Our View From The Road

Sharing where we've been and what we've seen

Tag: CO

  • Day 35: Angels Peak

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    Driving day today as we awake from another quiet night of slumber. The wind has picked up a bit and is from the West so that should help with our travels today.

    A normal pre-travel morning routine sees us enjoy a small breakfast and then it’s time to disconnect from the campground services and prepare to depart. All is good to go.

    Our first stop will be very familiar to anyone who has watched the movie “Forrest Gump” for we stop and take some pictures at the place where Forrest ends his running and decides to go home.

    It had to be done

    From here we drove just a short distance to Mexican Hat to view Mexican Hat Rock. Let me save you the time, it’s a rock that happens to look like a sombrero balancing on a much smaller rock. The picture says it all.

    Next stop, the Four Corners. This is the place where Arizona, Utah, Colorado & New Mexico all meet. It is marked with a plaza where you can walk between the four states or stand in two states or if you include your hands, like Barb, you can be in all four states at the same time (almost). You see, Arizona does not use daylight savings time & so you can also be a time traveler and be in multiple states at different times! The plaza is on Navaho land and as such an $8/person tribal fee is required to access the plaza which also contains many Navaho vendors selling all kinds of authentic goods. Enjoy the pictures.

    Four Corners

    Leaving the Four Corners we drove South and reconnected with the US-64E towards Farmington, NM and then onto Bloomfield, NM where we turn SE towards our stop for the night, Angels Peak, NM. This is a BLM night and so we will have to hope that we can find a nice spot. Oh, were we lucky. We found a quiet corner of one of the picnic areas that overlooks the Angels Peak Badlands & for the first time on this trip we snagged a gazebo under which to eat our meals! Bonus.

    Angels Peak Badlands, NM

    The evening is super quiet as the sun sets. There are almost no clouds in the sky & there shouldn’t be any light infiltration to detract from the starry skies.

    Sunset

  • Day 14: June 2 – Central City, CO to Moab, UT

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    We awake with the temperature having dropped to zero Celsius early this morning. We ran the electric cube heater all night and it appears to have warded off any freezing issues with our water lines. Phew! I did however have a restless night thinking about what might have happened. Hopefully I shall sleep better tonight in Moab, UT.

    Yes, that’s snow in June.

    Today I ran out of superlatives for the views and scenery through which we drove in Colorado. Stunning, Incredible, Amazing, Wow. We’ve already decided to come back and spend far more time exploring this amazing state.

    Eisenhower tunnel, elevation 3,401m (11,158ft) and 2.72km long under continental divide

    We climbed upwards for the first part of the morning until we reached the Eisenhower tunnel (above). It took under the continental divide, meaning that after we exit all rivers will lead to the Pacific Ocean.

    Exiting the tunnel we descended down a 7% grade for 13km (8miles). A good test of nerves and equipment and then onto Vail, CO and the driving was easier (not so quick Tony).

    Another long uphill and then a tunnel led to another (albeit shorter) 8km (5miles) 6% downhill section. This would be the last of the big downhills, but there was still many more smaller sections to negotiate.

    Eventually the scenery changed and the mountains became shorter and more grass and scrub covered instead of tree covered as they were earlier in the day. We approached Grand Junction and yet again the scenery had changed to be much more desert-like. All around us now we’re flat topped Mesa’s.

    Soon we had crossed into Utah and the temperature was 32 degrees C. Not much grows here. Turning down Hwy 191 into Moab, the rocks turned red and the number of campers increased significantly. Moab as a town was not really to our liking, overly commercial and too busy. We passed through on our way to the KOA that would once again be our home for the night. A nice site in a well kept campground. We’d recommend both this and the previous nights stay.

  • Day 13: June 1 – WaKeeney, KS to Central City, CO

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    A gorgeous sky awaited us this morning, the light was painting in various blues and greys and as the sun rose it changed almost by the second.

    The morning routine is becoming more natural for us now as we each ‘dance’ around each other in the van doing the things we do to prepare for the day. Pulling out of the Winery we both were still in awe of this beautiful place set unassumingly in the prairie grasslands. As we drove away, we captured this picture in an effort to show the isolation.

    Today we are driving towards Denver and the Rocky Mountains; however, we took a quick detour into Oakley, KS to see the monument to Buffalo Bill. A huge bronze statue of the rifleman chasing and shooting at a buffalo during one of the ‘hunts’ held in the 1800’s paints a stark reminder of life in the Wild West.

    Light showers accompanied us for most of the morning as the elevation slowly climbed first above 1000m and then 1500m. We arrived in Denver and rains had subsided allowing us to see how the mountains spring from the plains with the city right at the base acting as a gateway into the Rocky Mountains.

    We took a detour to Red Rocks Ampitheatre and park. This incredible live performance venue has been built into a natural sandstone ampitheatre that is nestled within the foothills just outside of Denver. It is open to the public for exploring between events, and so we took a chance and luckily we’re able to go in and explore.

    In the panoramic shot above you can see how the seating and stage have been built into these incredible red rocks (thus the name). You can also in the distance see the city of Denver.

    Tonight we are camping at a KOA in Central City, CO just West of Denver at an elevation of 2594m (8510ft). There are still some piles of snow around and the overnight temperature will get perilously close to 0 degrees.

    Dorothy, we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore!