Colorado - 07 - Home Sweet Home

It's nice to be back home again! We had a great time for 16 days traveling throughout Colorado. We have always enjoyed the mountains. When I graduated from college, Kathy and I took off for a weeks vacation in Colorado. We almost didn't come back. I wonder what our lives would have been like if we had stayed and raised our family in Colorado. To be honest, I don't believe it could be any better than this.

We didn't think about staying in Colorado at the end of this trip. We were anxious to return home to our family, our friends and our home. Kathy is looking forward to spending time in her garden, me in my wood shop, and both of us some time on our boat.

Our next trip? Maybe the Texas Rio Grand Valley late this winter.

Colorado -07 - Heading Home

We departed Laramie around 9am this morning. As you can probably tell from the photo we are parked at one of our more popular sites, Walmart. Most every city of any size has a Walmart where motorhomes are permitted to park for the evening. Tonight we are in Lincoln Nebraska, about 180 miles from Des Moines. Tomorrow we are going to Walnut, Iowa before we arrive home in the evening. Walnut is a great place to shop for antiques. The majority of the town is antique stores. We like to stop here whenever we pass by and have some extra time to spare.

Colorado - 07 - Tour through the Mountains

Thursday

Today we headed over the top of the Snowy Mountain Range to check out the areas where we have snowmobiled in past years. This first photo is Libby Flats, the highest pass over this range. It is pretty foggy today with intermittent rain. Snowmobilers know that going across this pass in the snow is always a challenge, especially when the snow is blowing and visibility is minimal.







The second photo is of a hill snowmobilers have called Fiberglass Hill. It is very steep and can be very tough to climb on a snowmobile. Many who have not made it to the top have seen their sled tumble and roll down the hill. Sometimes all that is left is a tangle mess of of fiberglass and aluminum. Others have been lucky and only lost a windshield.

Colorado - 07 - Snowy Mountain Range

Wednesday

Sorry for the delay in posting, we had no Internet service on Wednesday and Thursday.

We departed Steamboat on Wednesday morning. We headed north across the Continental Divide towards Wyoming. I always wanted to visit the Snowy Mountain Range where we have snowmobiled for the past 8 years. We always see the area with snow, so we were curious what it looked like during the summer. We recognized most of the areas but didn't realize how many lakes, ponds and streams are along the trail.

Here in the photo we are camped in the snowmobile parking lot in the little town of Albany. The town has a population of 15 and is at an elevation of about 9,000 feet. While there we checked out two new homes that are for rent to snowmobilers in the winter months.

Colorado -07- Steamboat Springs Garden Tour

We had a nice relaxing day. Kathy went on a guided tour at the Botanical Gardens that I mentioned in yesterdays post. The host and speaker for the day was Cynthia Brian. She is the author of the Chicken Soup books. Kathy purchased her book Chicken Soup for the Gardeners Soul. I drove around town and checked out the prices on some of the homes for sale.

In the afternoon we drove up the canyon towards Hahns Peak. A couple of years ago several of us went snowmobiling up in these mountains. It was interesting to see some of the fire roads that become snowmobile trails in the winter months.

Tomorrow we are heading north into Wyoming. We'll probably dry camp in Albany where we have often gone snowmobiling.

Colorado - 07 Steamboat Gardens

Kathy was in 7th heaven today as our morning bike ride took us by the Yampa River Botanic Park. Of course we had to stop for her to preview the gardens. Coincidentally there is a tour tomorrow by a noted gardening author. We all know Kathy will be in attendance .

Steamboat Springs is a great town. We both commented that we would like have a place here to visit both in the winter and summer. Unfortunately so would alot of other people. The housing market is very high. Our Des Moines house and property would probably be worth $2 million or more.

I had a real treat this evening for supper. Kathy made Cincinnati Chili. As most of you know we love this style of chili.

Colorado - 07 - Grand Junction to Steamboat Springs

The city of Grand Junction is very cosmopolitan. Modern roads, beautifully keep older homes, great shopping areas and loads of restaurants. Their old downtown has been converted into shops, bars and gourmet restaurants. Last night Kathy and I had cocktails at a quaint little restaurant after dinner and listened to a jazz duo play several of our favorite songs.

This morning we made to decision to move on to Steamboat. Grand Junction is great but the temperatures for the next several days are forecasted to be in the mid to high 90's.

The ride east on I-70 through Glenwood Canyon made us marvel at the engineering feat of building this highway. It took 13 years to construct and much of it is two levels as shown in the photo.

We made it to Steamboat Springs about 2 pm. The temps here are 80 daytime and high 50's at
night. We both decided we have been to busy for the last week so we are going to take a couple lay days here. Maybe bike, hike, and take naps.

