4 Day Road Trip Colorado

What can you say when your sister says she wants to climb a couple of 14ers on her 4-day break from school?

For me, there really is only one answer I know… heck ya! Also, why not sleep in a car, live on ramen, and drive around Colorado with no real plan?

Watch the full adventure or continue reading below!

I Flew Across an Ocean for 4 Days in Colorado with My Sister | 14ers, National Parks & No Plan

We spent 4 days in Colorado climbing the Decalibron Loop, exploring Rocky Mountain National Park, visiting Rifle Falls, and watching sunrise at Maroon Bells – all while sleeping in our car and figuring it out as we went.

The Backstory

This was a completely unplanned get up and go trip for me. I like to think I’m a good trip planner but in this situation, I had absolutely zero plan except to buy my plane ticket a few days before leaving.

It started the same way most of my adventures do — with an idea I couldn’t shake after my sister suggested we climb four 14ers, visit Rocky Mountain National Park, and drive around Colorado. She had a four day break from school and wanted to make the most of it while a lot of her friends headed up to an expensive concert.

I bought my flight from Germany to Colorado the day before, packed my gear including my sleeping bag, water filter, cooking stove, and microspikes, and drove to the airport for my 10 and a half hour flight into Denver.

Pre-Trip Preparation

We then folded down the seats of the rental car and loaded it up with our sleeping bags, Lyd’s comforter, and a couple of the fluffy blankets from her bed. We were preparing for some brutally cold nights ahead. Luckily for us, we’re both pretty short, so we just barely fit with our legs stretched straight across the folded seats.

It wasn’t glamorous, but it felt like the start of something awesome.

Day 1: The Decalibron Loop

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Right away, I knew I was in trouble. I was huffing, my calves were on fire, my toes and fingers were numb, and the wind was so loud we couldn’t even talk to each other – just yell if we needed anything.

Before we even reached Bross, the first summit, my motivation was completely gone. I was questioning why the heck I ever thought flying all the way from Germany for this was a good idea, and honestly, why I even hike at all. The sun was rising slowly, but my spirits were not. We finally reached what we called the Bross summit, and as per the note above, I didn’t feel very accomplished, just tired, and we were already over it.

I set my hopes on a patch of sun between the summits of Lincoln and Bross, assuming if I could  just get there, then I would warm up. We skirted the ridge and trudged through the snow to finally reach it.

And it did absolutely nothing.

The wind was even stronger here, and the sun wasn’t warming me up at all. I was just cold. We kept going, but I’m pretty sure if there had been an option to quit right there and then, we would’ve taken it.

Looking toward the summit of Lincoln, it actually did look a little sketchy. From a distance, the ridge appeared tight and snow-covered, and Lyd looked at me and said, “let’s just get close to it and call it good.”

I think from the look on my face, she knew that wasn’t going to happen. But as we got closer, we realized the ridge was actually fine — even kind of fun to cross — though the wind made it a bit unsteady.

Reaching Lincoln’s summit was a huge morale shift for both of us. We finally felt accomplished, and the slight challenge of the ridge distracted us from how miserable the wind and cold had been. Leaving that summit, we felt energized enough for the boring push to Cameron.

At that point, with three summits completed, we turned our attention to Democrat. The one worst part of the entire loop is that Democrat sits off on its own a bit. You have to lose a good amount of elevation before climbing back up again. As we made our way down, in silence, the winding descent to the col, we had a decision to make: turn left and head back to Kite Lake, or go straight up Democrat…

Day 2: Rocky Mountain National Park

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It was extremely busy that day, especially around some of the most popular hikes in the park. The trails were pretty packed, but once we got moving, we were able to enjoy small pockets of time where we could hear nature instead of voices. We kept a steady pace, still warmed up from the Decalibron Loop the day before, and as we moved, our muscles continued to loosen more.

We quickly reached Nymph Lake first, then Dream Lake shortly after. After taking in the view for a few minutes, we decided to keep going up to Emerald Lake. By the time we got there, we were getting hungry. Unfortunately, we had assumed the wind and cold would be better at a lower altitude that day.

We were completely wrong.

The wind was ripping just as hard and just as cold as it had been on the 14ers, so there was no way we were staying by the lake. We speedily headed back down the trail until we found a sunny spot, mostly out of the wind, where we could finally sit and eat.

After some people-watching and snacking, we made our way back to the fork. At the last minute, we decided it would be better to continue on to Lake Haiyaha and loop back to Glacier Gorge instead of taking the bus.

This part of the trail was much less crowded as we committed to a longer loop than we had originally planned. There was one good view on the way to Lake Haiyaha, but not much else to talk about — except that the second you stepped out of the sun, it was absolutely freezing.

