This was the first time any of the four of us ever visited the beautiful state of Colorado! We flew Southwest direct from Nashville into Denver and rented a car from Enterprise and drove the hour and 20 min. into Frisco. Once we headed out of Denver, we started seeing the beautiful mountains and enjoyed a scenic drive. We stayed in the Mountain Meadows condos and they have a beautiful view of the Dillon Lake Reserve. It is also very centrally located to the cute downtown area as well as 3 grocery stores and much more!Arrival Day: We were all kind of tired from the day of travel and didn't really feel like getting "ready" to go out for dinner. So we called in dinner to a local place on Main Street down town Frisco and just decided to veg out in the condo and rest! Silverheels was the name of the place and I got the lemon pepper trout and asparagus and it was delicious! We also had the chicken lettuce wraps as an appetizer and they were a hit as well.
DAY 2: We headed out for breakfast at Butterhorn, and luckily beat the Sunday brunch crowd! They had a gluten free menu and I had the breakfast taco bowl with poached eggs! Everyone loved their food and it was so filling that we had leftovers! After our belly's were nice and full we headed off to the Rainbow Lake trailhead.
That afternoon we explored the downtown Frisco area and then walked around the Dillon Lake Resivor behind our condo! The water was down this time of year so we were able to walk places that looked like it was typically under water. Then for dinner that night just Lyrin and I decided to go out and bring dad and Landree their's back to the condo. We found a place that had an amazing gluten free menu! Pure Kitchen was so delicious we actually ate there twice! We were so excited to have mozzarella cheese sticks that actually tasted good! 
DAY 3: We did go to the local Walmart for some bottled water and hiking snacks, but for the most part we decided to eat out for breakfast and dinner everyday! There was just too much good food here for us to not taste it all! Breakfast this particular day was at Bread + Salt in downtown Frisco. They did not have a gluten free menu but we substituted some menu items and my poached egg were hands down the best I've ever had! This was Landree's favorite breakfast of the whole trip!
After that we drove to Dillon (Silverthorne) and hiked the Lily Pad Lake trail. This hike was a little bit harder and quite a bit longer than the first one. The elevation made it harder to breath as our heart rtes got up, so we just took our time and rested as we needed to. 
After our hike we went back to rest and then Dad and Landree decided to go try out Pure Kitchen in person and bring Lyrin and I our dinner back. Lyrin and I stayed in the condo and played scrabble.
DAY 4: This particular morning we decided to drive to Breckinridge and have breakfast there. Cool River Coffee House was back off the Main Street and a little hard to find, not to mention very small inside, but it was delicious and again had a gluten free menu! After we got our bellies full we took the scenic drive up the Boreas Pass all the way to the Continental Divide. The yellow Aspens were so beautiful and the snow capped mountains too! 
Once we made it back to Frisco we went downtown for dinner on Main Street at Uptown on Main. This was Forrest's favorite place and the drive in burger and chicken sandwich were top notch in his book!
DAY 5: Today we went back to breakfast at Butterhorn and then we rented e-bikes to ride the 18.4 miles around the Dillon Lake Resivor. What started out as a nice ride across the dam and into Dillon, enjoying the view of the lake the whole time, soon took a very different turn once we got to Keystone. The bike trail was not marked very well and somehow we ended up climbing Swan Mountain and then once we stopped at the Summit overlook, the decent! 
This hike was pretty short but a beautiful view none the less. Afterwards we drove over swan mountain into Keystone going the opposite way we had ridden on bikes the day before. That evening we had booked a reservation in Leadville to do a sunset ATV tour. I was a little worried as we drove over that we wouldn't even get to see a sunset because it started to rain and was very cloudy. Boy was I wrong! That actually made for the best sunset! And lucky for us, we were the only ones on the tour that night so the guide took us to a few other spots not normally included! 
On the way home we called in pizza and salad to a local place in Frisco off Main St. Greco's had Cauliflower Crust and Gluten Free crust pizza and we were so hungry we all got our own individual pizzas!
I don't have the direct link for where we stayed but I can get the address and perhaps the link from the condo owners, they are personal friends of ours! We loved the area we stayed as it was very centrally located to everything and the view out the back door was amazing!
We had NO clue that to get down the mountain we had to share a lane with cars. It was a very nerve racking moment for me as a mom as I watched cars whip around my kids on their bikes. I prayed the whole way down that we would make it safely! So once we made it back to Frisco and the bike shop, our ride ended up totaling 26 miles. Can we say our sitts bones were a little sore! After that the girls were exhausted and my nerves were shot! We dropped them of at the condo to rest and Dad and I went to Silverthorne to local wine bar for flight of wine with a pairing of cheeses. Saved By The Wine was such a cute place to sit back and relax. It even started to sleet while we were there! On our way back to the condo we stopped by the grocery and decide to cook dinner in. We had steaks, sweet potatoes and green beans. It was nice to just stay in and not have to get ready to go out to dinner!
DAY 6: On this day we headed back to Breckinridge and ate breakfast at a local place called Breckfast! Then we drove south to Blue Lake, parked at the lower lake and hiked to the water fall.
This hike was pretty short but a beautiful view none the less. Afterwards we drove over swan mountain into Keystone going the opposite way we had ridden on bikes the day before. That evening we had booked a reservation in Leadville to do a sunset ATV tour. I was a little worried as we drove over that we wouldn't even get to see a sunset because it started to rain and was very cloudy. Boy was I wrong! That actually made for the best sunset! And lucky for us, we were the only ones on the tour that night so the guide took us to a few other spots not normally included! 
On the way home we called in pizza and salad to a local place in Frisco off Main St. Greco's had Cauliflower Crust and Gluten Free crust pizza and we were so hungry we all got our own individual pizzas! DAY 7: On this day we drove to Vail and found ourselves very out of place! We had to park in a parking garage and then try and find our way around the little village to a place for breakfast. By the time we did find Big Bear Bistro and order, it was pretty much lunch time. NO gluten free menu but there was something I could make work. The little village was very upscale but we met some nice people from all over while walking around thanks to Harlynn (Lyrin's mini Aussie that we took on the trip with us). She was the hit of the morning and lead to lots of conversations with many people! It was fun! Colorado is a very dog friendly state! Lots of dogs everywhere we went! On our drive back to the condo we stopped to do one more hike along the Gore Creek. 
I don't have the direct link for where we stayed but I can get the address and perhaps the link from the condo owners, they are personal friends of ours! We loved the area we stayed as it was very centrally located to everything and the view out the back door was amazing!
Here are a few links from items I ordered off Amazon specifically for our trip! Hiking in Colorado this time of year means layers! The mornings start off cold and as the day goes one it gets warm. Then the evenings at its getting dark end up cold again!
Small backpack with bladder bag to hold up to 3 bottles of water:
My hiking shoes:
First Aid Kit:
Harlynn's airplane pet carrier:
https://amzn.to/3KKVnrB
To see more pictures from our trip, see my Colorado highlight bubble on my instagram account @alicia_trotter
Harlynn's carrier for hiking:
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