Loving Our Guts on Vacation in Colorado!

My family took a vacation to the mountains of Colorado and we had a great time. Vacation when you are on a special diet or have significant health issues doesn’t tend to be very spontaneous and traveling light is not in the vocabulary but we made it work and had a great time. We rented a 29 foot motorhome for the trip and our experience with it was excellent.

The company that we used is a local one here in the St. Louis area. This company purchases new motor homes to rent out each year and then sells them off after one year of use is up. This means that we had no fears of our motorhome breaking down on the road and also it was not plastered all over with those advertisement that let everyone know you rented it. It made it easier to blend. Well as much as you can blend in a vehicle that is 29 feet long and 10 feet high. We spent some time in Rocky Mountain National Park and near Cripple Creek. We went up the cog railway to the top of Pike’s Peak and 1000 ft down into the Mollie Kathleen Gold mine. We also visited the Manitou Cliff Dweller’s Museum and learned about the Native Americans who had made that their home. We even had time for one my my favorite past times. Fishing! I didn’t even get an nibble but it sure was fun to use my new pole for the first time. I’m going to have to figure out how to go fishing more often. It certainly was a vacation to remember. My girls had a great time and really thrive camping and getting to spend most of their days outside experiencing nature. Below I want to share a few of my favorite photos from our trip.

Rocky Mountain National Park lake where we went fishing.

Catching her first fish!

View from our campsite.

Elk stopping traffic.

Sleeping in the RV

Cooking up breakfast in the RV

Farmer’s Market every week near Cripple Creek. I could live here!

Going down into the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine

Going up on Pikes Peak!

At the top of Pikes Peak. The haze is from all the wildfire smoke in the area.

The girls favorite thing about Pikes Peak. This was called Prop Rock.

Cooking hot dogs over a grill our camping neighbors brought.

It was too dry and windy for a campfire that night.

The supermoon over our campground outside Cripple Creek. It is red because of the smoke from wildfires.

Adobe Dwelling that was a home for Native Americans until 1989 and is now a museum and gift shop.

I think this was her highlight of the trip. Petting a wolf.

This is from the day we left Colorado. Our nice camping neighbors offered to take our photo at this beautiful spot.

Now that I am home again I can tell that our vacation took a lot out of me. I have been home for nearly 2 weeks and am still not back to where I was before we left. I still think it was worth it but I wish I could have recovered faster than I am.

How about you? I know that many of my readers have chronic conditions or children with chronic conditions that make travel difficult and exhausting. How do you handle vacations and travel? Do you have any tips to make it easier for us or others?