A few months ago we asked for reader suggestions as to what we should do in Oregon. That’s because we were planning on spending the summer in the Pacific North West.
We got a bunch of great suggestions on both that post and on Facebook, so our list of things to do in Oregon is now pretty big and we were looking forward to trying to see as much of the state as possible.
Then why are we more than 1,000 miles away from there?
The reason is $$$$. Things were initially looking good when I was booking our accommodation for Oregon. I found a property on Airbnb in the northeast of the state close to several attractions we wanted to visit and which was a very good price and so I booked that.
That’s where our luck ended. Everywhere else we wanted to stay was incredibly expensive, with room rates at hotels and Airbnbs well over $100, with some places being $200-$300. Our daily budget is $100 and that has to cover accommodation, food, gas, activities, pet care, etc., so spending more than that every day just on accommodation wasn’t going to work. Oregon doesn’t seem to be home to many hotels that are good value when booking with points, so that wasn’t an option either.
This was our first time trying to book stays in Oregon, so I don’t know if it’s always that expensive in the summer or if it’s due to higher than average demand because of everyone wanting to travel after putting that on hold last year due to COVID. Whatever the reason is, our budget simply couldn’t afford for us to visit Oregon this summer unless we wanted to blow our budget for the month and – quite possibly – the entire year.
Shae and I therefore decided to cancel our Oregon plans for now, but that meant we had a decision to make – where would we visit instead? We were in Arizona at the time, so we considered Utah seeing as that’s the state immediately north of Arizona. However, we knew we wouldn’t get there until the beginning of June. Much of what we want to do in Utah involves being outdoors, particularly hiking in all the National Parks there. Doing that in the heat of June and July wasn’t too enticing, so we decided against that. In hindsight, that was the right decision because apparently Utah’s National Parks have been slammed by visitors this year, with gates closing at 8am due to them reaching full capacity.
Other nearby options weren’t great right now either. Nevada would be too hot, California would be too expensive and we’d visited New Mexico just before visiting Arizona. Unless we wanted to drive much further afield, that left us with one choice – Colorado.
We’ve actually visited Colorado twice on the road trip already, spending something like 2.5 months there in total. However, we hadn’t gotten to do all that much during those previous visits. The first time we visited was for Christmas and New Year in Denver during the first year of our road trip (2018), but Shae got the flu which turned into pneumonia which meant she wasn’t well enough to do much while we were there.
When COVID hit last year, we spent the first three weeks in Albuquerque, NM and then holed up in a great Airbnb in Pueblo, CO for 6-7 weeks after that. Other than a few outdoor activities (Garden of the Gods, Paint Mines Interpretive Park and a helicopter ride for my 40th birthday), we didn’t do much as there was still so much uncertainty as to what kind of activities were safe to do.
That meant there was still so much to see and experience in Colorado. Having seen how expensive accommodation was in Oregon, I was a little apprehensive as to how expensive Colorado would be. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when doing some hotel searches that prices weren’t that bad. Even better, we had some hotel options we could book using points which would reduce our accommodation spending even more.
So the decision was made – we’d spend the summer in Colorado. We’ve now been here for the past month or so and it’s been great. The weather has been good overall and we’re now in a lovely one bedroom suite at a hotel in Denver for a month. Before this we were in Montrose (near Telluride) and before that we spent some time in Colorado Springs.
We’re going to be overseas for much of the month of August (more about that in a future post) and will spend a little more time in Colorado when we get back. I’ve got tickets to see The Black Crowes live at Red Rocks Park & Amphitheater at the end of August which should be amazing, then we’ll head back to the Montrose/Durango area to check out some other activities there including Mesa Verde National Park which we’ve only heard good things about. We’re then planning on driving back down to New Mexico seeing as we need to be in Albuquerque at the beginning of October for the International Balloon Fiesta.
So that’s where we are. It’s a shame we’re not in Oregon right now as we were looking forward to that and we have good friends who live in Portland, but spending the summer in Colorado is a pretty good consolation prize!
Monument Valley is actually in Aridzona. If you have time before the balloons in NM, well worth the small detour.