Norah and I had a few days to spend in Denver before flying back to Arizona and we decided to stay at the Vīb Hotel by Best Western in the RiNo neighborhood (River North Art District). I chose this hotel for price and convenience and it was a nice spot for our stay. On our first night we took advantage of the rooftop restaurant and bar and had dinner at McDevitt Taco Supply. It was a hazy evening due to the wildfire smoke - unfortunately this never cleared during our stay. It was still a nice evening though on the rooftop.

When planning for our time in Denver I came across a hiking tour with llamas and I knew we had to do it. We booked a two hour llama hike with Wonder Meadow Farm and it was awesome. We met our guides Kara and Brent at Beaver Ranch Park, located in the foothills outside of Conifer, about an hour’s drive from Denver. We were introduced to Triby and Elvis and got a brief llama lesson (some general information on llamas and how to handle them on our hike). We did a little practice around the playground then set off on the trail. We walked through a small meadow then had a gradual climb through the forest. Norah walked with Elvis and I walked with Triby then we switched after our break. We did a lollipop hike and after the loop retraced our steps back down the trail. On the way down we had to move off the trail for horses coming through as the guide’s horse really freaks out when seeing the llamas. She asked if we could wait a few minutes why she worked with her horse to get him used to the llamas. Elvis and Triby were fine, but certainly at attention keeping an eye on the horse (when you are a prey animal, you are constantly on high alert!). It was cute to see the different personalities of Triby and Elvis (younger of the two) - Elvis required a more firm hand. He had a thing for small pine trees (to both eat and scratch against) and was constantly veering off path. Kara and Brent do llama hugs at the end of the hike once the llamas have become more accustomed to the new hikers and we stopped in the meadow for pictures. This was absolutely delightful. Does it get any better than llama hugs? Triby and Elvis were amazing and this was definitely a highlight of our trip!

We decided to explore a little more in the area before heading back into Denver. We made the short hike to Maxwell Falls (barely a trickle in the middle of summer), ate lunch in Conifer, and walked a little around Evergreen Lake. This area was pretty and we easily could have spent more time here, but we decided to head back to Denver in the afternoon as we wanted to visit the Denver Art Museum in the evening. I’m glad we made our way out here - the llama hike was so much fun!