Glenwood Springs, October 20-23, 2022

We planned a 3 night stay in Glenwood Springs at the beginning of mountain bike season.

The Colorado State Mountain Bike Championships are always held during Fall break and my birthday so we usually plan a family vacation.

Lloyd found out that he was going to travel to Amsterdam for at the same time as Colorado State Mountain Bike Championships.  I wanted my grandma to take his place and she agreed.

The Fall colors were changing right at the time that we arrived.  Glenwood Spring’s largest developed park (Two Rivers) is located at the confluence of the Colorado and Roaring Fork Rivers.

Colorado State Mountain Bike Championships were located at Colorado Mountain College.  Colorado Mountain College’s Spring Valley campus is the newest venue to be added to the Colorado high school mountain bike racing calendar.

The campus’s trails above the Roaring Fork Valley near Glenwood Springs was the site of this year’s state championships from Oct. 20 to 23. The event brought 800 racers plus coaches, families and spectators for an estimated total of 2,000 visitors to the Glenwood Springs area throughout the race weekend.

Spring Valley recently completed over three miles of professionally built new trails that connect to an existing trail network, which have been hand built over several years by students and community members while exploring the campus environs. Along the way, CMC staff worked closely with the Colorado High School Cycling League to create a 5 ½- mile course, purposely built for high school-age student athletes.

I stood near the uphill section of the course and watched Connor come up.  That looked steep and hard.  I heard other riders saying that it was the hardest part of the course.

The coaches told us to have hard tires and soft suspension because it is really rocky and has long downhill sections.  I had no idea how to change the suspension and Connor bent his valve trying to put more air in it the night before so it was a bit stressful.

They both completed their races and held their own pretty good.  It is a huge accomplishment just to make it to State.

The town has a vibrant history.  In the late 1800s, dentist-turned-gambler/gunfighter John Henry “Doc” Holliday came to Glenwood Springs seeking a cure for his advanced tuberculosis. Unfortunately, his illness was too far advanced for a cure.

During the warm-weather months, rafting the Colorado River through scenic Glenwood Canyon, cycling paved and unpaved trails and fishing miles of Gold Medal rivers and streams are top choices for visitors. I ran along the paved trails with Lola in the mornings.

In the evenings, we would watch Netflix shows together and cuddle with Lola.  The kids were always hungry so we walked to Target to stock our refrigerator with milk, frozen pizzas, cheese, and yogurt.  Carly also talked me into going to the hot tub every day to relax.

We had a good Chinese Restaurant (Zheng Asian Bistro) and Pizza Place (Russos) next to us so it was easy to get everything we need without having to drive anywhere.  The pizza was spectacular!  It took 35 minutes to make and was totally worth having real gourmet pizza.  Zheng Asian Bistro tasted just like real Chinese food from China.

Colorado Mountain College Spring Valley had a nice view of Capital Peak.  Capitol Peak is notorious among the Colorado fourteeners for being the most difficult of the fifty-eight peaks to ascend. The challenges on this mountain abound. There’s a long, 8.5 mile approach hike requiring backpacking skills. The rock is loose and rotten, making rockfall risk significant.

Great Grandma Jeanine was a great support for the kids.  We had fun spending time with her and cheering for and watching the mountain bikers.  Since there was such a long walk from the parking, Grandma told the parking guys that she was handicapped and they let me drop her off right next to the race start.

We went downtown and found some great boba.  "Deja Brew" had so many choices of milk tea.  Camilla got a French toast flavored drink and Lola even got a pup cup.

The latest craze in the historic Colorado mountain town is public wing art. There are currently nine sets of eye-catching wings tucked away in discrete areas of the downtown core. You will find them in alleyways, on historic buildings, and even in pocket parks.

The wings idea came from a local business owner who wanted to find a way to move people throughout the downtown shopping district creatively during the recent pandemic.

Chrissy Lee-Manes of Homsted, a natural lifestyle retail store, said she came up with the wings concept to help revitalize and beautify some of the less visited places in the downtown core.

“The wings not only give people a fun reason to explore,” she said, “they also offer our visitors a way to take home a piece of their Glenwood Springs experience.”

I dowloaded the “Wing Map” and found all but 3 of them.

The kids made fun of me for walking all over trying to find the wings, but I was able to see parts of the city that I would have never seen.

We even found a set of wings behind a fence in a construction zone.  I almost jumped the fence to take a picture but Camilla would have probably collapsed from embarrassment.

Connor was just a big goofball for the entire trip.  He teased all of us and ate enough food for the entire family.

We also did some souvenir shopping but the city was very lacking in souvenir shops.  Most of them were pretty pricey.  One place I really liked was Bullocks.  It is a true western shop at the site of where Doc Holliday died.  They let Lola come in their store and have a treat.  They had nice cowboy hats, belts, boots, and home decor.  It was a lot of fun to walk through.