Colorado,  Family Travel,  West

Red Rocks Amphitheater and Casa Bonita – Our First Look at Colorado

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October 1st was Day 1 of our trip out West, and the first trip of our “50 States Before Graduation Challenge.” We had a noon flight out of Cincinnati, so we left our house early that morning and picked up our friends and drove the hour + drive to the Cincinnati airport.  Hadassah had a friend her age on the trip and they were so excited about getting to ride on an airplane together.

Cullan isn’t a big fan of flying and always wants to hold my hand during takeoff and landing. He’s almost 10, and I know these hand-holding days won’t last forever, so I’m savoring every minute.

We are working on his fear of flying – ’cause it’s hard to be part of a traveling family when you don’t like to fly!

Hadassah fell asleep while watching Frozen on repeat.

We landed in Denver around 2 pm, grabbed our luggage and rental van, and headed to Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater.

There was a light drizzle of rain/snow, and we started digging jackets out of our suitcases.  Temperatures were in the 80s when we left home, so we weren’t dressed for colder weather on our first day.

The Red Rocks Amphitheater is made of natural sandstone rock formations and has the most amazing acoustics. At an elevation of 6,450 feet above sea level, it was once considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Today’s rendering of the amphitheater was built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) from 1936-1941.

Musical groups were performing here as early as 1910, and it’s still going strong as a popular concert venue. Musical artists such as U2, The Beatles, Willie Nelson, Blues Travelers, and Coldplay, among numerous others, have performed here.

Despite the rain we had an enjoyable time walking around the visitor center and the amphitheater.  The visitor center had a lot of great historical information about the park as well as memorabilia from artists who have performed there.

It looked like such a fun venue to watch a concert at – assuming the weather was a little nicer.  We were actually lucky that we were able to visit there because they close early to the public on nights that they have events, and the night we were there was the only evening that week that no events were scheduled.

The park is also well-known for its hiking and biking trails. It’s such a beautiful area. I would love to go back sometime when it’s warmer and walk around and explore the rest of the park. They also offer guided tours if you’re interested, and during the off-season their tours include backstage access.

For dinner we headed to Casa Bonita which is a Denver icon and turned out to be such a unique place to visit. 

It’s a Mexican restaurant that has a variety of entertainment programs going on while you eat.  They have a 30-foot waterfall with cliff divers and shows with pirates, gorillas, and gunfights.

In other parts of the restaurant, there’s an arcade, a puppet show theater, and a place where you can dress up and take photos.  Each table has a flag on it, and if you need more food or want some sopapillas, just raise your flag and your server will be right with you.

After dinner we had an hour and a half drive to our Airbnb in Colorado Springs.  Everyone kept drifting to sleep in the van, and I tried my hardest to stay awake and make sure that Rob was alert since he was the driver for the week. When we got to our Airbnb we crashed. The two hour time change definitely caught up with us!

For another look at Day 1 of our trip, check out our YouTube video below, or you can read about Day 2 and our trip to Garden of the Gods.

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