Fort Collins Colorado Temple

Temple 108

July 20, 2019

Fort Collins, Colorado

     For us, sometimes it’s harder to travel to places close to home than to places far away. While traveling abroad it may be our only chance to go to where we’re going, while at home we have the rest of our lives to go to the places close to home. This is why we haven’t done a few temples near us, including the Fort Collins temple. We decided to finally make time to do it, so we planned a trip and made it happen. 

     We started our trip on a Friday afternoon after we got off work. We drove into Wyoming headed towards Cheyenne, and around 11:00pm we took an exit, drove onto a dirt road for a while and parked off the side of the road. We had a mattress in the back of our truck and it made for a comfortable night's sleep. 

     The next morning we drove to Fort Collins, making our way through Fort Laramie and down into beautiful Colorado. We headed straight to the temple and hurried and changed into church clothes. We took some pictures before and the weather was perfect and beautiful, which was a blessing because after the temple it was cloudy and rainy. 

     It was neat to see the temple again, and although this was the third time seeing the temple it was our first time going inside. The first two times we saw it, it was still under construction. Now we were finally able to go inside. 

     The temple has a single steeple and isn’t very tall, but the top roofing is blue and makes it stand out, along with the iconic Angel Moroni on top. We went inside and enjoyed a session. As many other temples, this temple had some gorgeous murals in the first room depicting the mountains and plains of Colorado. 

     The Celestial room was also gorgeous, as always, and had tones of gold in all of the decor and decoration. It was then easy to find our way out because the temple is all on one level and is in the shape of a ‘+’. 

     After the temple we changed our clothes and said goodbye to the temple for a third time, yet this time we were spiritually fed and were blessed to have gone through the temple. We then went into downtown Fort Collins and ate one of our favorite hamburgers, a 60/40 burger, which is 60% beef and 40% bacon, from Big Al’s. 

      We then headed into the mountains, and in good time. It started to get cloudy and rainy and we were so glad we were able to have sunny skies for our pictures before the temple. 

     We drove up a canyon into the Rocky Mountains for a few hours, following a gorgeous river that had rapids and waterfalls on the way up. Eventually we got to the pass in the mountains, at roughly 10,000 feet in elevation, and found a camping spot. It was still slightly raining and so we were glad we were just sleeping in the back of our truck. 

     In the morning we went to the pass where two moose were, and then drove to a hike to Lake Agnes. The hike was easy and short, and when we came to the lake it was breathtaking. The lake sits in a hole surrounded by mountains on three sides. There was snow melting straight into the lake and so the water was freezing, and not inviting on the brisk morning. 

     After the hike we headed back home. We weren’t able to make it to church because of the lack of churches in that area of Colorado, but we enjoyed the drive and were glad to be able to do the Come Follow Me lesson as we drove. It was a beautiful part of Colorado we had never been too, but it soon turned to the dreary, dry desert of North-Eastern Utah. 

     We stopped in Vernal at the temple and relaxed at the temple and took some pictures. We weren’t able to go in of course, but it was still enjoyable to see the temple. 

     Eventually we got home and were glad to be home, but it was a fun and short trip. We had been so close to the temple for years and finally had made time for it, when in other countries we were a thousand miles away but made it work while we were there. We finally went to the Fort Collins Temple though, and made quite a fun trip out of it. It made us want to go to other close temples and so plans have been made and soon we will.