Visit to a Pot Shop- Our Colorado Adventure Continues

When my husband decided to take our son to Colorado for a Father-Son retreat, we girls decided to go with them and have a little “retreat” of our own.

After our first stop at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, we headed about two hours up into the mountains to Winter Park and Fraser.  The drive was beautiful!

Winter Park and Fraser are two quaint little towns nestled on the top a mountain just outside the Rocky Mountain National Park.  Our first stop was Crooked Creek Ranch, where the Father Son retreat was being held.  We weren’t sure what to expect as we wound our way down the dirt road about two miles, passing the occasional house and farm animals.  But when we arrived we were pleasantly surprised.  This was without a doubt the nicest “camp” I’ve ever seen!  

Beautiful views…

 And wonderful facilities…

After dropping them off I climbed behind the wheel and headed back down the dirt road to find my way to the management office where we would pick up the key to our condo.  Let me just say, clearly our GPS is from Texas!  It just didn’t seem to know what to do or where to go up there in the mountains.  Thankfully, everything in the area is located on the main road and we found the small office located in a “strip mall” of sorts beside a gas station.  

There were only a couple of places to park right in front of the office but both were taken, so we parked in front of the shop next door.  When I turned off the car and looked up, seeing bongs and pipes in the large front window display, I realized…it was  pot shop!  I’m not gonna lie… it felt a little weird and something to the effect of “Oh wow, that’s a pot shop!” came out of my mouth before I realized it….those things happen to me sometimes.  It was then I remembered, marijuana is legal in Colorado.  

Every website I looked at when making reservations had a tab about the regulations.  We’re a conservative family, it didn’t apply to us so I didn’t give it much thought.  I will say, although I don’t condone the buying, selling or use of marijuana, as a tourist in Colorado it had no effect on our visit. (Except for that brief moment mentioned above) In fact, their smoking laws in general seem to be more strict than most places.  No smoking of any kind is permitted anywhere in public and we had to sign agreements requiring heavy fines if we did so in our hotels and condo.      

Oh well, it was the only place to park and I’d be right back, no big deal.  

Before we pulled in, the girls had decided to stay in the car, since it wouldn’t take three of us to get a key.  I started to get out when the daughter in the front seat immediately realized I was getting out without my phone.  “Mom, take your phone,”  she insisted.  I assured her I’d be right back and wouldn’t need it. 

“We’re parked in front of a POT SHOP…take the phone!”  I took the phone and went into the management office to get our key.