Colorado - 07- The Black Canyon of Gunnison

Here are a couple of photos of the Black Canyon of Gunnison, near Montrose, Colorado. It is hard to believe this 48 mile long canyon, 2772 feet deep only recently, 1999, became a national park. There are multiple vantage points along the south rim from which to view the canyon. Each view was more impressive than the last, the tall spires, the narrowness, the sheer drop-offs, and the marbling in the walls. This photo doesn't do the canyon justice, no photo could. You have to be there to experience the beauty and magnificence.



The second photo is a shot of the overlook from the visitors center. The overlook is a peninsula jutting out from the edge of the canyon. The short walkway has a fence on each side but it wasn't enough for Kathy to have the confidence to walk out to the end with me.

Tip: Double click on photo to enlarge, click on the back arrow (top left) to return to normal.

We are in Grand Junction tonight and will probably be here on Sunday evening as well.

Colorado - 07 - Jeeping & Hot Springs

We decided last night to take our jeep on a trip over one of the many trails. We saw no less than a hundred jeeps in the area, most of them specially setup for rough mountain trails. We stopped at the Visitor Center for advice in selecting a trail. With our stock jeep we did not want anything too tough. We selected Ophir Pass which is considered to be a moderate degree of difficulty trail.

About 18 miles up the mountain highway, we found the turnoff for the Ophir Trail. The beginning was relatively straight forward. The narrow one lane rock trail climbed up the side of the mountain with rocks on the upside and nice big trees on the downside. It was not long till the trail got rougher with large rocks in the road and steeper drop-offs on the side. We continued to climb up the mountain for about 30 minutes and reached the tree line at 10,000 feet. Now all there was around us was rocks and water running across the road at various places. The switchbacks scared us both as we slowly crawled around them in low range 4-wheel drive. We reached the summit (11,789 ft.) in about an hour and decided to take a break. The views on the way up and when we reached the top were incredible.

The drive down the other side was even scarier than the drive up. It was steeper, narrower, if that is possible, and had much larger boulders to contend with. (Remember, this is considered to be of moderate difficulty). About 1/8 mile down, the trail took a sharp right turn (switchback), so sharp we had to backup to complete the turn. Kathy gave me her advice on how far to pull back before we would tumbled over the edge and down a 1000 foot drop-off. An hour later we made it to the town of Ophir, nestled in the Aspen trees at the foot of two mountains. If this was a moderate trail we do not want to experience difficult. Not yet anyway!

Tip: Double click on any of the photos in the blog to enlarge, click on back arrow (top left) to return.

Later that afternoon the hot spring fed pool in Ouray was a great way to take the stiffness out of our muscles after an exhilarating ride on these infamous trails. There were several different temperature pools from which to choose. They ranged from 85-105 degrees. We both like the hot pool. We an excellent dinner at the Outlaw, an old time local bar/restaurant with a honky-tonk piano player.

Colorado - 07 - On to Telluride & Ouray - Thursday

Thursday - posted Saturday due to lack of Internet service.

This morning we headed to Telluride (photo). The shortest route, 100 miles, was out of the question. Our RV and Truckers Guide recommended that all vehicles over 30 feet detour around this route due to the three major mountain passes to Ouray. This route was a narrow two lane road with sharp switchbacks and thousand foot drop-offs. Our new route was 160 miles, but it is also part of the San Juan Scenic Skyway, so the drive was incredibly scenic. There were a couple of passes we had to cross going into and out of Telluride, but the road was considerably better than the shorter route.

Telluride is a quaint and upscale ski town. We stopped for lunch at The Brown Dog Saloon. While seated at the bar, we struck up a conversation with a young guy (owner) that turned out to be a player on the University of Michigan team that won the 2000 National Championship. Following a great pizza we headed to Ouray, considered by many to be the Jeeping Capital of the World.

We set up camp at Ridgway State Park a few miles out of Ouray. As you can see from the photo the mountains are a beautiful backdrop for our camp site.

Colorado - 07 - Durango/Silverton Railroad

The ride on the Durango/Silverton Railroad Line provided us with some magnificent views of the San Juan National Forrest. The line is still using the old coal fired steam locomotives. The one that we were on today was 125 years old. During the 3:45 ride to Silverton we had to stop to take on water twice over the 45 mile route. We also stopped twice to drop off back packers into the forest. The rugged terrain and narrow ledges on which the tracks were laid made the ride quite thrilling. At times we were hundreds of feet directly above the river on a very narrow ledge.

The town of Silverton is pretty much supported by the tourists who arrive on the 3 daily trains. The elevation is 9500 feet and they receive a lot of snow during the winter months. So much snow that the train doesn't run all the way to Durango in the winter. The towns summer population of 3000 shrinks to 500 during the winter.

The road to Silverton is just about as precarious as the train route. It goes over two 10,000 ft. passes and has many twists and drop offs with no guard rails.

We enjoyed the trip a great deal. We purchased a beautiful piece of "Horse Hair" Indian pottery. Tomorrow morning we depart for Telluride and then on to Ouray.

Colorado -07 - Mesa Verde

Sorry for the delay in posting our Tuesday activities. We headed into Durango for the evening and met a couple from St. Louis. They are both bicyclers and may join us next year for Ragbrai. In any case we had our share of drinks and got home fairly late.





