A Trip Over Wolf Creek Pass

After a few days at Bayfield, we drove over Wolf Creek Pass to the silver mining town of Creede, sitting 8800 feet above sea level. We passed by Chimney Rock.

The scenery was magnificent.

Anyone who is familiar with the Colorado mountains knows that all this dead trees indicate pine beetle attacks. Over decades, forest fires have been suppressed and the forests have become very dense and not too healthy. That gave the pine beetles a chance to come In and kill the trees.

There were more beautiful sights as we got closer to Creede.

Flagstaff Fun

We decided to walk in downtown Flagstaff Tuesday. There has been a classic car gathering in the area and we enjoyed seeing several of the cars drive by.

Wednesday wasn't as interesting. John had the truck serviced and I did the laundry. Thursday, we decided to drive to nearby Sedona through the beautiful Oak Creek Canyon.

One of the tile roofs in town had very interesting colors. Much different from the standard sandstone color.

Sedona's setting is spectacular. Everywhere you look, their are beautiful rocks.

The stores in downtown Sedona are either art galleries, t-shirt shops or restaurants.  It reminds us of Estes Park in Colorado.

We saw this interesting tree as we walked around.

This tree is live and covered with beautiful magenta flowers.

We spotted several statues of picturesque javalina.

We had a mediocre lunch at a pizza restaurant before returning to Flagstaff. The scenery was beautiful but I think that is the only reason we will drive to Sedona again.

The Changing Scenery

Monday we left Blanding, headed to Flagstaff, Arizona, for a few days. For more than 2 weeks we have been amid the colorful rock formations in Utah. As we approached Flagstaff the scenery changed. It was a beautiful drive.

We drove through a narrow canyon for a short time.

On the other side we saw more rock formations. These looked like what we had been seeing.

But then the shape and color of the rock changed.  These two formations were thin layers of gray rock.




Then we passed more gray stone, but with more thickness.  A sign described this as church rock.

Then the vegetation and the rocks changed for a while.

These two towers weren't named as far as we could see.  Like we saw often along the road through the Navajo Indian Reservation, there were booths set up to sell the jewelry and other artistic works of the Navajos.

For a while it looked like we were driving on the moon.  I'm not impressed with this lunar landscape.

Finally, we cane to the mountains surrounding Flagstaff.

We will be here for a few days before heading to our house in very hot Gold Canyon to prepare to fly to England in less then 2 weeks.

Beauty Going West on I-70

Yesterday we left Grand Lake and drove west on I-70 over Vail Pass and through the Glenwood Canyon. The scenery is wonderful.

A view of Shadow Mountain Reservoir.

Ride the Rockies, a bicycle race held each year over several high mountain passes in Colorado, was in it's last leg.  The riders had spent the night in Grand Lake and were heading down to Granby the Weston US 40 to Kremmling, Highway 9, headed for Silverthorne at I-70.  Unfortunately, that was our route to I-70 so we had to carefully pass at least a couple dozen riders.

A view of what I think is the Gore Range from outside Kremmling.

Islands in Lake Dillon from the interstate.

The green ski trails at Vail Ski Resort.

Then the spectacular Glenwood Canyon along the Colorado River.

One of the tunnels on the canyon route.

Note the 2-level highway here.  Building the 4-lane highway through the canyon took so long, some highway engineers worked their entire career on the road.  They made every effort to preserve the beauty of the canyon as they widened the old 2-lane road to 4 lanes, divided.

And we are seeing the unmistakable sign of the summer travel season--a Cruise America RV.

Colorado at it's Best

We were both born and raised in Colorado and have lived in various parts of the state for most of our lives. This summer we left our winter home in Arizona and drove to the East Coast and back. But nowhere have we seen mountains like the Colorado Rockies. After spending 6 weeks in the Denver metro area, Friday we turned our truck and trailer west on I-70, headed for the Western Slope. We rarely drive over 200 miles a day so a stop was planned for Silt--about 190 miles from Cherry Creek State Park. We will stay here for 4 nights so when we check in to Ridgeway State Park we can stay till Labor Day. The trip took us from an elevation of just over 5,000 ft. to the Eisenhower Tunnel at 11,013 ft. and over 11,000 foot Vail Pass. The scenery on the way was great.

See what I mean about it being the best of Colorado? Eisenhower Tunnel was completed in 1973, providing a safer and quicker route over (or under) the Continental Divide. It is impressive.

Coming out the other side, we passed by condos in Dillon, more great mountain views and Dillon Reservoir. This year the water is fairly high in the reservoir.

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I had never seen a sign like this. I think it indicates there is a runaway truck ramp coming up so the driver shouldn't try to exit onto nearby Loveland Pass. I'm not sure.

The scenery just kept getting better. First we saw some red rock formations.

Then we headed into Glenwood Canyon. This canyon has stunning rock walls. The highway here was constructed so as little of the rock was removed as possible. The only way to really appreciate the efforts they took is to ride the Amtrak train on the other side of the Colorado River or walk or bike on the trail along the highway. We were pulling our Airstream so I can only use words to describe the road. In places the lanes in one direction are built above those going the other way. That way they didn't have to widen the roadway from the old two-way route along the river.

When I was a child my family came to Glenwood Springs for our annual week-long vacation every August. We have come here with friends--both by car and by train--and brought our 2 sons here. We really aren't into swimming pools today so we will skip some very expensive time in the huge hot springs pool. But the entrance fee is worth it if you have children or have not been there before.