Colorado Birthday Road Trip - Part 1

For David's sister Natasha's 40th birthday, we took her on a trip to Colorado! We love Colorado, and have spent quite a bit of time there hiking and exploring. We planned out perhaps an overly ambitious 4-day clockwise route around the center of the state that would hit two national parks and a number of other attractions. We left Atlanta on a rainy Thursday morning. Natasha flew from New Orleans, and we met in the Denver airport. Luckily there were no problems with our flights and we quickly got our rental car.

Our first stop was Torchy's on the southside of Denver. Torchy's is a growing chain, but the original location opened in Austin in 2006, and the San Antonio locations were a favorite of Natasha's when she lived there, and we first went to one in 2013 in Dallas. After lunch we drove south to Colorado Springs, where we met Paul's Colleague Mary and her family at Goat Patch Brewing, then checked in to AirBnB in Old Colorado City, a neighborhood on the west side of Colorado Springs.

The first touristy thing we did was visit Garden of the Gods, to hike around a bit and take in the views. On a Thursday evening in summer, this place was fairly crowded, but we didn't have any trouble parking or getting away from the crowds a bit.

Dinner that evening was a take away salad for Tasha at Mother Muffs. Unfortunately, it was karaoke night, which we silently suffered through while they were putting her food together. Paul got a piece of pizza from Slice 420 across the street, followed by some ice cream at Colorado City Creamery. Old Colorado City is a quirky and interesting neighborhood with lots of restaurants, shops and a little park. We'd recommend checking the place out if you're in the area.

Lunch time!

Someone's happy with the appetizer sampler!

A beer at Goat Patch.

Paul and Mary at the brewery.

Our AirBnB was basement level, but it was really nice.

Garden of the Gods.

David admiring the rocks.

Paul and Natasha being too cool for school.

Old Colorado City was cute.

The next morning (Friday) Paul woke up early (thanks, time zones!) and walked to coffee at Jives Coffee Lounge, then we had breakfast at La Baguette. Both were cute, and Old Colorado City is a nice area for local cafes and restaurants. We wish we had a bit more time here, but we had a long day ahead of us on our trek towards Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park on the west side of the State (with planned stops along the way).

A cinnamon roll at La Baguette.

David enjoying breakfast on a cool sunny morning.

Views of Old Colorado City.

It's a nice neighborhood, reminiscent of some in Atlanta.

Our first stop of the day was at Pike's Peak. You now need a timed entry permit (a common theme in Colorado). We considered taking the cog railway up to the top of the mountain from near our AirBnB, but it was a bit expensive and would have taken longer. I think if we were spending another day in Colorado Springs it would have been the way to go, but we got places to be!

Pikes Peak is really cool. It's about an hour or two (depending on your pace and the traffic) drive from Colorado Springs straight to the top of a 14,000+ foot tall mountain. This late in the season there was no snow, which made it, and most of the mountains in Colorado, look a bit bare. I think we prefer coming to Colorado earlier in the summer or late spring to get the most idyllic views of the Rockies. Overall, the drive was great and there were wonderful views, especially from the top. It was quite crowded since it was a lovely summer day.

On the way back down, we stopped by Santa's Workshop, a small amusement park right at the foot of Pike's Peak. They have one roller coaster that Paul was eager to add to his collection. Paul paid for the wristband and was told the ride was open, but upon reaching the ride at the far back of the park we learned it was closed for a few hours due to some maintenance problem. All due credit to North Pole for giving Paul a refund on his wristband on our way out! The park itself was cute, and a nice park for children.

Driving to the top is not for those afraid of heights.

Almost at the top!

The cog railway.

We do love pictures of trains.

I mean, it is pretty cool. How European of Colorado Springs!

David gives Pike's Peak two thumbs up... despite almost fainting from altitude.

Proof we went to the top of Pike's Peak!

North Pole would probably be more idyllic in winter, but it was still pretty cute.

Stupid broken roller coaster.

Continuing our drive westward, we stopped in Buena Vista (recommended by two of our colleagues) for lunch at a place called House Rock Kitchen. Unfortunately, half the menu was unavailable but they did have pretty massive salads and grain bowls that turned into two meals. The town was pretty cute, just east of a major set of university-named 14,000 foot tall mountains. The area was very geared towards outdoor tourism and would probably be another fun place to visit for a couple days if we had more time.

Downtown Buena Vista.

Lunch at House Rock Kitchen in Buena Vista. A lot of avocados were harmed in the making of this travel blog.

After lunch we continued our drive, arriving at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in the late afternoon. This is a more off-the-beaten-path national park, with 308,000 visitors in 2021 (by comparison, Rocky Mountain National Park had 4.43 million visitors). This park is admittedly one noted - the only reason to visit is for the view of the canyon. But that one note is spectacular. There are amazing views down into the 2,000 foot deep canyon, and we didn't have any crowds to deal with. The canyon is called the black canyon because it is narrow and steep, so some parts receive only 33 minutes of sunlight a day. We drove along the dead-end road visiting viewpoints along the way. Our favorite spot was the painted wall overlook. We lingered there for a while enjoying the views and the distance sounds of the river.

