Road Trip: East to Denver

Much of Interstate 70 between Utah and the Contiental Divide
 in Colorado runs along the Colorado River.

     

Mid-April 2022 found us driving our 11-year-old Chevrolet Equinox from San Diego to Denver to meet up with Jane's sister (who lives on Long Island) and the sister's son and his family (who live in Denver). The ocassion was his daughter's fourth birthday. We haven't flown since the pandemic began, though we think we might fly somewhere eventually. The end of the mask rule for mass transit makes it much less inviting. 

      This trip also marked the first time we were eating almost all meals indoors in restaurants. At home in San Diego, we can eat outdoors year-round at most places. We wore masks in hotels, especially in elevators, but we became more relaxed about sitting unmasked at restaurant tables. (When we got home, our at-home Covid tests were negative, which was a relief since our granddaughter, whom we see regularly, is still a few months away from being old enough to be vaccinated.)

     Now, to the trip itself: 

     We left San Diego on Sunday, April 10, and drove about five hours to Henderson, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas. We stayed a night at a Hampton Inn, the first of three Hilton properties that we visited on this trip.  I have nothing of interest to say about Henderson or the hotel; we just wanted to break up the drive. The next day we made it to Moab, Utah, and Arches National Park. The park is spectacular and Moab is diverting enough for the hours that visitors aren't in the park. To give ourselves two full days to explore the park, we stayed three nights at another Hilton, this time the Hoodoo Moab, one of Hilton's Curio group. It is a strikingly designed hotel with a decent restaurant, an Instagram-ready pool (though the weather was too cold for it to get much use) and a hot tub. My main gripe was that even pricy places like this are not automatically tidying rooms every day, and unlike at the less-expensive Hampton Inn, rooms don't include any sort of breakfast. It's easy to see why so many people are choosing VRBO or Airbnb over the bare-bones service that so many hotels are offering. One recommendation in Moab: the Jailhouse Cafe for breakfast. Only a block from the Hoodoo.

       (Separate posts focus on Arches National Park, Denver, Pikes Peak, and Bryce Canyon National Park.)

      On April 14, we drove east on Interstate 70, much of the way beside the Colorado River, wending through the Rocky Mountains, crossing the Continental Divide via the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnel, and arriving in Denver, where we stayed four nights downtown at Le Meridien, a Marriott hotel. We ended up having several meals in the hotel's popular Corinne restaurant. Even more popular is the 20th-floor 54thirty Rooftop bar, which we visited only once and quickly left because of the crowd. Fortunately, there's bar service in the spacious lobby. 

     After a few days of family time, ejoying my nephew's slow-smoked pulled pork and doing some sight-seeing, we left Denver for two nights at the Cliff House hotel in nearby Manitou Springs at the foot of Pikes Peak. This hotel not only cleans the room every day, it does turn-down service complete with chocolates! We rode the famous cog railroad to the very peak (14,115 feet above sea level) of Pikes Peak. Then we drove back north through and beyond Denver to Fort Collins to visit friends who live there. We stayed two nights at the pleasant Armstrong Hotel downtown. Fort Collins is home to several big tech companies as well as Colorado State University, and the downtown has the coffee shops, bars and shopping that you'd expect with such a well-educated population. I especially liked Ace Gillett's, a retro cocktail lounge in the basement of the Armstrong.

      Then we were back on the road west toward home. Stopping first for a night at the Tru, our third Hilton property, in Grand Junction, Colorado. The hotel is more stylish and better planned (lots of hooks in the room, plenty of room for suitcases, etc.) than the similarly priced Hampton Inn. Like the Hampton Inn, breakfast is included. On our nephew's recommendation, we had dinner at Bin 707 Foodbar, a wine restaurant that offers local wines, including some "orange" wines, which are white wines that have spent more time on the skins to develop tannins, Think of them as meatier whites. Try the wines, but don't order the cioppino. Duck breast with gigante bean cassolet wasn't bad, though. 

      Next was two nights at a sprawling Best Western Plus in Bryce Canyon City, Utah. We arrived early enough to drive the 18-mile length of Bryce Canyon National Park before dinner (which was at the Stone Hearth Grille in nerby Tropic), and the next day we hiked a bit in the canyon, Dinner that night was back in Tropic, this time at Rustler's, which is conveniently located at a service station.  Get the trout; it was the best fish dish I had on the entire trip.

     Our plan was to then go to Boulder City, Nevada, for one night and a quick look at Hoover Dam, but once in the car we decided to skip the whole dam thing and drive straight through to San Diego. We were home before 6 pm.  In 16 days we had put 3,007 miles on the car. 

Here are some photos from the trip: 

Interstate 70 wends through the Rockies between Utah and Denver.

The highway lanes form ribbons across plains.

The variety of mountain formations make this a very scenic drive.

Signs along I-70 point to major ski destinations.

The lobby of the Armstrong Hotel in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Our friends in Fort Collins took us on a several-hour tour of Rocky Mountain National
Park. Bear Lake, above, was still frozen on April 21.

Looking west toward the mountains from near
Fort Collins. 

The west-bound entrance to the Eisenhower Tunnel on Interstate 70.
 It's the longest tunnel (almost 1.7 miles) in the U.S. Interstate system. And, at 3.4 miles above
sea level, it's the highest point of the entire Interstate system.  We stayed on
Interstate highways for most of our trip, Essentially, it was I-15 (and I-215 for a bit) 
north out of San Diego, through Las Vegas and well into Utah. Then we took I-70 east to Denver. 
 We took I-27 south of Denver to Manitou Springs (Pikes Peak) and then back north through
Denver to Fort Collins. We took the same highways home,