2012 Epic Family Race-cation (Part 2)

 Ok, so part 2 didn't come as soon as it should have, but hey, we're a busy family.  LOL

After we left Crested Butte, we headed north to Fort Collins to visit some friends. On the way, the GPS took us on an "alternate route", otherwise known as a "Mace Family Shortcut."  It wasn't any shorter, but it was definitely a lot cooler. We went through a break in the mountains called Cottonwood Pass. The views were pretty but the road was very curvy and I was getting car sick. When we got to the top of one of the mountains, there was one of those Continental Divide signs. We got out there to take pictures and my dad thought it would be cool to get the bikes and ride down the mountain the rest of the way. So we did. It was epic!! We got up to 52 miles per hour on our mountain bikes. My mom was a nervous wreck following behind us in the car, and my brother took pictures. I would love to go back and do that ride again.

Once we got to Fort Collins, we made plans to ride and do some other things on our list. First, we had to get lunch at Lark Burger. Not sure why my dad loves that place so much (he says it's the fries), but it was on the "must do" list. Another thing on the "must do" list was some hill climb training. Because of the wildfires, the mountain bike trails were closed, so we took to the road and practiced climbing there with our mountain bikes. It was fun to see the looks on the roadies' faces when we'd pass them!

Horsetooth Reservoir--Fort Collins, CO

While in Fort Collins, we did a bunch of other things besides just ride.  We jumped on our friends' trampoline, and we went ice skating and fishing. My brother Ryan had a more difficult time with the skating, but he did ok trading stray hockey pucks for lollipops.

After visiting with our friends for a couple of days in Fort Collins, we headed back to Denver to pick up my grandparents at the airport. They would be with us for the rest of the trip. From the airport, we went through the Rocky Mountain National Park on our way to Breckenridge.

We got to get pretty close to some elk as we were driving up to the ranger station.

At the ranger station, Dad and I decided to go ahead and ride down, like we did from Cottonwood Pass. It was fun, but the roads weren't as steep, so we never got over 42 miles per hour this time.

My brother took this picture and I just thought the sign was funny.

We got to Breckenridge about dinner time and I'll continue with part 3 there.