area to find a parking spot.
I rejoined the fam and we wondered around a bit.
We had a good time finding a steep slope and then running, rolling, falling down it.
We still had a long way to go so didn’t stay too long before heading to the van and getting on the road. That was pretty much the end of the trip. The Noels had taken a different way and stopped in the afternoon for 1 more night of vacation but we drove through the night. We stopped near the CO/KS boarder in Cheyanne Wells for dinner. The bar looked a little questionable from the outside but once we got in there were other kids playing games and the food was inexpensive and great. After dinner we drove the rest of the way home and got in just before 3am. Sunday we slept in then unpacked the van and put our lives back together.
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