I started creating a blog post for this trip, the old way. There was so much packed into this trip that I would never get that done. So, I’m going with a different approach to make things go faster.
I have separated the trip into 14 locations (listed below), and each location has its own photo album covering that area. The collection of those photo albums can be found on my Adobe site: Mark Pastor – Morocco. This approach allows me to organize photos as I normally do, in Adobe Lightroom. Then I avoid the next steps of converting them and transferring them to this blog site. Instead, I just link to the Adobe photo albums.
It was a 17-day trip, starting in Casablanca and wrapping up in Marrakesh. We covered a lot of territory visiting many cities and locations during that time. We arranged the trip via Intrepid Travel.
Here is a high level view of the path we followed. (Map courtesy of Intrepid.)
Below is a list of the location/albums, each one links to that respective photo album. These are listed in chronological order of when we visited those locations.
Leslie treated me to a train ride for my birthday (September 7): Denver Union Station to Glenwood Springs. The train travels through the rocky mountains, going through Granby and Winterpark and eventually meeting up with the Colorado River and follows that to Glenwood Springs. The train is the California Zephyr and actually runs between San Francisco and Chicago, so we were on a small part of the whole run. Our trip took about five and a half hours one way. We spent a couple nights in Glenwood Springs at the Maxwell Anderson Hotel (formerly Hotel Denver) which is right across the street from the train station.
We traveled to Glenwood Springs on Sunday. On Monday we rented e-bikes (I’ve never been on one before) and rode along the Colorado River from Glenwood Springs to Dotsero, about a 36-mile round trip. It was a beautiful day and the scenery was awesome. The hot springs pool was a welcome site later that afternoon. For the rest of the time in Glenwood Springs we explored the shops, the eateries and some local trails.
We headed back to Denver on Tuesday. It was a short trip, but a great getaway.
From the TrainFrom the TrainFrom the TrainFrom the Train“Nixon Cloud” from the TrainAlong the Bike PathAlong the Bike PathHot Springs PoolFrom a Local Trail
Leslie and I have never been to the Grand Mesa in Colorado. We have only seen it from the highway many times. According to Wikipedia, “It is the largest flat-topped mountain in the world…reaching an elevation of about 11,000 feet.”
We made reservations at the Grand Mesa Lodge cabins several months ago and were excited to explore the area. We planned to be there for 3 nights, so we basically had 2 days to explore.
Thursday
On the morning of the first full day (Thursday), we took an easy hike along Mesa Lake to Lost Lake. It was a beautiful hike.
After our hike, we had lunch at the lodge. Then we decided to check out this road we saw. It had a sign that said “Observatory 12 Miles”. We didn’t find anyone that could tell us much about what we would find on this road, so we went to find out for ourselves.
The name of the road was “Land’s End Road” 😨
The drive was beautiful! Along the way we discovered the Raber Cow Camp. Most of the abandoned cow camps on the Grand Mesa were thought to be hazardous so the Forest Service tore them down. However, the Raber Cow Camp was spared and was actually renovated in 1993 as an example of what life here was like in the 1940’s and 1950’s, the heydays of cow camp life on Grand Mesa. Winifred Raber, who stayed at the cow camp every summer from the 1930s until 1966, has helped document the history of the camp.
We continued on Land’s End Road and after more wonderfully scenic driving we arrived at the Observatory.
Land’s End Observatory is a Ranger Observatory, built in 1936-37 by the United States Forest Service and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It is marked by simplicity and craftsmanship, appearing to grow out of the earth rather than intrude upon it.
While near the observatory we spotted another road to get there; this one looked like fun, so we took it!
That was an awesome drive! Great job Leslie. The road is a narrow one-vehicle width road near the top, so you have to be pretty careful as you wind around all those switchbacks. It relaxes in width slightly as you make your way down this incredibly fun and beautiful drive.
As we made our way back, the very long way (rather than going back up Land’s End Road), we meandered into the Adobe Badlands. After gawking at the badlands initially we tried to find a place to stop to take pictures, but the narrow road with traffic didn’t allow for it until we got to this place; which was OK but doesn’t truly capture the moon-like landscape we saw along the drive. I would love to go check these out again some day.
Friday
On Friday we decided to take another hike. Thursday’s hike was pretty flat, and we wanted to take a slightly longer hike that had some gain to it. We found the Crag Crest National Recreation Trail.
