How to spend a weekend in Colorado on a Budget
While wanting to see the world when you have champagne taste on beer salary – you have to improvise and get creative on places to go and things to do! When heading to Colorado, first thing we needed to do was find an AMAZING place to rent and after that, our weekend pretty much fell into place!
Before we left, we stocked up on snacks from Costco and I made a casserole for us to munch on all weekend so we wouldn’t spend money eating out. Eating that meal after meal was a little annoying but we also carried our tub of Peanut Butter with some bread to fill us up on the 9 hour drive and many hikes that we had ahead of us. Oh and of course dog food and lots of water for our pup, Kota!
Our drive from Kansas City to Denver started out at 11pm Friday where we drove through the night and arrived in Colorado by 8am! My fiancé and I have a thing for sunsets and sunrises and I will tell you that watching the sun rise as we drove across the state of Kansas heading into Colorado with the mountains in the distance is one of the prettiest sunrises I have ever seen.
Our first stop was Denver! We drove through downtown and saw the stadiums as we drove by. We need to go back sometime to experience a game in that city because the views were picturesque and I’m pretty sure the beer at those stadiums is as fresh as it can get!
After we experienced downtown Denver, we got back in the car and headed towards Red Rocks! It worked out perfect that it was on our route towards Colorado Springs and it was 100% a must see pitstop! We got out of the car and hiked up and down the amphitheater having to check our pulse a time or two in the altitude! 😉
Once we took in those views, we quickly made our way to Colorado Springs driving past the Olympic Training Center on our way to our cabin for the weekend. Getting there was no problem… navigating a 2 wheel drive car up a mountain in January was another thing. *I strongly recommend you rent a car with 4 wheel drive if you are going to Colorado in the winter or don’t stay in the mountains – the choice is yours!*
With our success of parking the car and hopefully never having to take it out of the driveway until we leave, we took our bags inside and immediately went for a hike right out of our back yard! Getting to the top of our first mountain and being steps away from our door to hiking trails was really what being in the cabin was all about. From the location to the crazy amount of board games in the cabin and of course the heated flooring, is what really set this place apart from the rest.
Not to mention how beautiful Garden of the Gods is… SERIOUSLY this gem of a National Park needs to be on everyone’s bucket list. I won’t even go into detail but let the pictures below do the talking. I will say I do appreciate how pet friendly everything was and how many signs that said “watch out for snakes”. As much looking at the ground and bushes as I did, I am so glad I picked my head up to stare at the amazing rock formations right in front of me.
Colorado is an amazing place and we did so much for only spending 3 whole days there. From hanging out on the deck to seeing beautiful scenery straight out of a National Geographic magazine, we were so sad when it was time to leave but cannot wait to go back and do it again! Colorado – don’t ever change!
