Month: September 2019

Thursday;  miles traveled today…maybe 50 paved, maybe 15 on rugged rocks & dirt?  Highest elevation maybe 9000’.

We slept in this morning which was nice.  We had a real breakfast at a little local bakery and cafe called NotchTop.  It was really a busy place, and the food was really good.  When we finished, we went and strolled around the town of Estes Park.  It is a touristy town.  I figure that it is at the base of the Rocky Mountain National Park,  and there is a lot of winter activities around here.  It is like base camp for all of the Coloradoites that come from Denver, Boulder, etc.  There was a little farmer’s market set up that we walked around.  Then – at 12:30, we checked in at Estes Park ATV.  We had reservations for a 3 hour ride today.  We got the paperwork done, got our helmets, instructions, safety, and directions on where to go to the trial head, which was about 20 miles out of town.

We drove on down there, got assigned our Kawasaki side-by-side, got a map and final instructions, and we were on our way.  This was a do-it-yourself tour.  We could go where ever we wanted on the trail system.  We just had to be back in 3 hours.  SWEET! Read more →

Wednesday:  160 miles.  Elevation tonight 7,660’ in Estes Park.   Highest elevation today 12,179 !!!

Today’s journey took us through a lot of up and down and arounds…. just like everywhere in Colorado takes us!  Our destination was to go through Rocky Mountain National Park on the Trail Ridge Road.  Here is today’s journey.  The lighter blue on the right is actually the road through the park.

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Tuesday:  120 miles,  Elevation tonight 6,775 in Steamboat Springs.

We weren’t in a big hurry today.  We weren’t going very far, and didn’t have any special plans for when we get there.  I originally had planned to go to Steamboat Springs to 1) see another famous ski resort town, and 2) to go to Strawberry Hot Springs which is a very remote, rustic place.  I thought it would be a really fun and authentic hot spring experience.  But we found out from talking to local Coloradoites that there is a 2 mile dirt road to get there, and it is steep, curvy, and can be yucky when wet.  It is recommended to go in an all wheel drive vehicle.  (Of course, it is most popular in the winter when the road is snowy!). Some people said our car would be ok to go there.  But – it has been raining, so there would be mud to add to the yuck.  So we decided that we wouldn’t put our little Sonny (Sonata) car through that.   So, it was a low key day, and Not many pictures today.  We took a scenic route, because that is the only way to get to Steamboat Springs!

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Monday:  165 miles.  Elevation tonight 5750 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

Today’s adventure began just 15 miles from our hotel… that’s why we stayed in Montrose last night.  We were headed to visit another National Park – one that neither of us had heard of before planning this trip.  Black Canyon of the Gunnison is a deep canyon in which the Gunnison River flows.  The canyon is so narrow and so deep—spanning, just 40 feet at its narrowest point, and reaching a greatest depth of 2,722 feet, that some parts of the canyon see only a few minutes of direct sunlight per day.

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Sunday:  195 miles.  Elevation tonight: 5800’ at Montrose, Colorado.  Highest elevation today: 10,550 !!!

Today’s adventure was to go see something that Colorado is famous for:  A world class ski resort.  We are not skiers.  We are not snow and cold kind of people.  But I thought seeing one of the ski resorts on this trip would be fun.  So I looked at Aspen, Vail, Breckenridge, Telluride…. and found that the gondola at Telluride is free!  OK – that made it to my list of places to go see.  So that was our itinerary today.  We would travel south about 130 miles to Telluride to spend the day, then back track about 65 miles to stay in Montrose so we’ll be in position for tomorrow’s adventure.

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Saturday:  135 miles.  Elevation tonight:  4600’ in Grand Junction, Colorado.

We didn’t get up early.  We were the second to the last car to leave the hotel this morning, around 9:30.  We found the Starbuck’s in the grocery store, and got ourselves a quick latte and breakfast sandwich. Good to go.  We were headed to Colorado today.  It was the joke when we left the triplet grandbabies in Spokane, that when we got to Colorado, we might just turn around and go back to be with them.  We’ll see!  We do miss those sweet little pirates!

As we headed out of Moab, we chose to take Highway 12 which follows the Colorado River.  We’ve been on this route before, and it is beautiful.

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