Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, 4 Corners

When traveling on family road trips, planning is key, knowing where you want to go is obvious, but mapping out where your stopping first, how long will take to get there, and how long you plan to stay are all questions best answered before getting on the road. Now don't get me wrong, we change things on the fly, more than the average hockey player, but planning is important... We have said many times that we didn't know where we want to stop to sleep for the night, and we've ended up driving past locations that had lots of hotels just to find that when we were truly exhausted that there were no hotels to be found for hours(at least none that we would be willing to sleep in). So now we always try to stop driving at a reasonable time, when we do this we are able to have more choices of where to stay, because when you arrive somewhere at 10pm or later, you never know if they have any availability left (happened to us quite a bit) so if you think you know where you might want to end up, make a reservation.
To figure out where to stop you need to know how many hours you will be driving, KEEP IN MIND... bathroom, food and stretching stops, especially if you are taking a long road trip. There are several sites available that can help you with this information, the one we use is AAA, if you are a member they offer maps, trip tickets, area information books.
We live in Miami, Florida so just getting out of Florida depending on which direction you are heading takes anywhere from 6 to 8 hours. Consider that most of your day number 1. Always try to plan your trip in a loop. What I mean is, if you are doing 3 to 5 states, look at a map and draw out the direction like a loop showing the first place to stop, second, third, etc. and decide whether or not you want the most driving on the way up or the way back.
Now for the fun stuff...
Our loop goes from Florida, a stop off in Missouri (we've been to Missouri before, I will tell you more about that trip in a different loop), Colorado, Utah, 4 Corners, New Mexico.
Colorado Springs - Ahh, what a beautiful place, plenty for the kiddies young and old. When we first arrived in the hotel, we where greeted by a sign that says, do not get too close to the bears, I said the WHAT!!! anyway, they are in the mountains,and wait, we where going into the mountains but we didn't see any, we did however see a coyote zip by us at one point.
But anyway, let me tell you some fun stuff to do and in Colorado Springs and there's plenty, plan to spend at least 3 to 4 days. We went to the majestic sight of Pikes Peak, we took their train up and down the mountain with a elevation of over 14,000 feet, the train takes about 45 minutes each way up and back, it goes very slow and there is a guide telling you about the mountain. Now as the elevation gets higher some people (very small children or the elderly or people in poor health can sometimes feel sick. I believe if you are pregnant you should not go.) Because, the air is much thinner, but most of the population really doesn't have much of a problem with this. If you go, which I highly recommend bring a sweater... we went in June and when you start out on the bottom it's about 70 degrees, and then on top of the mountain it was 15 degrees, yes, that's right, freezing, snowing, etc. We are from Florida so we loved it. Of course there are always gift shops, so you can go in a warm up and they have a restaurant as well. Next stop, we when from the highest of high to the darkest of dark, Into the Cave of the Winds, this cave is positioned differently, you drive up a mountain to go into this cave. Now we actually have been in a lot of caves, so I can really give you a accurate rating of this, this was OK, we've been in better, if you've never done a cave tour than go, but if you have done this in the past, this particular cave does not let you see the most impressive rooms like some others that I will discuss in different states. But for now let me tell you about the Garden of the Gods, this is a free park that has rock formations with interesting shapes and in the surrounding area is quite pretty, but there aren't many hiking trails, so we mostly drove through, you can rent horses but they are pretty expensive for one hour, so we then found out there was a 20 minute narrarative bus tour that takes you around and we decided to go, since it was just a couple of dollars per person, however, it only went into one section of the park not the most scenic part. For free it's a must see. Continuing on, we went to the Indian dwellings, we really enjoyed this, it is how the tribes built houses inside of the mountain, and how they lived, there's plenty to explore and it took a lot longer to see than we first thought it would, basically because we went through it twice, so thumbs up on this one. Off to a dinner show we go, we went to the Flying W Ranch and dinner show, this was actually recommended to me by a friend who remembered going there with her family when she was a teen (she now in her 40's) so it apparently made an impression on her, and it was still in business. Dinner and the show was reasonably priced, and what I wasn't expecting was they suggest you go early and visit the town that they set up, it has all different kinds of western shops and exhibits, they had a pre-show, of a tribal Indian dance. The food is just OK, you also sit a long picnic type tables with many other people, and if you like country music than this is for you, they also combine their show with comedy which I thought was pretty funny. The kids where a little bored. All in all I would recommend it. Just a note we always go into the downtown areas so at the end of my blog entries I'll tell you what's there. Downtown: Quaint streets, mostly mom/pop shops and restuarants, and a couple of arcades.
Denver - We arrived in Denver and immediately went to a Colorado Rockies game,