Western Colorado

It is more than fifty years since I lived in Colorado, but when we crossed into it from Utah this time I felt like I was coming home. I love the Colorado mountains, and I spent a lot of time riding my motorcycle through them when I lived in Wyoming.

It was nice to drive through the colorado-colored hills around Carbondale and Glenwood Springs. We had hoped to continue up through Aspen and over Independence Pass on the old road – it can be hairy in places, but the views are spectacular! However, a section of the road on the east side is closed. We would have had to turn around and come back over it again, and I hate retracing my steps.

We’ve been on two-lane roads pretty much the whole time since we left Provo four days ago. Because we couldn’t take the road over Independence Pass, we had to drive I-70 through Glenwood Canyon. (Poor us!) We expect we’ll drive about 100 miles on the interstate tomorrow, then just two-lanes for two more days. The interstates are great for getting from point A to point B, but often it is the two-lanes and the small towns they go through that make these roadtrips fun. Once we’re back to the interstate on Saturday, though, it’ll be mostly those highways the remaining six days of our trip.

We’ve been lucky with the air quality so far. There was a bit of wildfire smoke in eastern Oregon but clear air the rest of the time. Before we left home the air quality in Denver was very poor, but evidently the fires are out, because things look good up there now. As for the weather, our days have been in the 70s and 80s. We had an overnight shower in Utah and an evening shower in Dillon, Colorado. This afternoon, coming east from Alamosa we drove through some light intermittent rain. The clouds have been threatening, but most of the rainstorms have gone around us.

After staying three nights at different motels under renovation, we’ve spent the last two nights at motels that we’re familiar with and were as we had expected them to be – neither was being renovated or have the need of it.

We’ve settled into our traveling routine pretty well, although it seems that each of these trips gets more difficult. We don’t know how many more we’ll want to or be able to take. But these trips break our at-home routine. And instead of each of us going off and doing our own things as we do when we’re home, the roadtrips force us to spend long hours together. And we like that.