We opted for the out and back as opposed to the much longer full loop. We were delighted with the fantastic scenery along the way, and the spectacular views once we reached the summit.
Saturday
We had planned to take an indirect route home and stay in Cripple Creek that night, since Leslie had not yet been there. On our drive we passed Black Canyon, and since Mark had never been there, we stopped for a look. Beautiful place.
It was a pretty long driving day with nice stops as mentioned above, and I should also mention Teller County Road 11 which was a short but very fun roller coaster of a road with its blind ups and steep downs. We arrived at our home for the night, Cripple Creek Hospitality House. This was a very nice place to stay, and fun and interesting given its history as a turn of the century (19th to 20th) hospital. That evening we ate in Cripple Creek and Mark checked off one of his bucket list items by finally eating rocky mountain oysters (the easy way… deep fried with cocktail sauce). Yum. 😋
Sunday
Before heading home, we were compelled to visit a nearby town we spotted on the map: Victor. We found Victor to be a wonderfully quaint town. We walked around the town as they were having a Rock and Gem show that morning. We were both taken by the town’s charm and may very well have to visit again sometime soon.
We took a very long and arduous route to home trying to avoid Highway 25. We’ll probably take Highway 25 next time. What a fun quick getaway it was, exploring more of our home state.
Matthew wanted to use his existing vacation time before changing his job at Southwest Airlines. I was immediately on board to be his traveling partner for the trip, we just needed to pick a destination. After much discussion of various interesting options, we landed on exploring the great redwoods of California. There were several airports to choose from including Portland, Eureka, Sacramento, and San Francisco. We played it by ear based on seat availability and wound up starting in San Francisco and ending in Portland. So, our journey looked like this.
Matthew wanted to make sure he saw the Golden Gate Bridge.
The first day was filled with a long drive and a couple stops for pics, food and relief.
Our first destination was in the town of Trinidad, CA, a very nice B&B named Turtle Rocks Oceanfront Inn. The building is situated about 250 feet above the coast with excellent views of the ocean. It was very comfortable for the three nights we were there, and the hospitality was excellent.
Here’s a picture of a part of the backyard of Turtle Rocks Oceanfront Inn.
The B&B gave us a nice write-up of sites to see depending on how long our stay was to be, ranging from one-day to three days. That was very helpful to get started with planning our time.
We started by hiking around the local area (Sue-meg State Park), first stop was a place called Wedding Rock and surrounding areas, including Agate Beach.
We then took over an hour drive North to check out the Grove of the Titans.
Trail to Grove of the Titans
The trail was amazing, and the trees are awe inspiring. The last part of the trail was elevated on metal grates to protect the ground for the trees.
We had some time left in the day, so we decided to check out Enderts Beach to see if we could spot any tidepools.
As the end of the day neared we decided to have dinner in Crescent City. We found an excellent Thai place called Kin Khao.
As we headed south back to our B&B we happened upon a sunset. As you may notice there was a lot of moisture in the air, so we couldn’t really see the sun.
The next day we wanted to check out Fern Canyon for which we heard a lot of cool things. This was another drive, but not as long as the day before to Crescent City.
This was an amazing drive! Thank goodness Matthew was driving. A narrow dark trail among the ferns. The Park Ranger insisted on telling us “We cannot guarantee your safety for the three stream crossings you might choose to make in your car.” It definitely impacted others, as they parked WAY back before the stream crossings and had to walk an extra couple miles each way.
Walking an extra four miles wasn’t our favorite option so we crossed the streams. No big deal once you get past the intimidation (greatly caused by the Park Ranger).
Fern Canyon was beautiful. On the way back, we took another short hike to Trillium Falls, another place of great beauty.
Road to Fern CanyonFern CanyonTrillium FallsTrillium Falls
We returned to the B&B just in time to see another sunset, and this time the sun showed up (mostly).
The next day was a driving day: Trinidad, CA to Florence, OR. Along the way we saw some great beaches, were amazed by Fort Orford, and had a great lunch at Tony’s Crab Shack in Bandon, OR.
Fort OrfordTony’s Crab Shack
That evening we settled into Florence, OR. We walked around the quaint and pretty town, stopped into some of the shops, and had dinner at International C-Food Market Restaurant (which we thought was Novelli’s, until we left and found Novelli’s down the dock ramp). Nevertheless, dinner was good, including the oysters on the half shell, which, as any good father would, I made sure Matthew got to sample.
