LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN at Colorado National Monument — and the Brinkley Z3400 found one of the most dramatic canyon landscapes in the entire American West. Towering sandstone monoliths, sheer-walled canyons, and sweeping mesa-top views stretch in every direction above the Grand Valley near Fruita and Grand Junction. Rim Rock Drive winds along the canyon edge for 23 miles, delivering overlook after overlook of red rock fins, spires, and formations carved by millions of years of erosion. This stop was extra special — our friend Cynthia joined us here, making it one of those perfect days where great scenery meets great company. LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN with the Brinkley Z3400 at Colorado National Monument.

LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN in Durango and up at Purgatory Resort — and the Brinkley Z3400 found one of the most scenic corners of Colorado. Durango is a classic mountain town with a historic downtown, the legendary Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, and the San Juan Mountains rising in every direction. Purgatory Resort sits about 25 miles north on US-550, tucked into the San Juan National Forest with summer activities, mountain views, and trails that go on forever. This stop was extra special — our friends Trip and Tiffany joined us here with their family, making it one of those trips where great scenery and great people come together perfectly. LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN with the Brinkley Z3400 in Durango and Purgatory, Colorado.

LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN at Four Corners Monument — and the Brinkley Z3400 officially touched all four corners of the Southwest. Four states. One slab of granite. You can stand in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado all at the same time — and yes, we absolutely did. Four Corners Monument sits on Navajo Nation land and is the only point in the United States where four state borders meet. It's a quick stop but a bucket-list one, and the drive in through the high desert is stunning in every direction.

LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN at Canyons of the Ancients National Monument — and the Brinkley Z3400 was the perfect base camp for exploring it. Southwestern Colorado holds the highest known density of archaeological sites in the United States — over 6,000 recorded sites packed into a landscape of mesas, canyons, and high desert scrub. This is ancestral Puebloan country, where people built communities, farmed, and thrived for centuries before moving on. Petroglyphs, cliff dwellings, kivas, and pottery scatter across the land in every direction. It's not a polished park experience — it's raw, remote, and real. You have to want to find it. We wanted to find it.

Mesa Verde is one of those places that stops you cold — and the Brinkley Z3400 made it a proper base camp for the whole experience. The Ancestral Puebloans built an entire civilization into the cliffs here, and then walked away around 1300 AD. Cliff Palace, Balcony House, Spruce Tree House — these aren't ruins in the crumbling sense, they're preserved communities, stacked into sandstone alcoves with a precision that still defies easy explanation. The mesa top is just as stunning: canyon overlooks, pit house villages, and a sky so big it feels like the whole Colorado Plateau is laid out at your feet. Loving Life Having Fun at Mesa Verde National Park with the Brinkley Z3400.

Hovenweep is one of the Southwest's best-kept secrets, and the Brinkley Z3400 made it a proper stop. Scattered across the Utah-Colorado border, these ancient Ancestral Puebloan towers have been standing since the 1200s — square, round, D-shaped, and oval, perched on canyon rims and boulder tops like they were built to last forever. The Square Tower Group is the centerpiece, but the whole loop trail delivers one jaw-dropping ruin after another. No crowds, no guardrails, just you and 800-year-old architecture in the high desert. Loving Life Having Fun at Hovenweep National Monument with the Brinkley Z3400.

LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN at Great Sand Dunes National Park — and the Brinkley Z3400 pulled up to one of the most surreal landscapes in all of North America. Great Sand Dunes is home to the tallest sand dunes in North America, rising up to 750 feet against the dramatic backdrop of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The dunes were formed over thousands of years as wind carried sand from the San Luis Valley floor and deposited it against the mountain range — and the result is something that looks like it belongs on another planet. Medano Creek runs along the base of the dunes in spring and early summer, creating a shallow wading beach at the foot of the tallest dunes in the country. It's free to hike, dog friendly on leash, and absolutely unlike anything else on the road. LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN with the Brinkley Z3400 at Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado.

We were already in the neighborhood after Great Sand Dunes, and our friend Chris had timed his travels to intersect with ours — so we grabbed the dogs and headed up into the San Isabel National Forest to find Zapata Falls. The hike itself is short but the payoff is wild: you wade through a cold, rushing stream into a narrow rock gorge, squeeze through a cave passage, and come out face-to-face with a 25-foot waterfall hidden inside the mountain. Reecee, Zero, and Mac were absolutely in their element — soaking wet and loving every second of it. LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN doesn't get much better than a secret waterfall in a cave with good friends and three very happy dogs.

The Brinkley Z3400 absolutely did not drive the Million Dollar Highway — no guardrails, sheer drop-offs, and switchbacks carved into cliff faces at 11,000 feet? That's a job for a smaller vehicle. But Joe and Tina drove it, and the views were worth every white-knuckle moment. US-550 between Silverton and Ouray is widely considered one of the most spectacular — and most terrifying — roads in America. Ouray itself is called the Switzerland of America, a tiny Victorian mining town tucked into a box canyon with 14,000-foot peaks rising straight up on all sides. LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN on the Million Dollar Highway.

LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN at Garden of the Gods — and the Brinkley Z3400 rolled into one of the most dramatic landscapes in all of Colorado. Garden of the Gods is a National Natural Landmark just outside Colorado Springs where massive red sandstone formations rise hundreds of feet straight out of the earth, framed against the snow-capped summit of Pikes Peak. The geology here is staggering — towering fins, balanced rocks, and soaring spires all formed over millions of years of uplift and erosion. It's free to enter, dog friendly, and absolutely jaw-dropping at every turn. LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN with the Brinkley Z3400 at Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs.

LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN at one of the most accessible and dog-friendly ancient sites in the Southwest — the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, tucked into a red sandstone alcove just outside Colorado Springs. These are genuine Ancestral Puebloan structures, relocated and preserved here in the early 1900s, and you can walk right through them — into the rooms, under the overhangs, and up close to the masonry that has stood for nearly a thousand years. The setting is stunning: a deep red cliff face, a natural alcove, and the whole thing framed by the Pikes Peak region. Dogs are welcome on leash, which means the Brinkley Z3400 crew was all in. Reecee and Zero got to explore ancient ruins — not something you can say at most national parks. LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN with the Brinkley Z3400 at the Manitou Cliff Dwellings.

We didn't expect to find Santa Claus in the middle of summer, but there he was. Nestled at the base of Pikes Peak in Cascade, Colorado, the North Pole – Home of Santa's Workshop has been delighting kids and kids-at-heart since 1956. Vintage rides, candy cane decor, elves, and yes — the big man himself. This is exactly the kind of stop that makes LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN what it is — pure, unfiltered joy with zero apologies.

History doesn't have to be stuffy — and the Museum of the Mountain West proves it. Spread across several acres in Montrose, Colorado, this open-air living history museum is packed with authentic frontier buildings, vintage storefronts, period medical offices, and artifacts from the American West. We spent hours wandering the grounds, and that's the other thing — this place is genuinely dog friendly. LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN means finding the stops that welcome the whole crew, and this one delivered.

Right in Montrose, just a short drive from the Museum of the Mountain West, sits one of the most meaningful stops we made in Colorado. The Ute Indian Museum tells the story of the Ute people — the original inhabitants of this land — through an extraordinary collection of artifacts, clothing, artwork, and cultural objects. The hide painting alone stopped us in our tracks. Outside, the grounds hold the graves of Chipeta and Chief John McCook, a quiet and powerful reminder that this history is not ancient — it is living. LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN means slowing down for the stops that make you think.

Telluride is one of those towns that earns every bit of its reputation — and then some. Tucked into a box canyon in the San Juan Mountains, it's a National Historic Landmark District with Victorian storefronts, world-class skiing, and a free gondola that connects the town to Mountain Village. And yes — dogs ride free. We took Reecee and Zero up on the gondola and the views were absolutely unreal. LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN means finding the places that welcome the whole crew, and Telluride does it better than almost anywhere we've been. The Brinkley Z3400 fit right in.

Grand Mesa is one of the largest flat-top mountains in the world, and it sits right here in Colorado — over 10,000 feet up, blanketed in spruce and fir forest, dotted with more than 300 lakes and reservoirs. We drove up through the aspens, past the Grand Mesa National Forest entrance, and into a landscape that felt like the top of the world. Crystal-clear lakes, wildflower meadows, grazing cattle on open range, and skies that go on forever. LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN on the Grand Mesa.

LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN on one of the most spectacular and least-traveled mountain passes in the entire San Juan range — Owl Creek Pass, a high-altitude dirt road that winds through aspen groves, open meadows, and rugged alpine terrain between Ridgway and the Cimarron Valley. At over 10,000 feet, this is the kind of road that rewards the adventurous — no guardrails, no crowds, just jaw-dropping views of the Cimarron Ridge, the Uncompahgre Plateau, and the wild heart of southwestern Colorado. The Brinkley Z3400 crew made the run and it did not disappoint. LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN with the Brinkley Z3400 on Owl Creek Pass.

LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN at one of Colorado's most unexpected and jaw-dropping hidden gems — Rifle Falls State Park, where three separate waterfalls plunge 70 feet over a travertine cliff into a lush, moss-covered canyon that feels more like the Pacific Northwest than the high desert of western Colorado. The mist, the caves behind the falls, the emerald green pools, the limestone formations — it's the kind of place that stops you in your tracks and makes you wonder how more people don't know about it. The Brinkley Z3400 crew made the run up Rifle Creek Canyon and it absolutely delivered. LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN with the Brinkley Z3400 at Rifle Falls State Park.

LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN at one of the most iconic and storied hotels in America — The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, the legendary grand dame that inspired Stephen King's The Shining and has been haunting guests and delighting history buffs since 1909. Perched above the town with the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop, the Stanley is equal parts architectural masterpiece, ghost story, and Colorado landmark. We made the pilgrimage in the Brinkley Z3400 and it did not disappoint — the white Georgian Revival exterior, the grand lobby, the history dripping from every wall, and yes, the unmistakable feeling that something is watching you from Room 217. LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN with the Brinkley Z3400 at The Stanley Hotel.

We left the Brinkley Z3400 parked roadside on a steep mountain pass and set out on foot to hike Treasure Falls — and it did not disappoint. The trail winds through lush spruce and fir forest, the air thick with pine and the sound of rushing water growing louder with every step. Zero was in his element, nose to the ground the whole way up. When Treasure Falls finally came into view — a 105-foot cascade sheeting down a broad cliff face into a mossy gorge — it was one of those moments where you just stop and stare. LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN doesn't get much better than this.

We have been to a lot of places with the Brinkley Z3400 — and Rocky Mountain National Park sits at the very top of the list. There is nothing that quite prepares you for the scale of it. Trail Ridge Road climbs above treeline to over 12,000 feet, and the views in every direction are the kind that make you stop the truck and just stand there. Longs Peak, the Never Summer Range, the wide open tundra, the elk grazing in the meadows below — it is all just relentlessly beautiful. We hiked, we drove, we stared, and we came back for more. LOVING LIFE HAVING FUN at Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado — and we will absolutely be back.