Winter Park, Garden of the Gods, Colorado

There’s something about a road trip (the open highway, the shifting scenery, the feeling that anything could happen) that resets your brain in the best way. Our trip to Winter Park, Colorado ended up being exactly that: equal parts awe, laughter, and a little bit of humbled confidence on the slopes.

Garden of the Gods: Red Rock and Big Sky

We started at Garden of the Gods, and it’s hard to overstate how dramatic it feels in person. The rock formations rise out of the earth like sculptures: massive, weathered, and somehow perfectly placed. Standing beneath them made everything else feel smaller and quieter.

What I remember most is the color: deep red stone against a clear blue sky, with pockets of green tucked into every crack and curve. It’s the kind of landscape that makes you stop talking mid-sentence because your brain is busy trying to take it all in.

Winter Park: A Snowy Learning Curve

From there we drove to Winter Park, where everything looked freshly dusted: bright snow, pine trees, and that crisp winter light that makes even the shadows look clean.

Snowboarding, on the other hand, looked a lot better in my head than it did in real life. Day one was mostly me meeting the snow… repeatedly. I spent more time sitting, sliding, and laughing at myself than actually riding.

But that’s the magic of it: somewhere between the wipeouts, things started to click. By the end of the trip I still wasn’t graceful, but I was improving, and I was having enough fun that the bruises and sore muscles felt like a fair trade.

The Drive Back: Colorado, Painted Wide

The ride home turned into its own highlight. The mountains stretched along both sides of the road, their peaks dusted with snow and their lower slopes shifting between evergreen and winter-brown. The highway felt like a thin ribbon stitched through an enormous painting.

There was no rush, just mile after mile of scenery that made the car go quiet, the kind of view that keeps pulling your eyes back to the window.

What I Took Away

This trip wasn’t just “a drive to go snowboard.” It was a reminder that the best travel days usually have a little bit of everything: a place that makes you feel small, an activity that pushes you past your comfort zone, and a long stretch of road where you get to replay it all in your head.

We came back with photos, sure, but more than that, we came back with the kind of memories that stick around long after the snow melts.