The Rockies
We thought we would try the Telluride area for our first taste of the Rockies. We would attack the Rockies like we did the other places, no reservations and no plans. Pictures cant do justice to a place like Telluride, a box canyon-when you drive in all you see are huge mountains and one big waterfall cascading down the cliffs. We spent 4 days mountain biking, hiking and wandering this amazing old historic town. We also found out why those mountains are so green, because it rains and it rains often! Within an hour of setting up our tent, the rains began. This time we were prepared though and set up a huge tarp over our tent. It would usually rain in the afternoon which we would time for our afternoon siesta. Then it would pour again late at night. On our first night we were laying in the tent getting ready to fall asleep when we saw a big flash of light that lit up our tent. Christy asked “what was that?” and a second later her question was answered by a huge explosion of thunder which echoed off the mountains. We couldn’t have been happier though knowing that our tarp would keep us nice and dry. Its amazing how the little things in life come into play when your camping. Our last day was spent at the Telluride jazz festival listening to all different kinds of jazz in an incredible outdoor setting. To give you an idea of the wealth in telluride, we met a nice family at the festival who was very intrigued about our travels and how we were camping in the Rockies despite the daily rains. When I asked her if they drove or flew to Telluride, she said that her husband was a pilot so they come to their house in telluride about once a month. I said “oh really what airlines does he fly for” she said “ oh, no airlines, its just his hobby, we have a jet that we fly here.” Lifestyles of the rich and famous.
Our next stop in the Rockies would be Ouray, known as “the Switzerland of America” and the historic town of Silverton. Thinking that after 4 days of rain, we were sure to catch a break so we decided to continue camping. Again, after setting up camp, the rains came and we had our forced siesta before doing an afternoon hike. What an amazing place Ouray is, huge 9000 ft cliffs totally surrounding the little town of 800 people. Our first hike was straight up the cliffs to the top of the mountains overlooking the town and the surrounding mountains. We hiked to a beautiful waterfall and an old mining camp where you could walk into the old sleeping quarters. The following day we decided that since Ouray is the “4wd capital of Colorado,” we had to test out the old Toyota and see if she could handle some off-roading. We drove a crazy dirt road to the Continental Divide and then hiked up to a little lake at about 13000 ft. You could see forever, even far enough to see the huge thunderheads that were ready to pound us. Again the afternoon rains came and soaked us as we hiked back to the car.
Tags: Colorado
Steve
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