A Day with Marilyn and Jude.. :): Summer June 2012 Road trip.. Destination Denver, Colorado

Our marathon road trip started June 7th and ended June 26.. This is by-far my longest road trip/camp adventure I've have embarked on with Jude (my now 9 yrs old son). Our destination is Denver, Colorado a straight 17 hours drive from Houston. Since I'm the only driver, I opted to make several stops along the way..

Our first stop heading west from Houston is Llano State Park. In Llano state park, there is tubing and swimming down the river. I thought part of the river was on the dirty side with water that didn't seem too clear while other parts where much better. Jude and I stayed here for 2 nights and my only complaint is all the crawlers, caterpillars, and centipedes!!!! I hate anything that crawls, it's my huge phobia so staying here was anxiety provoking.

Our second stop was Balmorhea state park, which has the biggest spring fed pool in Texas. Since it is a spring, the water stayed at 72 degrees so this made for a very refreshing swim with the 100+ degree sweltering hot weather we were experiencing. We stayed here for two nights. The camp site overlooked Davis Mountains. There were no trees at the campsite, just covered picnic table. We were able to set our tents under the cover since we had a small tent. Jude loved this spot and must have jumped off the diving board over 100 times.

Pics below of this park..

The huge spring fed pool and the diving board Jude must have jumped off of about millions of times.

This was our camp area just under a picnic cover. No trees in site. We slept nice and sound though.

My little boo after hours and hours of swimming. taking a chill.

The third stop was Bottomless Lake New Mexico. We were suppose to go to Hueco tank State park but decided to bypass the park due to the incredible heat we are facing in Texas and apparently all of the United States. Hueco Tanks State parks is more of a climber park with no watering holes are lakes to cool off in so we decided to bypass this park all together and drive into New Mexico to Bottomless Lake state Park. The state parks in New Mexico operates differently then Texas. It does not close and has a box with pay slips that you will use to pay for the chosen campsite. Bottomless Lake state park was very much like Balmorhea. There were very little trees at the site and covered picnic tables. We set up our tents beneath the shaded picnic tables. There are 8 water holes in this park but swimming is only allowed at 1 spot. The swimming hole here was incredible. The water was a clear bluish/green and very refreshing at about 75 degrees. I thought it was definitely one of my more favorite lakes. The lake was small so this didn't allow for jet skis are boats so the water was calm and very conducive for swimming. Jude and I loved this spot but we only stayed here for one night.

A short trip in Roswell where we ran into aliens. This is before we made it to bottomless lake.

The camp site at Bottomless lake, New Mexico. There are better sites but we had no idea...

This is were we would rather have camped if we actually knew better. Hopefully we get to come back to this place one day. So many places to go and so little time.

The fourth stop was Sante Fe New Mexico. We would have loved to spend more time here but we only stayed here for one night. Santa Fe was a cute city surrounded by mountains. We didn't get the opportunity to explore Santa Fe as much as much as we would had liked to but from what we did see we loved. This was the one night that we stayed in a Hotel (DBL Tree). We were lucky to stay at the Hotel this day because it was the grand opening. The hotel provided entertainment, drinks, and food.

The fifth stop was Cimmaron State Park in New Mexico. We drove through a small town call Taos to get to this park. Taos was a very nice and pretty town popular for skiing in the winter. The drive was beautiful. We stayed here for one night. One night is plenty of time at this location. There are no phone and internet service at the park. Below are the photos.

The sixth stop was in Colorado at a state park called Mueller. Mueller is very close to Colorado springs and a very nice park. We stayed here for 3 nights. My only complaint are all the caterpillars and the cold weather during the night. Mueller state park is in the mountains and the weather is a lot colder when in the mountains.

Garden of Gods in Colorado Springs is where we spent one day exploring the gorgeous red rock formation. This place was AWESOME and a must visit. A person can spends hours here just getting lost, climbing these red rocks and enjoying a glorious view.

Our Camp site at Meuller STate Park. This state park is near Colorado springs.

Our camp fire. I'm getting this camp thing down. :) My first camp fire was a disaster. Didn't know there is a way to do this until a park ranger realize we were at it for about an hour and a bottle of gas under. As you can see that was another time.

This is Eduardo State park. This was a great state park where Jude and I spent a day exploring.

This is the river at Eduardo. This river was really cold but of-course Jude went in for a semi-swim.

This is a river that Jude tubed down, I tubed down this river as well but get off when I didn't want to go down some fall. I was chicken but that's ok because someone needed to take pictures of Jude. A river that was in the middle of Bolder, Colorado and the tube we brought to go down it. Bolder was an awesome little town with what looks like a college town. Reminds me of Austin but prettier.

Our seventh stop was Golden Gate Canyon state park

This was a hike that Jude and I decided to embark upon. Funny we had to takes lots of breaks being out of breath. We like to blame it on the altitude and not our out-of-shapeness.

Don't know how this photo got placed into the mix but this is Jude enjoying himself on Eduardo river at Eduardo STate Park. I think that was the name of the state park. Don't really feel like looking up the correct spelling.

These next few pictures are of Estes Park about 1 hour or so from Denver, CO.

This is the drive almost to the top of Estes Park.

This was pretty the very top of Estes park and the Rocky Mountains.

The next few pictures are of Red Rock. Red Rock is a stadium right outside of Denver, CO. This place was amazing.

On the very top was snow that has not quite melted. Jude got to step on it.

This is the Red Rocks right out of Denver. This is actually in Golden,CO.

This place is amazing an amphitheater that host concerts. Can you imagine over looking this while listening to some awesome music. would be great to come here for a concert one day but in the mean time we are just happy to have the opportunity to explore such an amazing place. The next few pictures are of the Red Rock amphitheater.

Jude running up and down the steps of this theatre.

The awesome view around the theatre.

This picture somehow got thrown into the mix. This is actually in Estes Park. This part of the park is very close to the summit of the Rocky Mountains at Estes Park.