Colorado Adventure 6 - Cheyenne and Denver

 Day 6 - Friday: Cheyenne and Denver.

After five very full days of sunshine and fresh air, we decided we needed a road trip day. So we packed our bags in Estes Park and left the bugling elk (who bugled all night long) behind for Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Estes Park

Heading out of town we stopped at The Ark, just a few hundred feet from our hotel. What a kooky place!

The Ark GC6AVHF

And, as TaGeez was signing the log, guess who ambled out of the nearby bushes, announcing himself?!? Wow, are they loud! They sound like pressure steam coming out of a hot water heater.

We took the scary, circuitous road out of Estes Park and then headed north to Wyoming.

This is our fourth state on this trip and, again, the landscape was so different! Golden plains stretching out for miles on either side of the highway! We passed bison and prairie dogs! And, yet, you could still see the Rockies purple against the horizon to the west.

Why take pictures of actual bison if you can just
snap a picture of the sign, right? 

Wyoming

I would say, in the over 3 dozen states I've crossed, that few Visitor Centers have impressed me as much as Wyoming's. Modern amenities, great history displays, picnic areas built to mimic local Indian structures.

Signal spending time with Butch Cassidy

And, yes, they had geocaches and adventure labs. We spent quite a bit of time here.

Our other major motivator for heading north was the Cheyenne webcam. Can you believe it? It stopped working the day we landed! And it still wasn't working almost a week later. We went into the weather bureau, but they said they can only report the issue. (Update: It took almost 3 weeks but it's back online).

We don't like claiming webcams that aren't working, but when are we going to be back this way?

Cheyenne Webcam Virtual GC51D4

Next up was a tour of the capital and surrounding historical sites. The whole area had such a community feel to it. I won't post picture here - the Virtuals weren't very exciting, but I don't want to give spoilers away.

Deadwood Stage Start GCEAF6

Is that the capital? YES!

As we turned towards Denver, we spied a First-To-Find opportunity in a nearby Wyoming Park. Looked simple enough, right? Very tall grass concealing cacti and barbed wire. What could go wrong? But we got it!

Clear Creek GCAE6W8 - FTF!

Now is time to head towards our final hotel for the trip in Northglenn plus a little sightseeing in Denver.

Welcome (again) to Colorado!

Prairie dogs just off the freeway!

We wrapped our day visiting touristy spots in the capital of Colorado. I have a personal challenge where I like to grab at least one geocache in every state capital we visit. I should make a challenge of it.

Admittedly we didn't linger downtown because there were so many homeless encampments, but sunset on the steps of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science perfectly wrapped our trip!

The Denver Mint Virtual GC7B7VK

Another capital building

Now, funny thing is we decided to drive over to one more Virtual before turning in for the night. Little did we know that it was at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. I've been carrying around this screenshot from the Denver Travel Guide for months and we wre heading there at sunset!

Isn't it a picture? Ferril Lake in front of downtown Denver in front of the Rocky Mountains at sunset!

The sun was very bright, and we didn't want to photograph right into the sun with our new phones so we moseyed out front to get the Benchmark virtual.

Denver Benchmark Virtual GC52E2

And this is what we saw when we came back. Gorgeous!

City of Denver & Rockies reflected in back of building

We headed back to our hotel in Northglenn and started looking for a place to eat. We randomly picked this Mexican restaurant and are still talking about this meal! Later, a local who is also a coworker, said we happened upon her favorite restaurant in Colorado! So wish they opened a location back home.

Fired up by my amazing fajitas and sopapillas, we decided we had just enough energy to detour to this war memorial virtual nearby before tucking in for the night!

Northglenn Veterans Memorial Virtual GCHHJY

So sad that this amazing adventure is almost over as tomorrow we leave.