We headed out the next day for Portland, OR. We made stops whenever we felt compelled, taking in the vistas and some bridges along the way. Matthew found Thor’s Well, which was an awesome waterspout (just a pain in the arse to try to time your photo when the water is shooting).
Thor’s Well
Our final segment of the trip was to hang out in Portland, OR. We stayed at the Mark Spencer Hotel, which was very nice, especially given their free wine sampling hour shortly after we arrived. Then we had a short walk to get some ramen at Ramen Ryoma for an excellent dinner.
For the last day of our trip, we decided to visit the arboretum in the early morning followed by a visit to the Japanese Gardens. What a beautiful way to spend some time.
Portland Japanese Garden
And then we flew home.
The end.
Epilogue
What a wonderful 5-day trip. Thanks to Matthew for instigating the trip, for doing ALL the driving, and for arranging flights for us. Since this trip, Matthew has graduated from a month-long training program to be a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines. I am excited for the many adventures in front of him, and very thankful for this wonderful visit to the Pacific Northwest area.
The traveling crew on this trip was Cynthia, Leslie, Alex and yours truly. Alex had been nudging us to visit Mexico City for a while and since I have never been I was very open to the suggestion. Alex visited there within a couple years so he had some familiarity and did a lot of the planning for us; a big thank you to you Alex!
We each arranged our flights separately, so Cynthia, Leslie and I were on the same AeroMexico flight while Alex was on Volares flights which were closely aligned in time – so we all departed and arrived in both locations at around the same times.
We stayed at Hotel Roosevelt, a 3-star hotel in the heart of Mexico City making it walking distance to a variety of eateries, coffee houses, music and bar venues as well as personal item shopping.
Traffic in the city during waking hours was heavily congested all the time – so planning ahead and reserving time to get to locations is critical. Nevertheless, Uber and Taxis were readily available for those jaunts.
On the evening of our arrival (Saturday), we took a walk down the street from our hotel to a great taco place called Taqueria Orinoco – highly recommended. The tacos and sauces were deliciousa!
Sunday
Cynthia, Leslie and I started the morning in search of a coffee house. We discovered La Balance about a half mile from our hotel.
La Balance offered great coffee and sidewalk seating where we enjoyed the cool morning air looking out to busy streets and a nice park on the other side.
Later, the four of us Uber’d to the Palacio de Bellas Artes (the Cultural Centre and Opera House) that hosts many performances and museum displays including works of Diego Rivera and other highly notable artists. Our visit was timed perfectly as during our stay a small string orchestra gave us a wonderful concert in the main floor area.
After Palacio de Bellas Artes we Uber’d to Bosque de Chapultepec where we enjoyed walking around the park and we visited the Chapultepec Castle. There were some interesting museum displays in the castle such as old horse-drawn carriages that transported royal and presidential parties to various locations. Aside from the internal displays, the views outside overlooking Mexico City were spectacular.
We wrapped up the day with dinner at a great restaurant pick of Alex’s: La Capital.
We met the van outside our hotel at 4:05am as we were the first pickup of several before heading out for a ballooning adventure over the city and the pyramids.
Celebrating our rough landing in a small open area near trees, power lines, and other large hard objects
We followed up the balloon ride with breakfast in a cave and a walk among the pyramids.
After returning to our hotel we ventured out for dinner at il Fiorino Italian restaurant. After that the boys (Alex and Mark) had a wild night out on the town at a local jazz club.
Tuesday
Our final day included a visit to the canal region called Xochimilco. Not only did we relax in our boat as we meandered along the canals…
… and the Grupo de Investigación del Ajolote en Xochimilco (GIA-X), a nonprofit research group dedicated to the preservation of the axolotl.
We ended the day in the neighborhood of Colonia del Carmen where the Frida Kahlo Museum sits (you may have heard of her blue house). We ate at a really good taco joint called La Casa de Los Tacos Coyoacán on a trendy street about a half mile away from Frida’s place. We didn’t have tickets to get into Frida’s house, so we just looked at the outside and stopped in a cool shop nearby. This would be a nice area to visit on a future trip.
In Closing
We headed home early Wednesday morning and all went well. This was a great intro trip to Mexico City. Lot’s of thanks to Alex for scoping things out and guiding us to many of the great places we visited. That was a short but full trip and it was a lot of fun!
