Road Trip Pt 4 – Colorado Meanderings

by marjasisu, posted in Uncategorized

From 10,000 feet to 5,000. Down, down, following the Colorado River, through the gorgeous Glenwood Canyon until we landed on BLM lands. The pictures here don’t do justice to the scenery, but follow along with us anyway as our truck camping adventure continues, one week in…

After leaving the state park in the foothills of the Rockies, we decided to leave I-70 again and meander to..
… the historic mining town of Central City, where we found the best breakfast burrito. Back on the road…
… we were reminded of the large wildlife that we have not yet seen. When we got back to I-70, we encountered this…
…a six-mile (or more) back-up due to an accident. We were so grateful to be going in the opposite direction! We stopped in the towns of Georgetown and Silverthorn but couldn’t find camping so continued on to..
Frisco, deep in the valley. It was dark in the town by 2:30!
We found parking in a city lot. It was quite dark when we got there so this picture was taken the next morning.
This diorama in the small local museum gives you an idea of what it was like here during the mining days.
I took a walk this morning when it was still 30ish and streets were empty. It was so cold last night (20s) that the compost toilet in the trailer froze!
Frisco is typical of so many small Colorado towns. It would be prettier in summer or midwinter, but it’s nice now too. Back on I-70…
… we passed Vail, one of the largest (and priciest) ski areas in the U.S. This is a tiny part of it. It opened today for the season, but with few slopes. I can attest that the skiing here is fabulous, but the rest is too hoity-toity for me!
The drive west of Vail was continually interesting.
Several tunnels point to engineering ingenuity. (We chose the Eisenhower Tunnel instead of the Loveland Pass out of an abundance of caution due to snow on the pass and pulling a trailer.)
Rock…
… and more rock…
… and still more rock. We considered a campground for tonight but decided to bravely explore BLM land. (BLM = Bureau of Land Management.) It felt brave to me because you never know what you’ll find and can’t find it without the right map. You can camp anywhere on BLM land for free, provided you follow a few rules.
We ended up here, surrounded by scrub brush and with a view of low mountain ranges in the distance.
Even in November it’s quite picturesque. I took walk into the surrounding…desert? That’s how it felt.
See what I mean?
So dry! But rain is expected tomorrow morning, and we need to be sure to get under way early enough that we don’t get stuck in the muck.
On my walk, I found these bleached bones..
… and small cacti…
… and got back to the truck in time for sunset. (Which is at 5PM.)
Boo the Cat is still doing fine riding in the camper. The bed of the camper extends above the truck roof so she has a great view. And uses it often. Into Utah tomorrow, where I have so many “must-sees,” I hardly know where to start.

One thought on “Road Trip Pt 4 – Colorado Meanderings”

Leave a Reply