St. Vrain State Park in Colorado

For our last big stretch of time on our trip, we stayed at St. Vrain State Park in Colorado. This state park is on the intersection of highway 119 and Interstate 25, and is about 30 minutes from Boulder and Denver. We chose this state park because we had a really hard time finding available campgrounds when we went to book. We had our entire trip planned and booked and we needed something that was in between Yellowstone and home in Oklahoma. Colorado seemed like the best choice. Originally we tried to go to the Rocky Mountain National Park, but it was completely booked. As we continued our search we eventually found this state park, and decided to book it.

Spot #49 in the Bald Eagle Loop

It seemed like a great park - we were directly on a pond/lake where we could fish! 

View from the front of our spot

And, there were some trees!

View looking from the front of our spot

But, we didn't realize that we were also right on the freeway and that there wasn't a restroom or shower house nearby (there were showers in anther area of the park - but you had to pay). 

Yep, that is the freeway!

If we had known that it was going to be completely open with no shade, that there was going to be a huge heat wave (and some storms with incredible wind), tons of mosquitoes with the treat of west nile virus, and that we would essentially be city camping like at a RV park, we would have been prepared for our experience there. But we had it sorta in our minds that it would be like "real" camping like our time at Fort Stevens State Park in Oregon, so it was an initial disappointment for us.

After we figured it out, we did manage to have fun outside when the weather would allow. Our park DID have quite a few miles of walking paths around the many ponds that were on the property.  

One of the several ponds at the park

For the most part, the paths were nice even with interpretive signs. But there were also quite a few large stretches of the paths that were not being maintained well at all. According to what I have learned, they are working on transforming these ponds into this state park. They started getting it ready for camping in 2006 and are actively trying to restore a few other ponds. So, perhaps they are just stretched on what they can focus on right now. 

A tad overgrown bench 

However, there were some parts of the path that were pretty bad off - it was stunning that they would let it get that bad. But, it didn't deter us! We marched on and had a great time. 

You had to squeeze through the bushes and weeds in some spots on the path

 We did get to see some wildlife, like these American White Pelicans. There were a ton of pelicans at this park, but they were always just far enough away that it was hard to get a great shot of them. 

The white blobs are pelicans, I promise!!

We also drove into Boulder to go hiking. We started at the Chautauqua park and hiked our way into the trees. 

Great view of the flatirons from the park

The trail was not difficult, but we went up the entire way in (we went up over 500 feet in elevation).

It was great to get out into some pine trees. Gotta enjoy those conifers while we can before we get back into oak tree country. 

Trees, mountains, and my sweetie! Doesn't get much better!

I also talked Jason into visiting Celestial Seasonings. He obviously LOVED it! 

Time for some tea! ROCK ON!

We didn't take the tour, but we did taste their teas they had out. Yummy!!

Another day we got bored of sitting inside to escape the heat so we drove down to Denver to go to the aquarium there. 

It was a really cool aquarium! They had obviously spent a lot of time and money to make it "themed". It was really well done!

Uh, there are fish in the ceiling. They might want to get that looked at. 

They had this large fish area that had this little submarine thing. 

"Submarine thing"

Jason was all over that, of course! I'm not sure who had more fun, the kids watching him, or Jason himself piloting this submarine around. 

In the town where I was born, lived a man who sailed to sea. He told us of his life, in the land of submarines. 

The had a few other animals other than fish or sea creatures. They also had tigers! When we got there, there was a sign that seemed to say that the tiger exhibit was closed. But just as we were getting ready to walk away, this huge tiger came down the rocks right towards us! 

Uh, there is a tiger in there!

Umm, I think he is coming right towards us. 

We were the only ones standing there and he spent quite a few minutes pacing back in forth right in front of us. It was very impressive to be that close to a tiger - even if there was thick glass in between us.

Ok, he is looking at us like we are lunch. I'm a little freaked out, but yet want to pet him at the same time. 

Back at camp, we did spend some time outside in our camp site.  We got to see some very impressive sunsets. Just gorgeous!

So pretty!!

Jason enjoying the sunset while he BBQs us some delicious salmon

Kitties are enjoying the view as well. 

Dexter totally stole Kora's cat bed. Apparently he gets FOUR beds, the 2 that are his, Kora's and our bed. spoiled kitty!

Full moon 

All in all, even though it wasn't the camping experience we thought it would be, we had a good time. It was nice to sorta just sit and relax since the rest of our vacation had been non stop go. It was also sad since we knew that our vacation was coming to an end.