Road To Denver

Asked the taxi driver to take us to the airport, he asked where at the airport? “Hire cars”. He looked at me with confusion and said’ “You want to go to Hawaii? Oh you mean carrr rental!”

Picked up our ’Rav’ to drive to Denver. Trev had to concentrate to stay on the right hand side of the road (too scary for me!) The windscreen wipers kept coming on when turning (no idea why-Trev). Wendy navigated from the back seat. I was the second driver in the front making sure Trev stayed on the road and spotting road signs, while he enjoyed the scenery.

And amazing scenery it was around every corner. Beautiful rock formations and canyons with multi coloured striations in the sedimentary rock. Huge slabs of earth have been uplifted by the crushing of the continental plates colliding, some vertically. Switch backs, scary bends and deep ravines, Went through Zion National Park, Dixie National Forest, Bryce Canyon (I think better than the Grand Canyon), and others.

We stayed in Torrey, Utah overnight. On the roads we saw many middle aged, mostly men, riding/driving shiny Harleys. There were signs up at all motels; ’Bikers welcome’. Our motel had towels available at reception for them to “shiny” their bikes.

Along the Skyway to Cortez and then to Mesa Verde. One of Cruikshank’s 80 Treasures of the World. Homes built in the canyons by a civilisation of Puebloans, a 5 foot tall Indian tribe who farmed the mesa’s between 700 to 1400AD.

Second night at Pagosa Springs, a top ski area, for ‘couch surfing.’ Cath and David had recommended our host, Pete and his fabulous ski lodge style log cabin as the best accommodation in town, We had our own room with ensuite and king size log framed bed. All we contributed was a few bottles of wine and conversation. After Pete cooked us a wonderful breakfast and waved us off with his home made bread, we drove onto Denver through more beautiful mountain scenery. Went through the town of Fairplay in South Park County where the writers of South Park lived and based their TV series. It is a well restored, historic gold mining town and it actually has the appearance of a “cartoon.”

Onwards and upwards to the upmarket ski resort of Breckenridge; too expensive to stop for anything but a photo. Beautiful tubs of flowers all along the streets.

High altitude effected us, making us short of breath when walking fast, a feeling of tiredness, dry noses and throats and occasional headaches. The remedy is to keep drinking lots of water, and avoid alcohol (not so easy) We drove over several high mountain passes over 10 thousand feet (~3300 m), where high altitude had the greatest effect. One pass we did unnecessarily, twice, because we were geographically embarrassed.