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Colorado Travel Guide (Existential Crisis Edition)
TRAVEL GUIDE:
COLORADO (EXISTENTIAL CRISIS EDITION)
Hi friends,
Recently, I embarked on a ~self-discovery~, solo trip to Colorado as a late 23rd birthday gift to myself. I was going through that early 20’s “What am I going to do with my life and also wtf is life” phase and thought that flying to Colorado, renting a car, driving to mountains and riding a horse by myself would somehow help.
¯\
I was uninspired and tired. I needed to spend some quality time with myself to find some inspiration and *renewed energy*. I’ve had this desire to go horseback riding in the mountains for a while. I can’t explain to you why or what that did for my soul but it was just something I felt like I needed to do. I also went to art museums, journaled, thrifted, walked, hiked and just explored.
I planned to be there for the weekend and leave on Labor Day but my plane got cancelled until that Friday!!! YaaaaaAAy. After an hour freakout, I realized there was nothing I could do (other than rebook a $700 plane ticket if I reallllyyy wanted to go home that day) so I tried to make the best out of another four days in Denver. I thought it’d be fun to make a travel guide for Denver/Estes Park, Colorado from the perspective of an outsider having an early 20’s existential crisis solo trip :))))
◊ ART & THINGS ◊
Contemporary Art Museum
Had some cool pieces in the museum but got a bit boring at times. The rooftop cafe terrace was cool and had a nice view.
Denver Art Museum
Had neat exhibits on each level, huge gift shop, nice rocking chairs out front, liked this one more than Contemporary Art Museum.
RiNO Art District
Amazing graffiti and art murals. Visited it while CRUSH Walls Event was going on so there were artists putting up murals as I was walking by. Very hipster~trendy~artsy district. There is this cool but super, super expensive art/clothing store called “Foreign Form” and they had the coolest streetwear/broke artist clothes. All the pieces I saw were like $100-$1k but still really cool stuff if ya want to just look around for DIY inspo.
Domo + Little Brazil
Domo is a Japanese restaurant with the most amazing interior design. I got the ramen and wasn’t that impressed BUT they were closing so I didn’t want to order 20 things but the spicy tuna + rice side dish that I got was amazing. Wish I visited earlier to check out the garden and stuff that was next to the restaurant. Little Brazil is a restaurant I randomly stopped by because I’ve never had Brazilian food before and I’m a sucker for comfort food and my entree hit the right spot. The plate I got consisted of rice, meat and gravy… my perfect comfort food.
◊ Mother Nature ◊
Estes Park – Rocky Mountains
I rented a car and drove out to Estes Park at around 5am on Sunday. The drive was so chill and watching the sunrise/sunsets while driving through the mountains is my new kink. My favorite part of the trip was visiting the mountains so I’d definitely recommend driving/renting a car and spending a day there.
Sky Pond
There’s so many entrances to choose from – I went to Glacier Gorge. Bring water, snacks, comfy shoes, hat/sunglasses, bug spray and be ready to spend the whole day there. The hike up is breathtaking (literally) but would’ve probably taken me 5 hours to get to Sky Pond and another 5 to walk back. I was taking tons of breaks and not rushing at all. I didn’t have time to get to the Sky Pond but would like to revisit and get to the top next time 🙂
Cowpoke Corner Corral
I decided to go horseback riding and now I’m 1003094% obsessed with horses. Ughh!!!! I miss my horse Big Ben so much!!! He was so sweet and smart and fjsdlkfjdslfjlsd anyways – This was such a good experience and you get to see nice views of the Rockies without having to hike a trail.
◊ THRIFT GUIDe ◊
MILE HIGH FLEA MARKET $-$$
Vintage/new/handmade clothes, food, etc.
It’s like a farmer’s flea market fair – items range from new/old/vintage/handmade clothes, hats, fruits, tacos, juices, to a fairground and also garage sales. You have to walk around to the back near the farmer’s market to find second-hand goods. Found the two most amazing, vintage leather jackets for and an oversized Harley Davidson button-up shirt.
GOLDMINE VINTAGE $$-$$$
Vintage consignment clothes, accessories
Really cool, quality vintage pieces in here. Higher prices than a thrift store like Goodwill. Big selection, categorized and organized. Didn’t buy anything from here but that’s because I’d already overspent on clothes and didn’t have enough suitcase space but would definitely give this shop a look if you’re looking for good vintage pieces and willing to pay a bit more.
BUFFALO EXCHANGE $-$$
Consignment clothes, accessories
Good for trendier, modern pieces. You can find things from Forever 21 to Nasty Gal and Gucci. (I saw a pair of Gucci heels there once at the DC location for $80 and I’m still kicking myself for not getting it even though it was a size too big for me) Visited both Denver locations. One is smaller than the other. Found good things at both. Lots of good graphic t’s/sweatshirts at the bigger location.
LA LOVELY VINTAGE $$-$$$
Vintage & new clothes, pins, misc. items
Neat pieces, but expensive. The location near Goodwill had really nice, thick collegiate pullover sweatshirts. They have 2 locations, one is located inside a store called Modern NoMad and the other one is a stand alone store. I was so confused trying to find the place that was inside of Modern NoMad. A really “trendy”, (overpriced) vintage place.
GOODWILL $-$$
Thrift clothes, accessories, home goods
Huge. Looked like a TJ Maxx on the inside. Chaotic but there’s probably some good stuff in there. This was the last thrift store I visited that day and I was tired so I didn’t dig deep but there’s so much good potential here.
VOLUME 01
THE COLORADO TIMES
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