At the recommendation of Schnicklefritz Alix, my good friend who lives in Colorado, we drove along Highway 141. It's a beautiful drive along the San Miguel River through red rock canyons filled with box elders, salt cedars and wildflowers.
There were some pretty amazing rock falls and formations.
We found a side road to access BLM land and thought about stopping but between the threat of thunderstorms and the actual rain, we decided to just scout out the area for future travel purposes and keep going. I couldn't resist the wildflowers against the red, though.
We wandered down the road and visited the Colorado National Monument. We followed Rim Rock Drive and stopped periodically so JD (aka The Mountain Goat) could traipse around the ledges. I, being not so fond of heights, contented myself with the wildflowers on the non-sheer-cliff side of the road.
One benefit to the PNW weather we encountered was a rainbow over Monument Canyon.
After the wedding, we spent a day in Fort Collins visiting my oldest friend, Schnicklefritz. My parents drove up from New Mexico to spend a day with us in Estes Park. We drove around Rocky Mountain National Park for a bit before we had to head back west.
We saw a herd of young elk.
some pretty adorable little chipmonks
We drove through Berthoud Pass which tops out around 11,000 feet and saw several warning signs stating “Avalanche blasting at anytime using long range weaponry”! Those kinds of explosives looked totally justified - just look at the snow overhang!
Although we did drive through a bit of snow in Wyoming,
we had a wonderful trip and mostly importantly arrived home married and all bones intact!
So lovely! That snow overhang looks immense. Wouldn't' it be cool to see them using their long-range weaponry? Better yet, just a major avalanche from natural conditions....
ReplyDeleteI thought it would be pretty amazing to see an avalanche, too, (assuming there were no people underneath....)
ReplyDeleteOkay, now that you keep referring to me by my nickname, I'm going to go and change to my real name. A friend recently convinced me of the perils of anonymity on the internet, and I'm doing my part to combat it. So long, Schnicklefritz!
ReplyDeleteGreat photos, as usual. Seeing them makes me want to go back and drive 141 again. Hard to believe it's been 15 years since I've been there!
The elk in your photo were a lot clearer to my eyes than standing way above them trying to find them. Now that I've had cataract surgery on both eyes, maybe I should try again!
ReplyDeleteI love the blue and the yellow flowers. Did you know that's my favorite color combination?