The Lowe Down

  Leaving Breckenridge, we ascended to the Eisenhower Tunnel to beginning the decent into Denver.  Trip was smooth all the way to Loveland.  The visit with the Master’s clan at Joan’s in Longmont was fun.  There were a lot of stories told and old pictures shared.   Sadly,  we had to head back to our  Rv  and prepare for our homeward trip.   On Friday morning, we began our morning with a beautiful cool walk around the neighborhood.  On the road by 8:30 just ahead of the worst traffic and heat.  It seemed to take forever to get out of Colorado as we drove toward North Platte, NE.  Miles and miles of flat farmland interspersed with the pungent aroma of feeder lots. Finally, we see the Central Time Zone, a happy sign that we are getting closer to home.   From North Platte we drove on to Nebraska City and from there to St Charles, MO.  The drive consisted of getting on the interstate and locking the cruise contr...

  After our morning exercise(5900') we began our trip toward Longmont, CO, where Jan's sister lives.  Montrose sits in a large valley so we knew that there was going to be a change in altitude.  Since we did this part of our trip in 2015, we had forgotten how pretty the trip would be.   Our drive would be along side the Colorado river for most of the trip.  It was in this part of the drive that we drove through canyons so tight that the interstate was on piers over the RAPIDLY moving river. Jan wants me to tell that there were STEEP mountains on each side.  Luckily the traffic was moderate and it allowed a lot of rubber necking.  It wasn't long before we began our climb into the mountains.  Driving an RV on steep roads can be a challenge.  It wasn't long before we noticed that we were passing tractor-trailers, I was impressed because last time I had to get behind a tractor and just stay there till the top.  Again traffic was modera...

On Tuesday, we traveled up to Ouray from Montrose.  We left Montrose with a temperature of 75 degrees and when we arrived in Ouray, it was down to 53 with a nice breeze.  Since we were earlier than most places were open, we decided to drive over to Silverton through the Red Mountain Pass.  There was a clear sky when we left Ouray and also when we drove through the pass but arriving in Silverton there was  a haze caused by fires in several areas around.  On the drive over we drove through a water tunnel.   This is my term not necessarily correct.  Actually, it was a tunnel made for water from the mountain to flow over.  Getting toward the top we passed through an area that was being reclaimed from earlier mining.   One mine shaft was said to be over 5 miles long with another entrance in Silverton.  It was obvious why the pass was named as it was, the soil was red from oxidation of the minerals in the soil.  I tried to make a picture...

During the time that we were having problems with the computer, we traveled to two places in Southeastern Utah.  The first was a state park called  Goosenecks State Park and the second was called the Valley of the Gods.  Goosenecks is a park where the San Juan River snakes around for about 3 different horseshoes that can be seen from the top of the bluff.  This very similar to HorseShoe Bend part of the Glen Canyon National Recreational Area. From Gooseneck we drove about 4 miles to the Valley of the Gods.  This about 15 miles from Monument Valley, which being a Navajo  owned  area has been closed for nearly 2 years first for someone filming a movie without permission and then the COVID continued the shutdown.  Valley of the Gods is a 17 mile dirt road through some of the most spectacular monoliths .  This was a good replacement for Monument Valley.  There was very little traffic and plenty of time to enjoy.  When we left the area ...

On our trip over to Montrose we started early like we like to do.  By doing this we were pleased to find minimal traffic as we traversed the mountains.  This was a much better climb than I was anticipating.  The road was beautiful following a nice river all the way to the top.  As we started down we realized that Telluride was just few miles away.  Since neither of us had been there we drove into town.  We were amazed at the activity in town as early as we drove through(9:30 am). There were joggers and cyclist using the bike path from town out to the main highway.  I was surprised how many were not being affected by the altitude.  The little town was bustling with open air coffee shops and early shoppers.  Since there is only one way in and out we drove to the end of town and turned around in a parking lot.  The drive down to Montrose was extremely easy, following a large RV that appeared to be afraid of his shadow.  He road his br...

Since our trip to Colorado in 2018 we have looked forward to  seeing Mesa Verde . Todays trip was no disappointment.  With our fairly early start today, we were ahead of most of the other  tourist's.  The ranger at the front suggested the best way to view the park.  This park is over 20 miles long and has two different ways to see the most we could.  The drive back to the Longhouse Loop was just over 12 miles long.  This is not a road for the faint of heart, with lots of curves and steep climbs and downhills without many guardrails.  This took us through lots of past fire areas. 90 Of course some show this more than others.  At the end of the road was a five mile paved trail that overlooked  the "Longhouse" and when we got back to the parking lot we took a trail that allowed us to walk down to another cliff house "Step House".  At this house we were able to go into some of the rooms.  One of the things that intrigued me ...