I like to think of myself as kind of a lizard. I just want to sit in the sun all the time when I’m hiking. Otherwise, I find myself constantly thinking about it. All I want is the sun, and I probably drive Lyd a little crazy talking about it.

Anyway, Lake Haiyaha was interesting because there wasn’t a clear stopping point or obvious photo spot. We ended up climbing around the rocks and weaving through people until we found a decent place. Even then, we couldn’t quite get the right angle, so we took an awkward photo that included me crawling into the frame while Lyd leaned over my back, and both of us laughing and trying not to slip on the icy rocks…

Day 3: Rifle Falls State Park

On the third to last day of our trip together, it definitely was starting to wear on us. I’ve done road trips for 5.5 weeks with my husband, living in the truck, but in the middle of summer it was a lot easier to find lakes and rivers to go swimming. We did not have that kind of luck in October in Colorado.

After another really cold night, we climbed out of the car with the aim to have a slower day today. Walking into Estes Park we faced a huge herd of elk and got extremely distracted by it for a bit. Finally we went to our major destination. The crepe place. I am absolutely obsessed with Crepes, honestly I think they come up in the next 3 future videos as I got them in Tignes, France and The Canary Islands as well. So when I saw this place on the walk, the night before, I had to go back for breakfast.

Once seated, I began looking up what to do on the last day and thats when we saw a permit opened up to see the Maroon Bells. So we booked it. This was incredibly exciting as neither of us had been there and I have an incredible photo from Chase’s Grandpa from there that I always had wanted to see in person.

We ate our crepes, excited with the new plan for the last day.

Lyd had found a random waterfall about 4.5 hours of driving west of where we were. With no other plan, we decided to have a little road trip. We stopped at little towns along the way, exploring local rock shops and general stores. It was quite a bit of fun. 

The shocking part for us was Glenwood Canyon. I had never heard of it before and suddenly while driving on the highway, we entered one of the most beautiful drives I’ve been on. The canyon walls rose towering above us, the leaves still turning reds and yellows brought out the beautiful striations in the rock formations around us. 

Seeing a sudden pull off, I whipped down it quickly and we parked, walking down to the rivers edge. It was beautiful and though we had missed fall everywhere else, it seems the turning of leaves colors were just happening in this valley now. We spent about 20 minutes walking around and sitting by the river, just amazed to find this gem.

We continued on our way, when getting close with no service, I was a bit worried. Once we passed another massive herd of fluffy white sheep, I asked Lyd if she was sure we were going the right way. Right when I asked though we passed a small sign saying Rifle Falls State Park. 

We pulled in, paid the fee to visit the park and decided on hiking the Coyote Loop, it was supposed to pass the falls, some caves, go up on top of the falls, and back around. It was a lot warmed here so I changed into shorts and tried soaking in a bit more of the afternoon sun.

I thought there would be a bit more of a hike but within 30 seconds we reached the waterfall. It was fun standing near the splash then if you go up and to the left you can stand slightly behind one of them.

After that we headed along the right side to where there should be some caves. About to climb into one, Lyd was saying “this is freaky, I don’t like this,” just as a kid popped out of nowhere and scared the crap out of both of us.

Laughing after he took off, we were wondering where he came from. There were a bunch of cool caverns and little tunnels so we explored for a bit. It was pretty fun walking around in there and finding more little areas to climb up, I felt like a kid again, except for my balance and ability to agility climb up these.

Having enough of our childlike fun, we continued the hike, discussing tomorrow, what we wanted to do later tonight. We eventually rounded up on top and watched the cows lumber along the trail. 

Having grown up on a farm with cows, we probably shouldn’t have thought it as much fun as it was but we watched them for a bit, especially the cute baby cows. Finally we go on top, looked at the view of trees changing all kinds of colors. It seems fall was just reaching this area of COlorado and it was beautiful, the yellows and oranges reminded me of fall apple picking and cinnamon donuts back from my home town.

When we got back to the car, Lyd mentioned there should be some swimming in Rifle Gap State Park down the road, so we went that way.

After a while of blindly driving down roads assuming we knew it was that way and following the signs that popped up once in a while. Again to our disappointment, we were totally wrong. The water was insanely low, there was no way we were swimming that day to our major disappointment. 

Resigned to our fate, we headed towards Aspen. We probably should have double checked the car camping app but we got there and realized there is almost no areas to car camp. Hotels are ridiculously expensive in the area and the problem was, it was already 9:30 pm and we were heading up for sunrise so heading to the maroon bells parking lot around 3:00 am. We just needed a few hours of sleep and I didn’t want to drive an hour away tonight to find a legal spot only to sleep for a couple hours and drive an hour back. 

