The usual early morning hike up Devil's Head....either we're falling off the mountain or someone is sleepy- or feeling artistic:


And off to Casa Bonita. The cheese special. Turned out to be very descriptive but so long as they don't forget the Soapy Pillows for desert I'm okay with it:


We spent the night on the other side of Guanella Pass. The hubby's rear bike tire exploded- sounded like a .22- otherwise a quiet night.

The next morning we headed over to Mosquito Pass:


We were going to have pizza in Leadville but the pass was snowed in not far beyond the mine. On to Salida for new bike tires for the Ellsworth and up to Old Monarch Pass for the night. Hubby rode Monarch Pass the next morning. I wimped. Wasn't feeling a single 10 mile mtb ride on the tandem all season (it was rainy all spring) was gonna be enough to have a good ride on Monarch. Have done it before, will do it another time.

 

Awesome trip!!

I was born a Missouri boy, but the west has been my stomping grounds most all my life.

Any fuel mileage calculations for the trip??

 

Next came the me part. I decided to revisit Tomichi Pass.
That thing in the middle is a big ol' moose:


Rocky, narrow. The backside of the pass is a very very narrow shelf road. Listened for anyone coming up then started down. There was a schlumph of dirt partway down that made for some off camber driving with a soft edge. That was the worryingest spot of the whole trip for me.


Once we came down from Tomichi we headed up Hancock. More rock. Shelves too.


It rained pretty much the whole time, with ice pellets as we headed towards Tomichi. A good time to spend going bumpity in the dry truck. Once we got off Hancock we found a spot to sleep. It dried up so we were able to eat dinner and watch the clouds roll around the peaks and into the valley.

 

Thanks! I can see the draw to western stomping grounds, wish we could do more out that way.

Fuel mileage calculations to come. Gotta get all my receipts into fueleconomy.gov and get it figured....

 

Next day was a side trip to Mary Murphy mine. Pretty cool, the mill was neat.

 

And the hubby drove Tin Cup pass, heading towards Crested Butte




Crested Butte got POURED on so we scratched the plans to bike the 401 trail and headed to Cinnamon pass to camp. A snowshoe bunny came over and tasted the hubby's shoe lace. He was a forward kind of guy but fears about middle of the night vampire bunnies were unfounded.

Over Cinnamon pass


for breakfast at Brown Bear Cafe in Silverton. Next up:
Black Bear Pass. It was my lucky day- I met BigFishAllDay and TBuzz at the trailhead and asked if I could tag along. Yay! They agreed. What a great time.....

 

 

 

See the angle Telluride is at? I need to figure out how to fix the photo so the tilt-factor is truer...



Again with the angle...actually, just tilt your screens until Telluride is straight in all these coming pics...

 

Keep your screens tilted...

 

Awesome scenery...

 

 

 

Luch at Baked in Telluride. Great company. It was a good time indeed.

 

Went up Imogene after, heading towards Ouray...



A view of the switchbacks on Black Bear from Imogene...












And up the 550 to Clear Lake. Okay, not all the way up, it was snowed in so we camped lower down.

 

We drove to Moab next. Hubby rode The Whole Enchilada on his bike while I entertained the kid. The following morning we went to Horseshoe Canyon. There are 3 panels...here's one of my favorite..



On the way back it started pouring in and above the canyon. We weren't too worried about high ground, having talked to the ranger about flash flooding in the canyon. He said we might get stuck on the other side for a few hours but would be able to move out of danger because of the width of the canyon.

Knowing that, it was cool to see the waterfalls that appeared- there were a bunch-



We hiked at Bryce, but I'm not sure where the photos are.

Dixie Nat'l forest...

 

Zion was rainy. Having been there when it was sunny I enjoyed the contrast...







Went up the rim trail and watched people heading up to Angel's landing. I started up it but there were too many people who were freaked out by the slipperiness of the wet sandy rock. Serious traffic jam. The rim trail was pretty with excellent view and almost no people. Ahhh.






The sun came out just before we left. Saw this thing...



And hi-tailed it to Moab.

 

Awesome pics as usual! I'm impressed with all that snow.....CO had a great snow year it seems.

 

Trailer on Sand Flats:




Double-O arch (look under the one you can see) in Arches NP.



And Landscape arch

 

They did- rain and snow. For once the reservoirs looked to be in good shape. They sure needed it.