Are you forgetful when it comes to packing? I am. The morning we left for our vacation we got two blocks away and I realized I forgot the printed off maps and info for all the locations where we were staying. ::raises hand:: Miss Organized here.

Heading west we went through Woodland Park and made our way over the first mountain pass, Wilkerson. There was a beautiful view from their visitor’s center.

The weather was a little breezy, air a tad thinner and the view was fantastic!

Typically I hate being in a car longer than five hours and we had a five and a half hour drive in total to make that day. Due to the elevation change and long hours (for me) stuck in a car I was not feeling the best about 3/4 of the way there. Even on Dramamine I still have problems with the drive, so many tight curves(!), and we had to stop a few times along the way for me to get my bearings.

Tip: Just a note for all of you living at lower elevation, never forget to package what I call your “explodables” if you’re driving to a high elevation such as in Colorado. Just like when you fly the shampoo bottles, lotions, hair gels, toothpastes, etc will possibly ooze a little, or a lot, and you don’t want that all over your other packed items.

At Monarch Pass we stopped and I snapped the above photo. I suffered a blonde moment at 11,312 feet. I’m not proud of it. Apparently I forgot what the Continental Divide was, for a brief moment. My husband had a good laugh when I asked where the big crack was for the divide. Oh jeez. Just as soon as that left my mouth I remembered that’s not what the divide is and mentioned I was wrong, the water flowing the different directions to the oceans and all that business. But I was sunk. Unfortunately, this was not my last blonde moment of the trip and from there on my husband kept track of my “moments”.

For the most part the drive was beautiful and only a few areas were dull. At this point I wasn’t interested in using my camera and left it in the bag most of the first day. I wanted to get to our cozy hotel room in Ridgway, settle down, eat some dinner and have a drink on the rooftop bar.

I knew Ridgway was a small town, I just didn’t know how small. About 800 to be exact and 1,200 or so in the summer, according to the nice gal at the gas station. The town was quaint and we enjoyed the slower pace as soon as we pulled into town. I asked Jon if I thought it were crazy I could see us living in a small town such as Ridgway in the future as long as one of us had a decent job to afford the area, small but not cheap. He didn’t think I was nuts and agreed he’d like to leave the larger city life due to traffic in general.

Back in July when I made reservations for the lodge I really liked the look of the condo rooms but we didn’t need the kitchenette for our one night stay. Instead we went with the Crow Canyon Kiva suite. At home we have a queen sized bed and if at all possible throughout our vacation we wanted to sleep on a king. Jon tends to hog the bed and I tend pull covers to my side so king size works better for us. I also loved air-conditioning as an option if possible because I’m a big ol’ grump if it’s too hot and I cannot sleep, ask Jon and you’ll get stories. Plus, while late-September Colorado weather is usually beautiful weather it can also still be very warm…or you could have a snowstorm, you just never know.

We liked the lodge feel of our room and the textured wall, very southwest style, was nice. My favorite feature, the wooden beams on the ceiling, they were so pretty! Unfortunately, the photos I took of the room came out wonky but I still wanted to show you the room we stayed in so I’m providing ones from the website:

The wall behind the bed is a dropped wall, can you make it out? Behind the wall is the bathroom with a jetted tub/shower and a double sink area. I thought the glass cubes in the wall, as you can see light coming through in the above photo, were fun and the glass cubes were a feature throughout the property.

Here you can see the electric fireplace, which we didn’t need on our trip, and a small wet bar to the right.

After staying in a room with a door to a balcony from the bedroom I now hope to have that in a future home. Wishful but it would be so nice to eat breakfast out there or enjoy a glass of wine!

Unfortunately our hot tub was not working and removed before we even checked in. We were told if we wanted to use a hot tub we could use the one in the spa; however, the spa closed sometime early evening so time was limited if you wanted to soak late after dinner with a nice drink in hand. It really didn’t matter for us since we aren’t hot tub people but it is included in the room cost and we weren’t offered a slight discount for the missing feature. In the end I let it go and didn’t give it another thought. Just not worth the energy.

I was able to take this photo without any problems. I love double sinks, and again, wish we had that at home.

After we settled in and put up our feet for a few minutes we ventured out to find food. I had read online about a great pizza place in town and we were on the hunt to find the location. We had many nice dinners planned for the trip ahead and after a long day in the car we just wanted to eat, enjoy, relax and get back to enjoy some drinks at the rooftop bar.

We wound up at Panny’s Pizza, a small place that felt like home. With a huge chalkboard for the menu and tables scattered about the room for dining, we really enjoyed ourselves. Front and back patio dining was also an option if you liked. Of course I left my camera bag in the room, but trust me, everything looked fantastic!

We ordered a supreme type pizza and a small garden salad for me–I needed some more veggies in my day. The pizza was so delicious and the crust was definitely homemade…perfection. With carrots, cucumbers, green peppers, green onion, tomatoes and sunflower seeds on a bed of fresh lettuce (not the bagged crap), Jon and I shared the salad with some homemade ranch.

As we were leaving we expressed our delight with the meal and said the next time we were in town we’d definitely stop by, plus recommend to others. The gal at the cash register called out that we should just move to town and I told her the thought had crossed our minds!

On our way back from Panny’s we checked out the pool area just below our balcony and the Kiva Room in the same building below our room. The room was locked but we could see in and it looked really nice. The Kiva room is used for yoga classes, small groups and small wedding receptions.

But we were interested in the views from the rooftop bar and a few drinks!

The sun was starting to set and the weather was perfect. I took the above photo before the one below and I have no idea why the rooftop view is so dark. The manual setting on my camera still trips me up sometimes.

The views were gorgeous, the breeze ever so light and the music playing over the sound system was perfect for the southwest themed lodge.

I was enjoying my 18-200mm lens I rented to take on our trip. If I only had my kit 18-55mm lens there’s no way I could have taken the above photo. The mountain range was just gorgeous!

We ordered the usual, a Jack and Coke for Jon and an Amaretto Sprite for me.

My drink (in front) wasn’t wimpy and tasted so good. Amaretto Sours are too much for me so I sub out the sour for the Sprite, much better; however, I rarely drink alcohol because it makes me sleepy and I didn’t even finish my small glass before passing it over to Jon.

The sun fell behind the mountains and soon we needed jackets to fight off the chill. We sat and chatted about our tasty pizza dinner, our plans for the rest of the trip and the quaint town of Ridgway. The type of weather we had that evening, before and after the sunset, is exactly what makes Colorado a wonderful area. Perfect weather for BBQing and beer and then the chill to bring on s’mores and hot cocoa by a firepit – a great evening in my book! Too bad we didn’t have a firepit and s’mores.

As the clouds from before turned a beautiful pink we headed back to our room.

Part Two, Red Mountain Pass to Mesa Verde, coming up!

All photos, unless noted otherwise, were taken by me. Please ask permission prior to using. That’s the nice thing to do!