It was already dark and we tried one spot but with so much traffic going by I knew I’d wake up every time to make sure we weren’t in trouble. We really just needed a few hours of stealth camping, but I also didn’t want to get in trouble. I had resigned myself to the fact I better start driving back away from Aspen when we passed a hidden parking area with a van sitting in there. We could see the people with their lights on eating dinner, and just decided to screw it.

Surprisingly we made it through the night with no knocks on the window, though it was a super low season as it was before the skiing season and after the main hiking season, so they probably weren’t patrolling as much.

Day 4: Maroon Bells & Independence Pass

Groaning at the noise of our alarm going off but excited it was the last day and I could finally shower. I once again climbed out of the sleeping bag, started the car, turned up the heat, and climbed back into my sleeping bag for a few minutes while the windows defrosted. After a minute I was concerned we’d get noticed and in trouble, so I climbed back up and drove towards the Maroon Bells parking lot. 

Arriving in the dark, there were very few cars there. We went to the bathroom in turns and prepped our gear. I brought a bit more than normal with some extra layers and since there was no fire ban, packed my small canister and stove to boil some water.

We once again did zero research and we came upon the first viewing area. In the pitch dark and using our headlamps to look around, we agreed this wasn’t the famous picture location as we weren’t close enough to the water. What’s funny about this, is that we were at a famous picture location but with the water being a lot lower due to it being the fall, it didn’t cross my mind. So we headed up to Crater Lake.

Since we did start a bit later the sun was rising and we could see a decent amount of the trail without a headlamp by the time we reached Crater Lake. Lyd had headed ahead of me down the trail as my lungs were not liking the cold and I was huffing a bit more. 

Once reaching Crater Lake, I set up the gopro for a time lapse of sunrise, set up my camera on a tripod so I could take photos periodically. Then we waited, sometimes in silence, sometimes chatting, we sat by my camera and huddled like penguins together. Even with my warmest layers it was cold.

There was no wind because the temperatures were absolutely frigid as we waited for the sun to rise. Eventually I made some hot chocolate with my stove and we took turns sipping and holding the cup to keep our hands warm. 

After a few hours we gave up sitting in the cold and headed back. We got to see a lot of the sunrise but it was just to the point of shivering so we had enough. After getting back and seeing the view from the normal viewpoint, we spotted a fox. It was cool to see it swiftly running through the tall grass, only for it to suddenly pop out at us in the parking lot and run right by. IN shock we just stood still and watch it chase a mouse through the parking area.

It was awesome as foxes tend to stay far from people and seeing it in action chasing its prey was pretty cool, something I can say I’ve never seen before!

It was our last day so we wanted to enjoy road tripping and take a different way back. We passed some really cool small towns, drove to Independence Pass, a place that made me feel really sad and happy. It was a place I was at 5 years ago with my husband, on our first trip together after only dating for 4 months. We stopped at that place and had our own photos from it. He was away for training at this point, which is part of the reason I was with Lyd, so it made me miss him quite a bit.

I didn’t love the drive to Independence Pass but I was super proud of myself for doing it, though Lyd will say that’s an understatement and I was driving way to slow. Prompting her to offer to drive a few times for me.

The Honest Part

Laughing together in the car, suffering together on the mountain, waking up sore and freezing the next morning — all of it reminds me why I choose this kind of life. Not because it’s impressive, or exciting, or something to prove, but because it strips everything back to what actually matters: connection to God, connection to family, and connection to the world around me.

It probably sounds a little crazy to fly across the world for just four days, but Lyd has been with me since the beginning. Being eight years apart in age, I’ve waited years to share these kinds of experiences with her — so when the chance came, there wasn’t really a question.

Some things are worth the time, the cost, and the discomfort simply because of who you get to share them with.

If I’m being honest, I didn’t come to Colorado to conquer mountains or chase summits. I came carrying a lot — a new move, a foreign country, and a time of loneliness and homesickness. I came to remember who I am, who God is, and where my sense of calling came from in the first place. Somewhere between the cold mornings, the hard climbs, and choosing not to quit, I felt that spark again — the one that reminds me why I do things that are hard, why I choose suffering sometimes. It’s all to feel closer to the Lord, to feel his presence and to connect in ways I struggle to in normal life.

So yes… these 4 days were absolutely worth the cost, the time, and the discomfort.

If You Made It This Far

I’d love to hear from you, what is something that you’ve said yes to knowing it wouldn’t be comfortable but worth it? — I’d love to hear your story in the comments below!

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