Trip Report | Denver, CO – Family Hiking

Tabitha was a trooper for this one! 7 months pregnant and completing some fairly strenuous family hiking in Denver! I was also fortunate enough to make it to MMM Headquarters to attend the Playing with FIRE screening party.

Location: Chicago, IL to Denver, CO
Travelers: 2 Adults and 1 lap child
Length: 5 Days, 4 Nights Delayed & Cancelation – 5 Days, 5 Nights
Flights: SW – 14,104 RR points
Lodging and transportation: ~$150 rideshare to/from Airport in Denver + airport parking at MDW and we stayed with family

Mechanical delay to start the trip

First off, if you haven’t had to entertain a 1&1/2 yr old at an airport for 4+ hours, you’ve had it easy. We had planned a red-eye flight on a Thursday evening after work, as we have in the past, so that our daughter would sleep through the flight.

However, little did we know that we’d be delayed at the airport for a whopping 4 hours. So, instead of leaving around 10 pm, we left at 2 am the following day and didn’t arrive in Denver until 4 am. Boy was that a fun evening. It was the easiest mystery shop I had ever completed on a flight. The lights were out the entire trip and there were no announcements outside of takeoff and landing.

Happily surprised, we woke up to two $75 SW vouchers for the delay the previous evening. There was no other explanation given, but we were happy to have made it safely to Denver.

Hiking

We completed two hikes. Above, this image is from Lost Gulch Overlook. The hike itself was fairly easy with the most difficult part at the top where you need to scale some rocks in order to enjoy the spectacular view.

For our second hike, we traveled to Red Rocks Park. We explored the amphitheater (above) and did a fun hike that was northwest of the main entrance.

Flight Cancellation

Outside of our hikes, we also explored downtown boulder and enjoyed some good eats. We had planned to return home early Monday morning so that I could make it back to work without using too much vacation time. However, the weather had a different plan for us and our flight was canceled. I ended up remotely working on Monday and we flew home early Tuesday morning.

Summary of our Family Hiking trip

Outside of the flight issues we happened to be plagued with this trip, it was an amazing weekend away. We got to enjoy exploring areas we had never been to Colorado and celebrated our last trip as a family of three. I highly recommend visiting both these hiking locations if you haven’t been before!

Be sure to visit our Travel page to see more of our trips completed using travel rewards!