29 April – Denver

Steve was up early to see Eddie and Fee off. Ros was slack and stayed asleep LOL. We decided to have a rest day and do some overdue chores. The RV got an inside spring clean (she looks lovely), we did 3 loads of laundry and Steve made some more repairs to the slideout mechanism as one of the new bolts had snapped already. We relaxed, read, exercised and Ros did some marketing work for her business (Shaping Change). We watched the rabbits outside the window for a bit, cute little things and not at all scared of people. It was relatively warm today – maybe 18 degrees C, which was nice after all the snow.

28 April – Glenwood Springs – Denver

We were up early to head to Denver. We were cruising along the Interstate 70 in blowing snow and we were heading over Vail Pass at 10000 ft when the traffic came to a stop. 

After sitting for a while, cop cars, tow trucks and snow ploughs went past in the emergency lane, so we googled traffic conditions and found there had been an accident. So we boiled the jug and had morning tea while we waited. After about 50 minutes we got going again. The weather was foul, almost whiteout conditions so we drove very slowly. We had to go over Loveland pass at over 11000 ft and that was even worse. Luckily the pass is a long tunnel, but even in the tunnel the road was slushy. 

Once we were over the pass the conditions improved a lot, but still really cold!

We stopped for lunch at Lookout Mountain – the burial place of the famous Buffalo Bill. We stopped by his grave for a look, then took in the amazing views of the Denver area from the lookout. After the lookout we went to a nearby historical mansion for a look around.

We arrived in Denver and Fee and Eddie packed up ready to head off to the airport in the morning. We drove into nearby Golden for a meal and a walk around, then back to the RV park for an early night. They have a 5.30 start.

27 April – Aspen

Up bright and early to greet the morning…..to find that it was snowing outside.  Excellent… snowing at this level, it’ll be definitely snowing up at Aspen!  And it was.  The hour drive to Aspen was quite pretty, when we could see through the falling snow.

Aspen is quite a lovely town.  Very much your typical ski town.  Lots of ski rental places, cafes, restaurants, great mountain vistas etc. 

 It was snowing at the basin level (in the town area),  so we got some gondola passes and took the ride up to the top, which took about 15-20 minutes and covered a fairly long distance.  

We saw people skiing or snowboarding down fairly steep slopes.  At this point there were only experienced to “insane” slopes available at Aspen.  As we only had the day here we decided not to ski but check out if a horse drawn carriage ride or snowmobile tours were available.  Sadly none were, so we had some lunch, walked about Aspen a bit more, had a coffee and rode the gondola again.  

We had a look in a few shops, hoping to catch a glimpse of a celeb, sadly (again) they must have heard we were on the celeb prowl….oh well… their loss J.

We got back to our spot (no sneaky RV’rs in it) And we have now holed up to cook dinner…… while the snow falls around us (outside of course J).

26 April – Gunnison – Glenwood Springs

Up and at em this morning….well… not quite…gotta take it easy whilst on holidays.  Our destination today is the area near Aspen, so we hit the highways right after breakfast.  We saw a lot of “huntn’, shootn’, fishn’” shacks during the morning and a lot of high country cattle farms.

We stopped at Buena Vista for a diner-burger lunch and to refuel the ole girl (she’s a bit thirsty in the hills) then off again.  We went over a couple of mountain passes during the day that took us well into the snow line and over 11,000 feet.  

We even saw some people battling a section of river rapids on those stand-up paddle boards….seems to be the latest craze on the rapids…..seems to me the quickest way to get wet in freezing, cold water! 

We were wanting to go into Aspen from the south and over Independence Pass, which is over 12,000 feet.  Unfortunately it was closed, even though some web sites showed it as open…..not sure what the deal was there and we didn’t find out that it was closed until we were within spittn’ distance of the pass (at the base of the climb up).  

So we had to double back and go to Glenwood Springs (base entry to Aspen), which is North of Aspen.  This section of the trip took us over Freemont Pass (over 11,000 feet) and through some lovely snowed-covered scenery….oh yeah and past a mine tailings dam.

As we were getting close to Glenwood went past a few ski fields.  Most weren’t operating, but one did seem to have some things still going, including a “half pipe” for snow boarders with few brave souls traversing the curves.

We got into an RV park, just a few minutes out of Glenwood Springs, at around 5ish so we decided to grace Glenwood Springs with our presence and go out for a meal. We voted on a lovely little steak restaurant called……wait for it…. Juicy Lucy’s Steak house.  Steve and Eddie were keen to meet this Lucy lady LOL.  We got there and found that there was an hour waiting time for a table, so we walked around the corner to a steak and seafood restaurant called Finns.  Absolutely lovely it was.  Ros, Ed & Fee had the steak & Snow crab special, while Steve had a half side of BBQ ribs (he was wisely advised against the full side…”many men have failed this venture” the waiter said).  The waiter also gave us a few tips on what is good up at Aspen.  He mentioned that Aspen was open for an extended weekend or two due to additional snow fall and to also keep an eye out for various celebs who frequent Aspen.  We went back to our park, all buoyed up with what we could do in Aspen tomorrow, and found that some dude had taken our spot thinking it was spare….even though we’d left the chocks & sewer hose there for when we got back…… so…. we moved him on.

25 April – Durango – Gunnison

After a relaxed breakfast, we headed out on the “million dollar highway” over the mountains. We stopped on the way to view a hot spring that was obviously very minerally as it had built up a beehive shaped cone of what looked like limestone deposit.  

The view from the highway is indeed a million dollar view. Aspen forests giving way to spruce and fir with the amazing snow covered peaks behind as a backdrop.

