Friday, July 29

Friday, I left around lunch time from the hotel and picked up my rental car, a brand new Ford Taurus. It only had 400 miles on it and was just a couple weeks old. I put 2000 more miles on it during my trip. This is the Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs. This is a nice driving/biking park very near the city. Probably a lot of people from the Intel, Lucent and Motoral campuses which are nearby.


Me in the Garden of the Gods.


A petrified redwood stump in Fossil National Monument. This stump, along with many others in the area, was buried by an ancient volcano. During the 1800s, this was a popular tourist site, and many of the stumps are much smaller than they originally were due to the grubby hands of tourists.


A settler's homestead preserved as part of Fossil National Monument in Colorado.


A view of my campsite up in the National Forest near Mueller State Park. This site was at the end of a 3 mile dirt two-track up the side of a mountain into the back of nowhere (or so I thought). I could see the wreck of an old car at the bottom of a cliff when I drove back down. (That's how narrow and steep the road was). But it turned out this isolated site was actually the trailhead for a very popular hike. I talked to the camp host, and he said he gets 1200 hikers a day on the trail to the crags further up the mountain. I hiked the trail on Friday night, when no one was on it, but I didn't see what the big attraction was.

Saturday, July 30

The road from the campsite as I left Saturday morning.


Saturday morning I left the campsite at 8AM and headed back toward Colorado Springs to drive up Pike's Peak. I ended up stopping for gas and cash because I thought I would need more of both for the road up. I'm glad I tried to get there early, because on the way back down I saw there was a long line at the toll booth going up.

This repair car was parked at the station when I arrived at the top of Pike's Peak. It was waiting there for the train to arrive so the crew of two could head back down the mountain.

A view of the valley from the peak.

The tracks go off into mid-air.

The train pulls in.

Looking up at the train at the top of Pikes Peak.

Single lane tunnels on a dirt road near the Arkansas River in Buena Vista, Colorado.

After leaving Pike's Peak I headed west, then north a little, and stopped for the night in Buena Vista, just because they had a nice laundromat and I was feeling filthy.

That night I watched a movie at a drive-in just outside of town. Fortunately the movie was bad, because the projectionist must've been blind not to notice how blurry the picture was.

Sunday, July 31

Sunday afternoon I arrived in Rocky Mountain National Park and headed to my reserved campsite. It was the only reservation I made during the trip, and actually probably forced me to drive up here when I would've rather spent more time in Southern Colorado. I got the tent set up just in time for an afternoon thunderstorm.

Monday, August 1

Monday morning I woke up after my first night in the park, and saw these deer near the bathrooms in the park. There were droppings from the deer everywhere near every bush. This parks is very overpopulated with deer and elk, and they're considering bringing in a pack of wolves just to get the herds moving around so they won't devestate a single area.

Near the campsite.

Bear Lake.

My campsite at Aspenglen Campground, Rocky Mountain National Park.

Photo from my campsite.

Near a waterfall on Old Fall Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. This was along a single lane gravel road going up to the summit of the pass.

Tuesday, August 2

Tuesday I left Rocky Mountain National Park at 7AM and drove north into Wyoming up to Cheyenne, then I headed west on state highways through the National Forest to get to Dinasour National Monument in Colorado, avoiding all the people and traffic in the Colorado Rockies.

At the Continental Divide again. In Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming.

Abandonded section of US 40. The yellow lines were still visible in places. This was the best section of pavement left on this 1 mile section that I drove. I think this was probably on private land. Fortunately it was connected to the highway on both ends. Many abandonded sections of highway would look promising, but had washed out bridges in the middle.

I found this area when I took an old bypassed section of US 40 through what used to be a town. Next to a highway department garage was what looked like a gravel driveway. Then I noticed a county highway sign on it, and backed up and drove up into the hills where I saw some country that was prettier than almost anything in any national park.

Just off an old section of US highway 40.

On the road to Dinasour National Monument.

This was near the edge of a canyon wall on the road through the Colorado section of Dinasour National Monument. Just below the tree in the center was a drop down to the river. To the left is a picnic area.

Canyons of Dinasour.

Near the picnic area.

River canyon on the way to Harper's Corner.

On the trail to Harper's Corner, Dinasour National Monument. I hiked a trail which went out onto this point, from which you have a nearly 360 degree view of the canyons in this section of the monument.

Wednesday, August 3

Wednesday morning I woke up early and drove into Utah to go the the West entrance of Dinasour National Monument to see the fossils. This is a small part of the massive rock wall of dinasour bones. They collected there at the bottom of a large riverbed where the creatures congregated for water during a drought over 100 million years ago.

The canyons of the Colorado section of Dinasour National Monument.

A ranger gives a brief introduction to the fossils.

Petroglyphs in Dinasour National Monument, from the Utah entrace.

I left Dinasour, Colorado Wednesday afternoon and headed south towards Mesa Verde National Park. I would get there after a short 5 hour drive, just in time to get a campsite. Along the way was some of my favorite scenery of Colorado, partly because there were so many fewer people.

South of Grand Junction in the long canyon road was this ruin of a mansion built by some millionaire from New York at the turn of the century.

This is the road from Grand Junction to Naturita, Colorado. 97 miles, and all of it inside this one canyon. Sections of the canyon were was wide open as this, and other parts shrunk down with just enough room for the road. This was the longest and most impressive canyon I've driven through.

On the road from Dinasour to Mesa Verde. You might be able to make out the Indania Jonesesque wooden structure on the side of the canyon wall above the river. It was used to carry water to a gold mine down stream. You can also see how the road in this canyon was wonderfully close to the edge at all times.

Thursday, August 4

Thursday morning I woke up at Mesa Verde ready for the first tour of the morning of the Cliff Palace. This park had the most self-contained campground and facililities of any park I've been too, with a complete grocery store, restaurants, showers, and gas station. Probably because it's almost an hour drive to the nearest city from the park. I slept very well in the park. Don't know if it was the climate, or the nice surroundings of cedar and mesquite.

The buildings were built right on the rock of the cliff.

Cliff Palace as we get our introduction from the ranger.

The round tower of Cliff Palace, and the second level of dwellings behind it.

Cliff Palace as we leave.

This is the balcony which gives Balcony House it's name. This is the most difficult cliff dwelling in the park to visit (which is open to the public). This is another site which can only be visited with a ranger guiding a small group. It involves 30 ft ladders on the face of the canyon walls, and a 12 ft. tunnel with two 18 inch openings on either end. As a result, the group was smaller, and there were no children along.

Balcony House and the openings behind the buildings.

Balcony house as we're leaving.

Spruce Tree House from the trail heading down to it.

Kiva and rooms of Spruce Tree House in Mesa Verde. You can't see it, but there are probably a hundred people in this area.

People entering the kiva. I also went down inside. Actually it was a lot brighter inside than I expected, and the air was fresh and cool. The kivas had ventilation for the firepits which were inside.

Some of the many cliff dwellings.

Burnt out forest near the Sun Palace in Mesa Verde.