We had to see The Grand Canyon and then made our way to Denver via Cortez, CO and Alamosa, CO.

We found The Grand Canyon to be aptly titled and decided to spend our day in the park hiking down into the canyon on the south rim side to Horse Shoe Mesa. Despite the abundance of safety warnings, we still managed to start our hike without half the equipment suggested, most importantly - enough water. The day was another blazer and the big problem with hiking into a canyon is the fact that you descend first so, although we are now very experienced hikers capable of ensuring we turn back if we have to, this was a whole new ball game. As a result, we spent most of the day anxious about our water supplies which subtracted from our enjoyment somewhat.

We spent one night in Cortez and then made our way to Alamosa via Mesa Verda National Park and Durango.

When we arrived in Alamosa, in the dark, we were told to get wifi at the McDonalds and await our next instructions. The instructions we received ended in "and then the road will turn into a dirt path, wait there, I'll find you." We anxiously waited at the end of an otherwise abandoned road until we could see a flash light in the distance. We nervously stepped out of the car and walked up to meet our host, Enrique....

Enrique was a very happy, fun, instantly likeable guy living in a nice snug "shack". We immediately felt comfortable and were soon chatting away like old friends. He quickly convinced us to stay an extra night and then he planned out a full day of activities for us which included rolling down sand dunes, wading up to a waterfall and hiking up to a hanging lake.

From Alamosa we drove to Denver via Florissant National Monument (full of fossilised red woods) and Collorado Springs where we spent some time walking through the Garden of the Gods.