Syring Family Vacation. Destination: Denver

Mara FINALLY got a chance to take a small vacation!  She was scheduled for a week off so we took full advantage of it and got out of Phoenix, headed to the Rocky Mountains to visit Steph.  Mara, of course, had to work until about 11pm Friday so I grabbed a short nap until she got home and then we packed up the truck, grabbed Rohan and the dogs and headed out!  We took a slightly circuitous route diagonally across the mountains, but it was gorgeous, and we were not in a hurry.  It took us about 15hrs to get to Denver that way with all the stops for Rohan, the dogs, and us to eat and stretch our legs.
We were happy to see Steph again and meet her boyfriend, Mike.  Rohan took to him right away.  Our dogs played great with their dog, Roxie as well.  Our first day in Denver (Sunday) was spent at Roxborough State Park in Littleton, CO.  We hiked the Carpenter Trail to the peak, as well as Lyon's Overlook.  Rohan took the lead and started trail running right away...apparently the altitude didn't bother him much...  He ran about 0.6mi before we had to put him in the backpack...pretty impressive!  The views from Carpenter Peak were awesome, and the rock formations at Lyon's Overlook were like something we've never seen before.
Monday we took a trip to a new hike for Steph at Golden Gate Canyon State Park.  We found a trail called Burro Trail and a spur trail to Windy Peak.  The hike was awesome, and awesomely hilly as well!  The veiws did not disappoint either.  Very surreal place.
Tuesday we gave our legs a break from hiking, and instead gave our livers a workout.  We headed up to Fort Collins, CO to do a mini brewery tour.  Fort Collins is a very laid back place with some awesome restaurants and beers.  We hit up Jeju for a great sushi lunch before we hoofed it to the New Belgium Brewery, Odell Brewery, and finally CooperSmith's Pub.  After all that, we hit up one of our favorite stops, Fish.  It's an awesome little seafood restaurant.
Wednesday Steph had to work, so Mara and I decided to take Rohan on the light rail to downtown Denver.  Holy crap was Rohan excited!  He was just in awe of the train on the way down and even said "I'm a big boy now"...:)  He really thought of it as some sort of rite of passage...:)  We walked around downtown a bit, and grabbed a bite at Swing Thai before we headed over to Coors Field (home of Colorado Rockies baseball).  We had an awesome tour, but Rohan was really bummed he didn't see #51 Matt Reynolds, his favorite player. He did get to pose next to a cardboard cutout though...that made him pretty happy.  What made is day complete was one of the staffers gave Rohan a brand new baseball.  To boot, we got special treatment and got to take the field using the visitors dugout steps when everyone else had to go through the umpire entrance.  Rohan even got to call the bullpen using the phone in the dugout...you could even hear it ringing in the outfield.
Thursday we had one more meal with Steph before we were back on the road.  It was great to see her and catch up!  We headed back across the Rockies towards Utah.  Around Grand Junction we ran in to a little bit of rain, and a lot of wind!  We missed the majority of the rain while we were outside, so it worked out good.  We camped at the stunning Devil's Garden Campground in Arches National Park.  We were literally about 1000 feet from one of the arches (Broken Arch)!  We climbed all over and around the arch and our campsite.  We also enjoyed a Ranger giving a talk about Ravens at night before heading to bed.  The stars were great when the clouds weren't obscuring them, but we got a couple good pics.
Friday morning we packed up and took advantage of a fortuitous event of the National Parks being free the whole week and hit up the Islands in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park, which was only about 20mi away.  We hiked to Upheaval Dome, around Grandview Point, and finally Mesa Arch.  Very cool scenery that is hardly depicted well with photos.
After a fairly uneventful trip back to Pheonix (after a stop at Salsa Brava in Flagstaff) we crashed.  Hard.  The nap didn't last too long though.  We had to be up early to do the Warrior Dash with some friends! :)  It was a great cap to a long, exhausting, exciting and fufilling vacation!
We have TONS of pictures and some video...so enjoy! :)


Panoramas from our trip:

Rohan Protecting Us From Dinosaurs: