Wowzers. So it’s been over ten days since I managed to sit down and get some writing done. So this post and the next few are being uploaded from Zion in Utah … split into a number of separate posts since we have, again, gazillions of photos. Our buddies Jon and Helen have been with us since the 12th, and we’ve been busy.
Tuesday 12th
We descended from the hills into Denver to shop for cowboy boots and sun hats, and to get some internet time. As part of the sun hat hunt, we visited a huge outdoor store filled with not only all the hunting, fishing and camping gear that’s ever existed, but also every North American animal stuffed and put up somewhere on the walls. Four wolves chased an elk across the wall as we came in. Across the back of the store, trout, salmon and walleye eyed us up from huge tanks. In the evening we picked up Jon and Helen from the airport – I drive loops around the arrivals area while Rose waits inside. Helen has a cousin who lives in Boulder, so we are staying with them for a couple of nights – Rosie and Ben.
Wednesday 13th
Hiked up Boulder Flatirons – great big slabs of rock guarding over the town of Boulder. The Rocky Mountains here rise straight out of the prairies, so the view from the top was pretty impressive. In the evening we explored Boulder’s Pearl Street, browsed around a bookstore and had dinner out in town at a local brewery.
Thursday 14th
Jon and Helen brought their bikes over with them – Colorado has some of the best mountain biking in the world – and Ben had suggested we ride a local trail called Betasso, so we drove a few minutes out of town to do that. 8 hot and dusty miles later we were back at the van – a good ride – the altitude really makes a difference! Denver calls itself the “mile high city”, and here in the hills it’s riding at over 8000 feet. We stopped to wash off in Boulder Creek, then filled up with fuel for the drive west – over plains not far from where we were a few days ago at Eleven Mile Lake – an area called South Park. Through Buena Vista and up into Cottonwood Pass, where we found a nice camp in the National Forest by a stream. In Colorado you can just camp anywhere in a National Forest which is handy. J&H are sleeping in the tent they brought with them, so we need to find sites that work with a tent as well as the van.
Road and Ocean 