The McCarty's: colorado

Tyler and I were able to get away for a little 2 night/3 day vacation a couple of weeks ago. It was lovely. We hadn't really had a vacation the whole summer and weren't sure if we were going to be able to make one happen at all, but we did! Tyler actually took a week off of work. We went to McCook for a few days first (pics to come) and then we took off for our little getaway to Estes. Tyler's parents were so nice and let us borrow their 4-wheelers for the trip. We went 4-wheeling everyday and loved it. We fell in love with 4-wheeling in the mountains during our first trip to Colorado together back in 2006. We have gone a number of times since then.

(A huge thank you to Tyler's Mom and Dad for keeping our kids as well! You guys are such a blessing - thank you!)

We got to Estes a little later than we wanted, but that didn't stop us from unloading the 4-wheelers and checking out some trails! We were greeted by snow in some spots.

I never get tired of seeing these mountains. I'm so glad Colorado is so close...it really is an easy trip for us. Tyler and I were talking about how familiar the Estes area is becoming. It's kind of fun to get to know an area so well. We would like to explore other areas as well, but for quick trips Estes is perfect.

SO good to spend this time together.

Tyler's photo of the Rockies.

Out to eat the first night...shrimp enchiladas and a margarita. Yum. :)

Getting ready to head out on day 2!

It was a beautiful day! The high was 62 that day.

This was one of the easier trails...there were all kinds.

We experienced this quite often...gates keeping us from where we wanted to go.

We found an awesome app for our phones that had gps and showed us all of the trails. It was really nice because it would track our path as we went. I get nervous about getting lost, so it helped me not freak out. :) Though I did still have some nervous moments. I'm thankful Tyler put up with me. If he had his way, he'd be out in the boonies with a tent on the back of his ATV.

What a beautiful view.

We stopped to eat lunch in this spot. Awesome view.

Looking out over Estes.

We went to the famous Stanley Hotel on Halloween night! We both had never been there before, so we thought it was the perfect night to go. We were bummed that the tour was sold out (we had called ahead of time and asked if we needed to reserve tickets and they said no...but then when we got there they were sold out). Oh well. We still explored the area a bit.

Tyler's instagram picture...:) We watched The Shining in our cabin after dinner.

Ha!

Downtown Estes on Halloween night. Everyone goes trick-or-treating on the main street where all the shops are instead of going from house to house. It was pretty cute to see all the locals dressed up. The shop owners closed down their shops and stood in the doorways with candy (and caramel apples! yum!).

Our room at the Fawn Valley Inn. October is the perfect time to go to Colorado...one of the reasons being is that you can get great pricing on hotels since it is the off season. We got a great deal at this place and I thought our room was just perfect!