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March: Pagosa Springs

Day one: We drove to Pagosa Springs from Denver (4.5ish hours).  We checked into to our Air B&B around 2pm.  We used Air B&B because the pups made the adventure with us  we tend to look for pet friendly Air B&Bs what we get the entire place to ourselves so we can bring the kennels and leave the pups for a few hours.  We went to check out the town, specifically to try the three breweries in town.  The first Wolfe Brewing Co, this was a given since we have a resident wolf dog (Bruin).  They have a great patio which is also dog friend (ours are not that well behaved to be on patios)  they also have dogs on site.  The second, Pagosa Brewing & Grill  they also have a nice outdoor seating area with a few games to play, there was also a local guy jamming on a variety of instruments that was worth listening while had a couple beers. The third and final brewery, Riff Raff Brewing Company, this appears to be a house turned brewery and restaurant it was the busiest of the three so we only got a beer from the bar and headed back to see the pups.  We went back to pick up the pups then back to downtown and walked the San Juan River Walk with them -- it was a beautiful night for a walk. 

Day two: Ski day at Wolf Creek Ski Area! Wolf Creek has been on our list to ski for some time -- we’ve heard great things about it and the conditions are usually great.  We had a blast and for half the cost of the front range ski resorts day pass you can’t really beat it ($65/person to be exact). They were in definite need of some snow, but still a great day - it was also spring skiing weather and another beautiful day. Once we maxed out ski legs we went back to the pups, we took them for a short walk/hike a few miles away from our Air B&B at a national forest access.  It was still mostly snow covered and with the warm weather made for difficult hiking/walking, we didn’t get far.  We decided to go check out any festivities for St. Patrick’s Day in town mostly we checked out some of the local shops and posted up at local dive The Pagosa Bar, pretttty sure this was also Zach’s favorite part of the trip.  The bar has a fun local crowd and welcoming to us, clearly non-locals check it out and look for the Yeti sticker on the cooler.  We got some take out from Rosie’s Pizzeria to take home for the night. 

Day three: We got up to head back to Denver we stopped at the base of Wolfe Creek Pass to hike to Treasure Falls (this also can be seen from the road at the scenic pull out).  The hike itself is pretty short and not very technical however for the time year it was packed snow that had frozen overnight so it was a little slippery with two dogs pulling you the whole way. The falls are definitely worth the trek for how close it is to the road. From here we drove to our next pitstop in Buena Vista.  Once in Buena Vista we ate and drank at Eddyline Brewery, took the pups to a local off leash dog park, walked around main street and had one whiskey drink from Deerhammer Distilling Company (highly recommended) on their dog friendly patio before driving back to Denver. 

|Travel Details|

Denver, CO to Pagosa Springs, CO = 4.5ish hours | Pagosa Springs, CO to Buena Vista, CO = 3ish hours| Buena Vista, CO Denver, CO = 2.15ish hours|

 |Where to Eat/Drink|

|Wolfe Brewery, Pagosa Springs, CO | Pagosa Brewing & Grill, Pagosa Springs, CO | Riff Raff Brewing Company,  Pagosa Springs, CO | Rosie’s Pizzeria, Pagosa Springs, CO | Pagosa Bar, Pagosa Springs, CO| Eddyline Brewery Buena Vista, CO | Deerhammer Distilling Company - Buena Vista, CO|

|Dog Friendly|

|San Juan Riverwalk (on-leash) Pagosa Springs, CO| Wolfe Brewery (on-leash/patio)  Pagosa Springs, CO | Riverpark Dog Park (off-leash)  Buena Vista, CO| Deerhammer Distillery Company (on-leash/patio)  Buena Vista, CO|

Yeti Gear: Hoody |Signature Cap | Yeti Tank | 

Other notable March adventures:

I wore a dress & Zach a tux at a friend’s wedding. Those outfits are pretty adventurous for us.

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February: New Mexico

White Sands National Monument  // Carlsbad Caverns National Park // Bottomless Lake State Park // Santa Fe

Day one: We left Denver to drive to White Sands National Monument just outside Alamogordo, NM (roughly 8.5 hours).  We got to the Visitor’s center to purchase our back-country camping permit. They provide you with a pretty basic map with where you camp site is located.  We drove to the trail head, the campsite was roughly just over one mile, which was nice because we ended up forgetting a couple of things in the jeep that we needed to hike back to get. We set up camp and walked around the dunes for the afternoon before calling it a night. The four of us (that’s right White Sands is dog friendly!) got cozy in our tent.

Day two: All four of us woke bright and early for sunrise and we were not disappointed.  Once we had breakfast, we hiked back to the jeep to drive back to visitor’s center (you must go back out and purchase a permit for each night you stay) because the second night was Saturday we wanted to get there right when they opened to assure we got our campsite for night two.   We also purchased a sled and drove back to the dunes to get some sledding in.  It was a blast and the pups absolutely loved it, especially the resident wolf dog.  We hiked back to camp and kept ourselves busy until we could watch the sunset.  The last night a storm rolled through and we awoke to some pretty high winds and sound the rain hitting the tent, she sure did hold up to the weather, we high recommend Big Agnes Tents. 

