Bob & Cindy's 2014 Travel Web Site
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Welcome to our 2014 Travel Site
Well, I'm not getting this up until January of 2015. We were in such a hurry to get out of town, I never set things up on the
computer using my web program, thinking I would have time and connectivity to get it done early in the trip. That did not happen
... in fact, we have never been on an extended trip where we had such lousy connectivity (either phone or wi-fi). Anyway, it
just didn't happen. But I am recapping and our next trip will be set up in advance.
We left Texas on September 6th and
headed to Colorado for some cool weather with the intent to go over to Utah for some hiking while the weather over
there is much cooler. So here's the recap starting with Grand Mesa. Click on the links in the left panel for
links to other locations on this trip. We hope you enjoy as much as we enjoy sharing.
After getting acclimated at 9300 feet in central Colorado, we went up to Grand Mesa, just outside Grand Junction, CO. Grand
Mesa is between 10,000 and 11,000 feet in elevation, it's not flat either. We had some nice hikes in the area.
There are many lakes and trails on the mesa and they go back into some pretty remote areas, we didn't do any of those hikes.
First hike was to Lost Lake, nice to get our backpacks back on. Yes, this was the actual color of the lake. Beautiful
4 mile hike and good way to get started.
Good to be back in Colorado. We did overreach on the temperatures though. Highs were in low 60's and lows below freezing.
Amazing, the aspens were turning right before our eyes. We were there a week and went from green to this. Lots
of trails around the lakes where we were camped.
Our setup beside a small lake in Jumbo Campground. We also had a chance to run down the mesa to pick up our
annual box of Palisade peaches.
This is the small town of Ridgway, CO, just north of Ouray but not touristy at all. Found a good micro-brewery here also.
This is the home of where the Grammy's are made.
Jeep riding outside Ridgway, headed for Silver Jack Lake on the other side of the ridge. As you can see, the aspens are turning
here also.
Aspen color. Love this! Nature's beauty.
Cindy at Owl Creek Pass on the way to Silver Jack.
We met up with some friends from Austin at Ridgway, Jim and Donna Axelson. Jim had gotten into 4-wheeln' and offered to give
me a lesson in what off roading is all about.
So we drove over to Telluride to start the Imogene Pass road which goes between Telluride and Ouray, CO. It's a moderate jeep
trail. This looks fairly smooth, but it's all rock, all the way to Ouray.
Climbing up out of Telluride, wonderful views. Crawling along at 4 mph. BTW, Cindy (the vertically challenged member of
our family), opted to not do this trip as she and Donna were going to meet us in Ouray for margarita's.
Yep, Cindy would not have liked this. Surprisingly little traffic and that's good because we don't like passing on a one lane
(or less) road.
It was a wonderful day for doing this and great views all around once at the pass. Hard to believe the miners who walked or
rode mules to ferry supplies over the pass to the mine we went by in the early 1900's. Jim, thanks!
Almost to the pass, some ATV's coming down from the other side. Jeepsters hate these guys, they're like mosquitoes.
A geocache at the pass, looking down on the road headed to Ouray.
Perfect view of more rock road headed down for some mex food and libations in Ouray with the wives.
From Ridgway, we headed down to just north of Mesa Verde National Park, still without any reliable connectivity but we did have power
plug in's!