Arriving at Silverton we stopped for a coffee and to soak up the views. 

Moving on, we passed derelict silver mines and hunter’s cabins in the trees. We went over several mountain passes at over 10,000 ft and then down into Ouray. Ouray is a lovely little town nestled in a glacial valley in the mountains. 

First stop was the hot mineral springs for a long soak while looking at the stunning mountain views. Sadly, we eventually got really pruney and had to get out. 

We then went to Mouses Chocolate for hot drinks. Ros had a hot apple cider with whipped cream that tasted just like apple pie and Steve had a super coffee with 4 shots of espresso, vanilla and cream. Eddie and Fee had icecream and milkshakes.

Unfortunately the RV parks at Ouray were shut for maintenance, so we pushed on to a place called Mesa RV at Gunnison. Quite a nice drive along the bank of a big reservoir and we saw deer. We all had a kickboxing workout, laundry and dinner.

24 April – Durango

Up early (it was cold!) and off to take the trolley bus into town and the Durango – Silverton railway. We arrived at the station to find a pretty big crowd ready to board. The railway is a narrow gauge rail winding through the mountains up to Silverton. Because of the snow on the mountains though, it only goes part way until May. We had booked tickets in the first class carriage with a glass roof for maximum views. 

We were the second carriage from the back which was good, because we got great views of the engine as we went around curves and also we were a long way from the soot and smoke. We were followed by a guy in a little maintenance train – he follows the train to put out any fires started by cinders. In summer a tanker precedes the train and hoses down the trackside to reduce the fire risk.

Setting off, we headed out quite fast along the valley, but slowed right up when we reached the mountains. The steepest climb was 2.5%, but it slowed the ole girl up a lot! We had excellent service in first class, with the server doubling as an interesting tour guide along the way. We had access to a great drinks menu and had hot chocolates with Baileys and with Peppermint Schnapps. Yummo!

The views from the train were fantastic. We chugged alongside the Animas River over bridges and through cuttings with the mountains towering above us. 

We stopped for 45 minutes at a riverside cutting for a leg stretch and more photos, then back on the train for the return journey. 

The train has been used in movies and one of the cuttings featured in a John Wayne movie where he leapt from the rocks to the roof of the train to rob it. Although we suspect a stunt man did the actual jumping.

The journey took 5 hours and was a lovely way to spend the day. 

23 April – Durango

Up a bit late today. Got the RV serviced in town, then bought tickets for the steam train to the mountains tomorrow and had a lazy lunch at a French café on the main street. After lunch we went shoe shopping big time. Runners are so cheap here compared to Aus, nearly half price. We each bough new runners and a pair of casual shoes.

Then back to the RV park for a workout. We bought exercise bands, a skipping rope, bag gloves and focus mitts so we could keep the exercise regimes going. Sadly, the eating is adding more calories than we could possibly burn. Damn this holiday food!

22 April – Monument Valley – Durango

Headed out of Monument Valley. Very awesome scenery. 

We stopped at the place on the highway that Forrest Gump was filmed (Run, Forrest, Run!) for some pics and a bit of fooling about running up the road channelling Tom Hanks.

Lots of desert later, we pulled into the Four Corners National Monument. 

It’s the only place where 4 states intersect, so you can stand in 4 states at once. There are flags flying and a bit of a big deal made of the place. The Navajo Nation charged us $5 each to get in, so we made the most of it. We also did a bit of souvenir shopping for the kids.

We had all had rather enough of the desert. It was really blowy and the dust was hanging in the air quite thickly making it hard to see anything in the distance and sand was blowing across the road. Given we had driven 4 states in one day (Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado) we were quite happy to head into the Rockies to Durango. We arrived late afternoon and once we had checked into an RV park, we went to dinner at the Diamond Belle Saloon in town. The waitress was dressed like a saloon girl, the food was great and there was an old guy playing guitar and singing. Good ole Western entertainment.

21 April – Page – Monument Valley

Up again early.  This time for a tour of Antelope Slot Canyon, which is a mere 20 minutes out of Page.  This is a very popular tour, as we found out by seeing about 140 odd people at the site….just at the time slot that we were there for. Boy was it worth it.  Antelope Slot Canyon is a very narrow canyon formed by flood waters rushing through.  

There are many curved and sculptured sections that rise up to the surface allowing light to come in at various places.  The most well-known is where a shaft of light comes through at different times of the day and we were lucky to see it on our tour.  Our tour guide, Rick, showed us some great locations to take photos. 

We were also quite lucky to be the first tour through on our time slot as when we turned to come back there were the 144 or so others coming through.  All in all, this was another very scenic location.

We got back to the RV, packed up and headed on to Monument Valley.  We arrived at Kayenta (a little town about 30 minutes from Monument Valley) to look for an RV park, but none were to be found, so on to Monument Valley and over the border into Utah, where we stopped into Goulding’s village RV park.  Goulding’s was a trading post set up by Harry Goulding that then became well known for being involved in western movies due to the spectacular scenery in the area.  Monument Valley is definitely that… spectacular!  We had a quick drive around, taking photos at every place we could find.  

The sunset brought out some brilliant colours. Monument Valley scenery was used for a lot of the old western movies (with the likes of John Wayne) and some later movies, like Forrest Gump (where Forrest finished his run across America with the words…” I think I have had enough”) and the third Back To The Future (where Marty McFly flashes back in time in front of a tribe of Indians…in the Delorean…)

We finished the day with a quick BBQ, a slice of birthday pie (oh yeah…it was Steve’s birthday today…45 years young…..and feeling every year of it LOL), then a quick walk to catch a short documentary of Monument Valley (and to walk off the B/day pie J).