Ken and Karen’s travel adventures
Saturday: This was the first of two 500 mile days. Most of it would be straight and flat in Kansas. But first we had to climb the Rockies to the top! This is how we started out, at our 8800’ elevation… going down? Don’t be deceived!
Friday: Not many miles on the tires today – just 100 miles to Breckenridge. And up in elevation. Seriously?! Yep. I-70 follows the Colorado River through a beautiful gulch to the east of Glenwood Springs. There had been a fire here not too long ago, so the westboud lanes were closed, and all traffic was one lane in the eastbound section.
Thursday: It was a 200 mile drive from Moab to Glenwood Springs. We were here last year, and I figured since we’re going this way again, we might as well stop and take a soak in the hot springs. Here’s our welcome to Colorado sign!
Monday: Miles traveled today 95. Elevation tonight: 6,940 in Taos New Mexico.
This is the first day that we had a schedule that we had to make! We had reservations to spend the day on a scenic railway, so we needed to get to Antonito Colorado before 9:30. Our train would leave the station at 10:00. Antonito was just 30 miles south of Alamosa, so we got up, went to Starbucks for morning wake-up, and tootled on down the road. Poor Sonny was showing a low tire pressure… but we figure it must have been due to the 4o degree weather this morning! Kenny checked all the tires, and they were fine.
We arrived in Antonito in plenty of time, picked up our tickets, and waited for the “all aboard!”. Our tickets were for seats in “coach”, and we were assigned seats in this third red car. There are two nicer classes that had chairs that you could move and look directly outside. Our seats were forward facing and this was going to be just fine for us.
Sunday: Miles traveled 210. Elevation tonight 7,550 in Alamosa, Colorado.
Highest elevation today was over 9300’ —-a couple of times over different passes.
It was another sleep in day. 😁 It was nice, because even with a C-pap, Kenny isn’t sleeping well at the high elevation. We weren’t in a hurry this morning, because our first stop on our adventure today wouldn’t be open until noon, and it was only an hour drive away. So – I found a local Uncle Sam’s Pancake House for breakfast. There was quite a wait, so we knew it was a favorite with the locals. It was good. Kenny had an omelet that had hashbrowns and sausage inside, then smothered with country gravy. But the best gem received was from our waiter! We were talking about the elevation and the trouble Kenny’s been having. He said we could get cans of oxygen at WalMart! Who knew?! There was a WalMart on our way out of town, so we stopped in. They had various scented/flavored O2 (mint, grapefruit, menthol). We got the plain unscented. A big can and a pocket can! It is spendy… the big can was $15, and the pocket one was $10. You use it like an inhaler. The little can should have 40 one second blasts. The big can = 200 one second blasts. Kenny tried it. He took a big hit and held it for a long time. He said it really did make him feel better! So – he’ll be sleeping with that next to the bed, and in his pocket where ever we go! Man – sure wish we knew about this a week ago!
Saturday: few miles traveled around town. Elevation: still the same as yesterday: too high for Kenny to sleep/breathe well.
My list of things to do today was short since hiking is not the best choice for us. So we slept in, and I did laundry. Then we took a drive over to the Garden of the Gods. It was less than two miles from our motel. It was going to involve some walking, but mostly on paved trails and hopefully pretty level. The nice thing about this park is that it is free!
Got Oxygen?? 😳😲🥴
Friday: Miles today 210. Elevation tonight is 6,250 in Manitou Springs. Highest elevation today: 14,110!!
For you Washingtonians… Mt. Rainier is 14,411… just for comparison.
Here was our route today (the blue line). We traveled from Estes Park at the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park, south to just barely west of Colorado Springs. We took back roads as usual, since we both hate city traffic, we wanted to avoid Denver. But now – we both have had just about enough of Colorado’s “up the hill, down the hill, around the corner, switchback, repeat”. That is what Colorado does! Everywhere we go! Read more
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.
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!