Leaving the park, we drove to Montrose where we checked in to the Mine Cart Motel. This was an interesting little motel that had been updated and modernized, and is a relatively affordable option in the area. We had dinner at Tacos 2 Day across the street.

We had a lot of amazing views while driving across the state.

Some cool pinnacles alongside a lake.

We made it!

Thumbs up for Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

View from the first viewpoint. 

Glimpses of the river below.

One side of the canyon is much steeper than the other.

A little lizard friend.

There were some cool plants as well.

The best view was at painted wall overlook.

Painted wall is the tallest sheer cliff in Colorado, at 2,250 feet.

There are also views in the park of surrounding mountains.

The term "pack lightly" is thrown around a lot these days...

Pauls' birria tacos from Tacos 2 Day.

That wrapped up our first two days in Colorado. From there we'd be heading north, and then turning back east to finish up in Rocky Mountain National Park.

The Mountain State - West Virginia Weekend

Back at the end of July we realized we had a Delta buddy pass that was about to expire so we took the opportunity to get Paul some coaster credits and visit a new National Park up in West Virginia. We flew into Charleston on a Friday afternoon and back to Atlanta on Sunday, so it was a quick weekend getaway. While in West Virginia we visited Camden Park near Huntington, toured the State Capitol and Museum in Charleston, visited New River Gorge National Park (America's newest National Park), and just generally enjoyed the pretty countryside of the "Mountain State."

To kick the trip off, after landing we drove an hour west to Huntington to visit Camden Park and Malibu Jack's (just over the border in Kentucky). Camden Park is a classic, opening in 1903. It's a bit run down, but has some incredibly rare and unique historic rides. It's a small family park, but more than worth a visit for coaster enthusiasts. The most notable attractions are the "Hawnted House" (yes, it's spelled that way), a 1960s dark ride that can be considered a roller coaster, and Big Dipper, a 1958 classic wood coaster that is an ACE Roller Coaster Landmark. Our quick stop at Malibu Jacks, about a 15 minute drive to the west over the Kentucky border, was to ride the small indoor spinning coaster.

The "Hawnted" House.

This was foreboding.

The Big Dipper coaster was great - but could use some paint.

The ACE Landmark plaque.

They let kids sit three to a seat on Big Dipper.

Paul in front of the sign for Camden Park, with its creepy clown.

Credit run at Malibu Jacks.

After grabbing the coaster credits, we drove back to Huntington to look around and find some dinner. A common theme we noticed in West Virginia is that the downtowns for the "larger" cities were actually pretty put together. The fact that they hug rivers and are confined to mountain valleys makes them pretty compact and walkable. Downtown Huntington had a lot going on the Friday evening we visited. There was a summer music festival, lots of people wandering around and a good amount of downtown retail for a city of only around 50,000. We did some shopping at a comic/nerd store, and found a brewpub named The Peddler that had video game themed food and drinks, and an upstairs arcade. Beer names were tongue-in-cheek, like "Mighty Morphin' Sour Ranger." After dinner Paul got some ice cream at Austin's at the Market before driving back to Charleston to check in to our hotel.

Huntington city hall, currently under renovation.

Downtown Huntington had good urban form.

A theater and shopping district downtown.

Summer music festival series.

Dinner at The Peddler. Featuring a pepperoni roll, which is a regional dish.

A flight at The Peddler.

We're digging the video game theme here!

Of course Paul found ice cream.

Our hotel in Charleston served as our home base and we stayed there both Friday and Saturday night, as it was in the middle of everything - with Huntington and the coasters being to the West, and the national park to the Southeast. Charleston, like Huntington, is around 50,000 people and hugs a river in a valley. It's a quiet city, but has a number of attractions.

Saturday morning Paul got some coffee at Mea Cuppa inside the Capitol Market. We then got some food at a regional breakfast biscuit chain (Tudor's Biscuit World) and visited the West Virginia State Museum (because it's closed on Sundays when we were planning on touring adjacent capitol).

View from our hotel of a barge going down the river.

West Virginia is pretty, but there is a lot of poverty and disinvestment. It's the second poorest State.

David digging into a biscuit. Biscuit World is like a Hardees... it's fine.

