Colorado in a day

August 13-14, 2007—When I woke up in my car, I could finally see what the area around me looked like. Quite pretty in the day, really.

I took a spin around the rest of the campground to confirm… and yes, I truly was alone out there. On my way down out of the mountains, my suspicions as to the wildlife were also confirmed (well, not bears, but others). I came across at least 5 sets of deer in the road. I always thought rabbits were pretty stupid when you come across them in the road, usually running alongside your car, zig zagging back and forth along one shoulder before finally jumping off the road into the bushes and away from the car. But on my drive out I concluded that deer are significantly stupider than rabbits… instead of running, they stare at you (hence deer in the headlights) as you slam on your breaks until you nearly hit them. Then they finally start to run, doing similar to the bunny with the zig zagging on the road’s shoulder. But then, instead of finally zigging away from the car, they have a suicidal tendency to zig in front of it. Good thing I was going rather slow down the forest service road.

Also while driving down this road I scared up a bunny chilling on the side of the road and he ran to the other… followed shortly after by a lynx trotting after it!! Awesome sighting. I guess the lynx had been stalking it and I ruined the moment. Happily I saw the bunny come running back across the road again a second later without the lynx, so I think it escaped.

Finally I got further south into where Colorado starts getting pretty. I went up and across Grand Mesa… which is just that. Shockingly as I reached the top I got snowed on to the point that I had to slow down on the icy road… in August!! Weird.

This is what it looks like looking from Grand Mesa down into the valley:

Then, driving south across the valley… the massive mountains across the center of the state loomed ahead of me.

Sadly the rain clouds had moved in, so one of my favorite drives in the entire US was made much less enjoyable. The mountains were just as spectacular… but the narrow, winding roads with no shoulder in pouring rain made me much less able to fully appreciate them!!

Here’s Ouray, the northern gateway to this beautiful region and by far one of my favorite small towns (though touristy, it has an adorable main street and hot springs!).

Though these are crap pics taken through the rain on my windshield, I just wanted to show the complete lack of shoulder and steep drop off. This road is not for the faint of heart or scared of heights!!

This part has such regular avalanches and mudslides in the winter they actually had to make a roof over the road.

Just a hint of the grandeur and scenery when it’s not pouring buckets…

This is called Red Mountain, for obvious reasons. Rich in minerals and metals, this entire area has been mined since early in our country’s history. Hence local towns named things like Leadville and Silverton.

There was an insane amount of construction and long delays on the road… which gave time for the sun to come out! At this point in my trip I was so used to construction delays and chillin in my car that I just put on the Jack Johnson, rolled down my window and kicked back. This stop sign guy was also dancing and being funny for us as we sat for probably 20 min.

Pretty…

This one’s Silverton… even more touristy (but still pretty cute)

More prettiness between Silverton and Durango (there’s actually a tourist railroad through this part… it’s that pretty)

Just north of Durango (if anyone reading has been to Purgatory/Durango Mountain, this is what it looks like under the snow!)

Finally I made it to Durango to see Kimmy. We had some cheap tacos and Tecate in town, then headed back for more beers and some circle of death (I don’t think I’d played this drinking game in years…). We had to take a dance break for this song that came in—I don’t remember what it was but everyone was very in to it.

People were still dancing even when we got back to the game.

John and I show off our matching aviators

Poor Matty drew the last king… this is pre-chug, a look of dread and extreme focus.

Making good progress… but Kimmy looks forward to dealing with the after-effects!

Matty takes a breather from the massive chug, and is discouraged from finishing it by his friends.


The next day, Kim packs up her house and moves out, back to Albucracky. First, she pulls out her red-tailed boa, named Fluffy, to show her off. (cute, huh?)

We also went for a quick rope swing into the freezing cold San Juan River to shake off any hangover, but I forgot my camera. On my way out of town, I at least tried to get one pic of the cute Durango main street.

Then I was off to Pagosa, where I hung out with my parents for the last few days of my road trip. Finally got to sit and relax… no sight seeing and no pictures!!