We started off by driving to Rifle Gap to the lake, which was low but still pretty. Curtis caught a pike, the little kids swam, and Peter read. We camped the next couple of nights at Rifle Falls State Park, which has an amazing waterfall and caves.

Our next day of vacation was spent at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. There’s a gondola up to the park, and it has a couple of small cave tours, which were pretty cool, and a variety of rides. Our favorite rides were the alpine coaster and the swings that swing over the mountain. It’s not the best theme park, but it’s very unique with the location. We left for lunch at a park, but otherwise spent nearly the whole day there. We stopped by South Canyon Hot Spring on the way back to the campground.

On day 3, we went up the street to the Rifle Fish Hatchery, which is open to visitors, and you can feed the fish. Next, we went and hiked Hanging Lake. It was a beautiful hike, but kind of a disaster in execution. Evie refused to hike. We ended up splitting up, but when we split up, we didn’t make sure everyone had water. It all worked out; everyone but Evie did make it to the lake. We drove over to Golden Gate Canyon State Park for another night of camping.

Day 4 started with a quick stop for fishing and the nature walk at the Visitor’s Center. We had some extra time to kill in Denver. We ended up at Pacho Sanchez Park, which has a really unique playground, and Chatfield State Park to spend some time cooling off in the water.

Our main objective in Denver was to see the Rockies game with fireworks after. It was a very fun way to celebrate the 4th of July. Our tickets allowed us to go down to the field for the fireworks show. It was crowded, and we didn’t get back to our hotel until midnight, but it was awesome.

The next day, we stopped by my sister’s in Laramie for lunch and went home. It was a great low-key vacation.