Road Trip

Getting away from town with the family is so much fun. We love our road trips with the boys no matter how many Disney classics we have to listen to from behind our heads. This week we loaded up the family truckster and headed south to Arizona. Driving through the night got us to Phoenix in a shade over 12 hours. Welcomed with an 80 degree day right out of the gates, we knew our week was heading in the right direction. My only real worry was how could I manage finding "Joe Time". I know, rough times.

The worries were soon alleviated when I realized our resort was 0.3 miles to the northern most trailhead of South Mountain. The network of trails within this mountain park was simply amazing; miles of gnarly trails just out my backdoor, sweet! Armed with trail and street runners, hiking boots, my mountain bike and swim goggles, this was the place to bring the family. The Arizona Grand Resort had something for the whole family.

My best hope for getting some huge trail runs and mountain bike rides in was to run the boys ragged each morning and light up the trails during nap time. Easier said than done, most days I was just as tired after an early family hike and a couple hours at the pool. But this was my chance, let's lace 'em up.

The first run was amazing, the constant up and downs in temps above 80 was just what the coach ordered. The whole week of trail running was a lot more difficult than I had imagined. My muscles were tired and I could not have been happier. Combined with some short swim workouts and a couple mountain bike rides, this family trip was a great training getaway. We were also able to take in a great railroad museum, a Rockies spring training game and lots of pool hours.

On our way back to Denver, we spent a couple of days in Durango and loved everything it had to offer. Great trails, beautiful scenery, tasty tacos and more trains. We had an awesome reconnaissance hiking mission to the Colorado Trail. The CO Trail from Denver to Durango is where I plan to ride 480+ miles, over many 13k peaks with my boys in 2021! Had to get Nicole familiar with our pick up spot.

This will not be our last southern road trip and we are looking forward to the boys being able to do more and more activities each year.