Day three: We got up before the sun, broke down camp and hiked out to the jeep with our gear and pups navigating the back-country camping trail with headlights can be slightly daunting.  They do have poles to mark the trail and say you should be able to see two at all times, nevertheless in the dark it all looks the same, but we made it out. The one thing about back country camping in White Sands is that they lock into you the park with a gate that doesn’t open until 7:30am.  Once we waited for the gate to open we made our drive to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, the drive itself is not very exciting. Carlsbad is the same and different than many national parks regarding dogs. Dogs are not allowed in the caverns but they do provide a kennel for when the temperature exceeds 75 degrees (do not quote me on the temperature) to kennel your pups while you explore the park. Lucky enough, the temperature outside was not going to exceed the temp required to kennel pups so ours took a nap in the jeep for the 1.5-2ish hours we were under ground. Once we explored the caverns we started our drive for a brief stop at Bottomless Lake State Park outside of Roswell, NM.  We did quick walk around and let pups stretch their legs before our last leg of driving to Santa Fe. Once in Santa Fe we checked into our pet friendly hotel at the La Fonda on the Plaza and started our now lifelong journey to complete the Margarita Trail.

Day four: We spent the morning exploring downtown Santa Fe and the Plaza with the pups.  Before driving back to Denver, we got one more margarita and lunch at The Shed. It came highly recommended and it did not disappoint.

|Travel details|

Denver, CO to White Sands, NM = 8.5ish hours | White Sands to Carlsbad Caverns = 3.5ish hours | Carlsbad Caverns to Bottomless Lake = 1:45 ish hours | Bottomless Lake to Santa Fe = 3:15ish hours| Santa Fe, NM to Denver, CO = 6ish hours|

|Accommodation Details|

|Camping in White Sands = $3/person x2 = $6 | $5/person entry fee x2 = $10 | $32 for two nights | Sleds are also available for purchase for $15 – you can return them at the end of the day for $5 back if undamaged. We kept ours|

|We purchased the Margarita Trail Package from the La Fonda on the Plaza (see here/link) – we also had a pay a pet fee per pup which came with a new toy and bag of treats for each of them|

|Where to Eat|

|the shed, Santa Fe, NM|

We mostly ate freeze dried camping meals and snacks along the way, nothing worth noting.

Yeti Gear: Colorado Long Sleeve | Hoody |Signature Cap | The Tank | Bucket Hat | Mesh Snapback

Other notable February adventures:

Castle Rock Incline

 Hiking to Dream Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park

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January: Ice Climbing

Our first adventure of the year.  Our climbing experience is limited to some basic beginner indoor climbing.  I purchased our “3 hour Introductory Ice-Climbing Class” through Groupon hosted by Front Range Climbing Company.  It was an awesome experience and we hope to be able to explore some more ice climbing after just getting a taste.  Here are a few details:

Location: We drove from Denver to meet our guide in Lake George, Colorado.  The guide was great about giving us the directions – we met at Starky’s General Store off Route 24.  It took us about 2 hours.  

What to bring: Front Range Climbing Co provides all the necessary climbing gear, if you choose to bring your own, they will just do a quick equipment check.  We brought layers of clothes, because you know Colorado weather is unpredictable – we lucked out a had a beautiful sunny day to climb.  We brought a few drinks and snacks – you do work up a sweat on the ice.  My best advice – bring an awesome pair of waterproof gloves/mittens, although my body was warm during climbing, my finger-tips occasionally felt the cold, didn’t help that you are hoping you don’t drop the ice ax!  I used these/something similar they probably don’t make anymore and Zach used these (flylow)The guide will also contact you prior to date of choice and give you a break down on what to bring.

The three hours flew by, it was also awesome that we happened to be the only ones be guided that day so we had the whole ice wall to ourselves.  Check out a few pics below and what yeti gear was essential to bring.  Tip: the screaming barfies – this is actual thing, I was warned by a friend but we were warned by our guide…basically because you are gripping the ice ax and the position of your arms, blood is flowing away from your arms, so when you go to let them down all the blood rushing back, causing burning and pain that may or may not make you want to barf – shaking out the arms every once awhile while on the wall.  Zach was lucky enough to experience the screaming barfies minus the barf.

Yeti Gear: Colorado Long Sleeve | Hoody For more information on how to book your next rock or ice climb – check out www.frontrangeclimbing.com Other notable January adventures: • Check out Kayla’s experience trail running Pawnee National Grassland • Bruin’s ‘gotcha’ day anniversary • Trail running at Red Rocks & Deer Creek Canyon Park

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Well.. this is awkward, where to start?

There is a thousand cliché quotes I could use to start this post about adventure, wanderlust, and traveling…and most of them are probably true.  The term ‘adventure’ can be interpreted in multiple ways; it could be the adventure of a new job, going to back to school, adopting a puppy, trying something you’ve never done before, or traveling the world.  We adventure to gain experience, we adventure to feel, we adventure to live.  So, what does the term adventure mean to me…

To adventure is my favorite emotion, it’s when I feel most alive, most happy, and most myself.  For a long time, I’d go on these adventures with just Swizzle (the beagle you’ll see on here occasionally).  It wasn’t long after Zach and I first met that we were taking our first road trip adventure to the Southwest.  We then added Bruin to the fam (we refer to her as Wolf, we adopted her…I couldn’t say no after they told us she was deaf).  We do our best to make our adventures dog friendly, there are times due to the places we go or the activities we choose that they must stay home…whomp whomp.   Now we adventure as a fam as four…that’s two humans and two dogs, just to be clear.

Each year I create a bucket list of new places see or new things to try but this year we made our bucket list a little different.  Each month we decided we would go somewhere new or try something different.  We started this idea not to limit the number of adventures we take but to make sure we expand our horizons on the possibilities.  We are surrounded with such beauty and many of these places are hiding right in front of us. The bucket list wasn’t about traveling the world (don’t get me wrong, that is something we want to do) but it was about finding new places to experience, near or far.  If you need some ideas for a weekend away and want to see the details of our fam adventures, keep scrolling.  We are based in Denver, Colorado – some of these trips may require more than a road trip depending on where you are located, but nevertheless totally worth it.

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