We spent the entire day visiting Mesa Verde. It's one of the largest National Park in the U.S. with over 4500 archaeological sites, with 600 cliff dwellings. This photo is of "Cliff Palace" the largest cliff dwelling. In order to access the site we descended over 100 feet into the structure and climbed out over a series of carved sandstone steps and five 8-10 foot tree ladders. The park itself is not in the best of shape. It has suffered three fires over the last 11 years. New growth is coming back in many of the areas but the location of most recent fire in 2000 has minimal growth.

Colorado - 2007 - Durango

We departed Canon City this morning about 8:30. The drive west on U.S. 50 followed the swift running waters of the Arkansas River. The views were beautiful and the road had numerous curves but was fairly flat. When we reached Poncha Springs we headed south on U.S. 385. As we climbed out of town we encountered our first pass through the mountains. Poncha Pass, elevation 9010 feet was a fairly easy climb, a 5% grade. Fortunately it opened up to a valley some 60 miles long and 10 miles wide and a road as straight as an arrow.

Our real challenge came on CO 160 near Pagosa Springs. Wolf Creek pass, 10850 feet, had our palms sweating and wondering if this route was a good idea. The climb up the 6% grade was over 9 miles long, but our diesel chugged away at it. The 9 mile descent with 7% grade was a little hairy. I used the pack brake all the way down the hill but at times I had to use the motorhome brakes because we began to accelerate too quickly. The runaway ramp in the photo is one of two used quite often hill by runaway trucks and campers. Fortunately we didn't need it!

Durango is a very interesting city. There is a ton of things to do. The Chamber had lots of tips and advice for us. Tomorrow we are going to Mesa Verde National Park to see the cliff dwellings. For Wednesday we purchased tickets for the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad trip to Silverton. There are also numerous jeep trails and bike trails we'd like to check out if time permits. Maybe we'll have to stay longer?

For those who have never seen me cook, check out the second photo.

Colorado - 2007 - The Royal Gorge

Before departing on today's adventure our camping neighbor called this area the "Royal Gouge". He said the $24 ($19 w/coupon) was a ripoff, "the area is getting to commercialized". He's probably right, there are trinket stores and rafting companies up and down the road. But the Royal Gorge is truly magnificent. The $19ea. ticket included just about everything but the Bungee Flying (too bad). The walk across the wooden plank 1/4 mile long, 1000 foot high bridge is intimidating for us flatlanders. Kathy was determined to go, with much encouragement from me. Her first try was a failure, she turned back about 500 feet out. The second try was successful as she gripped my hand and walked swiftly down the center, with sweaty palms. We took over 50 photo with our digital camera, here are a couple.

We also took the incline down to the bottom of the canyon where we watched the rafters shoot down the class 3 rapids on the Arkansas River. During lunch we listened to a musical group play memorable tunes from the 70's, Neil Young, Credence, etc. I couldn't talk Kathy into taking the aerial tram with me across the gorge, she shopped in the stores. Some of the other interesting stops were the zoo, with an albino buffalo, the western town, and a ride on the old time Merry-Go-Round.

Late afternoon we drove along the river to watch the rafters come down the rapids. Monday morning we are headed for Durango. We have two mountain passes to cross over. We'll see how good the brakes are on a 40,000 pounds of rig coming down the steep hills.

Colorado 2007

The mountains are a little intimidating for us flatlanders. After arriving in Canon City this morning we headed into the mountains with our jeep. The information center in town told us that if we really wanted to see some rugged terrain to take the Phantom Canyon road to Cripple Creek. Road, that's a joke. It started out as blacktop for the first 3 of a 30 mile trip. As soon as we began to climb, it turned to gravel for the next couple of miles. It then turned to a totally unpaved road for the remainder of the drive, compacted only by the vehicles. The road winds through the canyon with steep drop-offs, no guard rails and much of it one lane wide. Both of the tunnels we drove through were blasted from solid granite and have no support timbers. The scenery is gorgeous, pictures can't describe the area.

Tomorrow the plan is to see the Royal Gorge. Kathy is a little apprehensive about walking across the worlds highest suspension bridge. We'll see it she chickens out.

On the Road Again - Colorado-07

Here we go again! The temperatures in Des Moines for the month of August are projected to be in the mid 90's. So why stay in Iowa when the mountains are only a day's drive away and the temperatures are 20-30 degrees cooler.

A week ago we decided that rather than travel in September or October when the weather is nice in Iowa we'd head out in the heat of summer for a couple 2-3 weeks.

The current plan is to head to Canon City, then Durango, Silverton, Ouray, Gunnison, Grand Junction and maybe even Steamboat. But who knows the plan could change in a couple of days. At this point we are pretty sure we're going to Durango. There are a lot of places to take day trips around Durango.

We'll try to post each day as long as we have access to the internet.

Gary & Kathy