Members and friends of the Let’s Travel Club joined other Collette travelers as they enjoyed a 9-day tour discovering Colorado, June 4-12, 2021. The group visited four national parks and had two train rides while learning the history and viewing the beauty of this state.
The tour began in Denver where everyone stayed in the beautiful Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel. This hotel was located on the 16th Street Mall. The free bus line allowed travelers to travel along the mall route to shops, restaurants, and the Union Station.
The first full day of touring was a busy one. As the bus traveled through Estes Park, there was time to get a glimpse of the Stanley Hotel.
Stephen King spent one night at this hotel. The experience inspired him to write The Shining. The group then continued through the entire loop of Rocky Mountain National Park. Much of the day was spent at an altitude of over 12,000 feet. Spectacular views of the mountains and valleys were enjoyed by all. Wildlife was spotted along this route. The travelers saw moose, elk, mule deer, buffalo and big horn sheep.
Just before arriving in Grand Junction, the group traveled through Colorado National Monument. This was a favorite to many of the group. They followed the monument’s historic Rim Rock Drive enjoying the colorful deep, sheer-sided canyons and high rock towers.
The next day the group traveled into Utah to enjoy more spectacular formations. All along the trip our tour manager shared the history of the area including sites where various movies were filmed and television ads were made. One tall rock formation that wasn’t very wide or very flat on the top was the scene of a 1964 Chevrolet ad where a model and convertible were placed on top by helicopters. The weather didn’t cooperate entirely. The model ended up on top of this rock in the car for seven hours before the shoot was complete.
While in Utah the group toured through Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park. What a day that was and just full of beautiful scenery.
The next stop was in the National Historic Landmark town of Silverton. Before this stop could be made, everyone had to travel over Red Mountain Pass. The cliffs, the cascades, the waterfalls, the views of Ouray from the mountainside were all amazing.
After lunch in Silverton, the travelers boarded the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. They traveled 45 miles in 3.5 hours. As the train moved along the tracks, the travelers viewed more beautiful scenery including at one point the river which was 440 feet below.
Much of the next day was spent in Mesa Verde National Park. This area was home to the ancient Ancestral Puebloan civilization. The cliff dwellings were viewed from several vantage points as the bus made photo stops getting closer and closer to the dwellings. The Cliff Palace was a favorite as it is the largest in the park. A step-on guide shared much of the history of the area as we visited locations of pit houses and enjoyed the park.
The last time to cross a Continental Divide (there were four in all) was at Wolf Creek Pass between Pagosa Springs and South Fork. After enjoying lunch in Salida, the group spent the next two nights in Colorado Springs.
The last full day of touring was another busy one. The bus took us to Garden of the Gods Visitor Center to view the formations with the morning sun shining on them with the backdrop of Pikes Peak—another spectacular view. Then it was time for another train ride. At Canon City, the travelers boarded the Royal Gorge Route Railroad. Everyone enjoyed following the Arkansas River as it traveled within the soaring 1000-foot granite cliffs of Colorado’s grandest canyon. The group then returned to the Garden of the Gods to tour and walk among the sandstone formations standing vertical to the ground. The views were beautiful in the afternoon/evening sunlight.
Four national parks, one state park, two historic train rides, many national forests, mountain tops, mountain valleys, crossing Colorado, Rio Grande, Arkansas Rivers, traveling along these rivers all made for a wonderful, fantastic tour. Our tour manager, Heather, and our bus driver, Nathan, were special additions to this exciting adventure.
Those participating in this tour were: Karen Smith from Corsicana; Weems and Candace Turner from Sugarland; Sally Wilkerson from Thornton; Carolyn Hancock from Mexia; Terry and Kim Hancock from Denton; Judy Wardle from Streetman; Hazel Sanders, Leslie Avery, Jerri McBay from Fairfield.
The next trip on the calendar is a day trip to Lone Star Park on July 10. Then, the Let’s Travel Club is hoping to join Collette for a tour of Scotland in August. There is a 3-day trip to Oklahoma in September to visit Pawhuska, Oklahoma, and Pioneer Woman Mercantile. October will find Let’s Travel Club on another Collette tour to Bluegrass Country and the Smoky Mountains as we visit Louisville, Biltmore Hotel, and many other fun sites. Registration is going on right now for all of these trips.
The year of 2022 will be a great year to tour with Let’s Travel Club as they plan to travel with Collette to the Floriade in May visiting London and Amsterdam, then in September there is a tour to Switzerland, Austria, Bavaria that includes the Oberammergau Passion Play, and in October there is a tour Iceland’s Magical Northern Lights on the schedule. The Floriade and Passion Play both take place every 10 years. The 2022 presentations were rescheduled from 2020. That means they fill fast. Please call Jerri McBay at 903-388-2243 if you would like to know more about any of these tours.