The West Virginia State Museum was worth the stop. It's free and adjacent to the State capitol building. It's medium sized, and it's easy to spend over an hour here. Overall, we thought it was very well done and informative. It put a lot of effort into theming and telling the story of West Virginia. It had a surprising amount of content on black West Virginians for a state that's around 89% white. So kudos there. Some more questionable information provided by the museum for your amusement: 1) apparently, white settlers just sorta came into the State unimpeded, because for "whatever reason" the natives had already left... uh huh 2) A key reason for West Virginia to split from eastern Virginia was the east's "unwillingness to compromise" 3) Despite talking A LOT about coal and mining, there was only one small exhibit describing environmental concerns which did not include climate change.

David gives county-themed art two thumbs up at the State Museum.

Well if it's "real good" that's good enough for me!

The museum was very thoughtfully themed.

Paul would likely be the world's worst coal miner, but he looks cool doing it. 

We left the museum around noon and made our way toward the New River Gorge National Park. This is the newest national park, established December 27, 2020, and it's a worthy one. It's quite sprawling, and encompasses not just the river gorge but also large forested areas and several historic mining towns. We started at the Canyon Rim visitor's center, which was extremely crowded (well it was a summer Saturday). From here you can see the most famous view in the park, the New River Gorge Bridge. After looking around we drove east and south, skirting the edge of the park, stopping at the Glade Creek Grist Mill in the adjoining Babcock State Park. We stopped at the Sandstone Visitor's Center for a long distance view of the falls before turning back north. Our next stop in the park was the impressive Grandview Overlook, where we took a short hike along the cliffside. This was our favorite part of the park, as it had fantastic views and nice hiking.

A small waterfall on the way to the park.

Awwww.

Paul with the famous bridge.

The old grist mill.

The whole area has a lot of great Appalachian scenery.

Yay, cool roofs on the visitor's center!

Sandstone Falls.

Grandview overlook.

Walking along the Castle Rock trail at Grandview.

By this point we were hungry, so we drove to nearby Beckley and had dinner at Little Sicily. After dinner we stopped by Family Game Knight, a little video game and comic store. But we weren't quite done with the National Park yet - on the way back to Charleston we took a detour to Thurmond, which is a historic district inside the Park. A number of abandoned buildings stand alongside the railroad tracks in this once-booming coal town. Interestingly, an Amtrak route still stops here, although it had only 364 passengers in 2021, as there's literally nothing around. We closed out the day with a drive back to our hotel in Charleston.

The lasagna was meh, but the calzone was decent.

David with Gringar the Pokemon.

The rail and car bridge to Thurmond.

Paul on the bridge.

Downtown Thurmond.

Some, ah, interesting graffiti.

The old Whipple company store, part of the national coal heritage area.

The next day, Sunday, we had about half a day to spend doing touristy things before we had to head to the airport. We walked from our hotel to breakfast at First Watch, then stopped by Taylor's Books. Downtown Charleston has some nice areas, but it feels fairly deserted. A big part of that could be because it was a Sunday morning, but also population decline. The city reached a peak population of 85,796 in 1960, and has since shrunk all the way to 48,018.

View of the river on our walk to breakfast.

Yum!

Downtown Charleston has some nice spots.

Taylor's books.

Some interesting art on a big plaza downtown.

After visiting downtown, we walked back to the hotel to hop in our rental car and check out South Charleston. Oddly, South Charleston is actually northwest of Charleston. The "south" part of the name is because it lies on the south bank of the Kanawha River, while Charleston is on the north bank.

South Charleston is small and sleepy, but we spent some time walking around downtown, visiting a small Asian grocery store, and seeing the Criel Mound. We then drove back to Charleston to visit the State Capitol building. We were able to go inside and see the halls and the interior of the dome. Unfortunately, we couldn't get into the senate or house chambers, but we wandered around for about 15 minutes before leaving.

Our final stop in West Virginia was the Capitol Market. Paul had visited here briefly the previous morning to get a coffee, but we went back to visit the fully opened market. It's a nice place, with a number of vendors. Rather than being a market with just bougie prepared foods, it actually has a number of places selling fresh meat and veggies, wine and beer, and grocery goods. A great amenity for the neighborhood! 

A super weird Big Boy "museum" along the route.

The Criel Mound, probably built around 200BCE.

View of downtown South Charleston from the top of the mound.

The West Virginia State Capitol Building.

It's a standard design but it quite impressive.

Art on one of the capitol office buildings.

Inside of the dome.

Halls of the capitol building.

The outdoor section of the Capitol Market.

Of course we found ice cream at the market.

Paul (right) found a bigfoot (left) at the airport!

West Virginia is a weird State. It has a lot of natural beauty, but has suffered a lot from various environmental and social issues. It's the only state that has lost population over the last half century (West Virginia has fewer people now than it had in 1950). From poverty, the opioid epidemic, lack of diversity (both economic and cultural), and the environmental legacy of coal mining, it has a host of problems to overcome. With the new national park tourism is on the rise, and a couple of prominent universities bring liveliness and economic development. For us, it was a nice weekend trip and we'd definitely recommend a visit to New River Gorge National Park.