Durango

12 Sep 2012 (Wednesday) Durango 111 miles

It was fairly cloudy at the start of the day and after a leisurely breakfast we decided to take a relatively short drive today.  We left the hotel and as we drove around the edge of town we found a family of deer wandering around the streets in the middle of Durango.

Heading out east, we followed the scenic route 160 for about 40 miles to Chimney Rock.  as we turned south on the route 151 we realised that the town had been named after a rock formation rising from the nearby hills which indeed looked like a chimney!  Not far south of the main road, we entered the Southern Ute Indian Reservation. The road we were on was very quiet and we were able to stop and look at birds and animals near the road.  We stopped first to look at small birds and found ourselves watching Western Bluebirds which unsuprisingly were a beautiful blue colour!  Nearby, we sat and watched several Black-tail prairie dogs close to the road.

About twenty miles further on we came to the Navajo State Recreation Area which had a small wildlife reserve attatched to it.  We parked and walked down to the Piedra River.  The reserve was completely deserted and therefore very quiet and we saw Turkey Vultures (which to be fair can be seen almost anywhere), ground squirrels and down by the river bear paw prints!

As we drove along Navajo Lake north of Arboles, we were almost in the State of New Mexico.  Continuing on toward Ignacio, we saw a Coyote crossing the road just ahead of us.  Ignacio is part of the Southern Ute Indian Reservation and is quite a lively town.  We spotted a delicatessen on a street corner and had an excellent lunch there.

As we headed back toward Durango on the route 172, we could see it was raining ahead of us and by the time we got back to the motel we had run into the rain.  We spent a lazy afternoon reading and watching the rain fall.  In the evening, we drove back into downtown Durango and had dinner in a bar with live music.

Hotel - Adobe Motel
Weather - Cool in the morning and partly cloudy.  Later it clouded over and we had rain through to early evening.

Gunnison to Durango - Canyons and Mines

11 Sep 2012 (Tuesday) Gunnison, Colorado to Durango, Colorado - 220 miles

We all slept very well and after a leisurely breakfast checked out of the hotel and headed west again on the US-50.  The road follows the Gunnison river which eventually flows into the Colorado river which in turn flows through the Grand Canyon.

As we left Gunnison, the road and river started to drop into a wide valley and then after 9 or 10 miles into a narrower valley with a large lake in it, the cliffs either side getting steeper and higher as we continued.  The lake is obviously a fishing spot as there were several RV parks and campsites dotted along the shores.  After crossing from the northern shore of the lake to the southern at Sapinero, we continued to Cimarron where the Gunnison is contained by a dam.  The river at this stage dives off into a narrow canyon and we followed the road for a further 20 miles before we could turn up to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  We flashed our newly acquired annual Parks Pass and avoided the $15 entry fee and drove to a couple of car parks on the rim of the Canyon.  The views down to the river nearly 1000ft below were amazing.  We took lots of pictures whilst we were there.

After a fairly short visit, which probably didn't do full justice to the Park, we left and continued our journey arriving in the town of Montrose after about half an hour.  In Montrose, we found a supermarket and bought a picnic lunch and refuelled the tour bus.  Petrol is currently $3.60 a gallon.  By my reckoning that is £2.40 a gallon in UK - no wonder there are still lots of huge vehicles on the roads here (including ours).

From Montrose, we joined the US-550 south and headed across a wide plain until we got to Ridgeway where the mountains start to close in again.  By the time we got to Ouray (pronounced You-ray) we were in a narrow valley.  The town of Ouray is an old mining town, but is now somewhat touristy in a pleasant way.  Many of the original buildings remain and are maintained beautifully.  The road south of Ouray climbs steeply into a very narrow valley, locally known as Little Switzerland. and is very scenic.  The road from Ouray all the way down to Durango is known as the 'Million Dollar Highway' for obvious reasons.  The original toll road was build by someone in the 1890s and rather precariously took wagon traffic through the mountains.  With the discovery of silver in the mountains, the same person managed to build a railway through the mountains.  The section between Durango and Silverton a distance of 50 miles, is still running for tourists.  The modern road, built in the 1930s during the Great Depression, roughly follows the original road - it is an amazing engineering feat.

South of Ouray, the road crosses the Red Mountain Pass (11018ft).  At the summit is a small settlement surrounded by the ghostly remains of the original silver mines, above the mines Red Mountain rises.  The name is entirely appropriate, as the mountainsides are red.  The mountain is actually called Red moutain No1, No2 and no3 rather unimaginatively.  Autumn as turned many of the leaves on the trees golden yellow, so this against the red of the mountain made for some beautiful views.

We continued south to the old mining town of Silverton.  We briefly considered staying overnight, but in the end decided to continue on to Durango.  Silverton has lots of original buildings and consists of a main street lined with old shops, hotels and houses.  When the town started up, the respectable side of the main street was the northern side whilst the other side had all the bars and bawdy houses on it! The tourist trains from Durango stop here these days and it is a very popular day trip from Durango.  You can pay anything up to $150 for the journey to travel in armchairs in the Presidential Carriage, most pay about $45 to travel in semi-open, wooden-seated carriages.  The rail line follows the river valleys, miles away from the roads.

The road to Durango again started climbing until we crossed the Molas Divide (10910ft) and not long after that Coal Bank Hill Pass (10640ft) before the long descent, past the ski resort of Purgatory, to Durango.

Durango came as a bit of shock after the mountains.  It is a very busy town with dozens of Hotels and Motels to support the tourist industry.  We eventually settled in the Adobe Motel although the prices were somewhat higher that we wanted to pay.  Of the two others we tried, the Days End Motel, wasn't very good, the rooms smelt stale and the owner fairly uninterested in us, whilst the Econolodge only had two rooms left at $109 per night plus tax.

The Adobe Motel, although right on the main road is clean and the staff friendly.  The room was large and with the windows closed, quite peaceful.

After a bit of relaxing, we drove into the old town centre of Durango for dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  We had mixed success, the food was a little slow in arriving, but my fish tacos were delicious.  Lynn had a good Chicken Caeser Salad whilst Ken's food was a little disappointing.

Hotel - Adobe Motel
Weather - Cool in the morning but mainly clear skies.  During the afternoon it became overcast and we had light showers.

Through the Rockies to Gunnison

10 Sep 2012 (Monday) Denver to Gunnison - 232 miles

It was a beautiful morning as we left Denver and headed south along the I-25 to Colorado Springs.  After about 40 minutes we passed the US Air Force Academy just before we arrived in Colorado Springs.  Turning west, we started the climb into the Rockies along the US-24, but decided we needed a coffee break first.  We've previously stayed at Manitou Springs before, but all we could remember was the rather grotty motel we'd stayed at.  So, it was a real pleasure to drive into a very well kept small spa town with lots of interesting shops and galleries - the coffee was good too.

Soon we were on the way, and ignoring the turn off to Pikes Peak (a drive I've done before) and North Pole (apparently home to Santa), we followed the road up into the mountains.  We crossed the Ute Pass (9165ft) and shortly after Lake George we crossed a second pass, Wilkerson (9507ft) and dropped down onto a high plain toward the town of Hartsel.  The view across the plain toward the Collegiate Peaks is stupendous.  On the far side of the plain we climbed up and over a third pass, Trout Creek (9346ft) before dropping down through a gorge to Buena Vista which lies directly under the Collegiate Peaks, all of which are over 14000ft high.

After an exotic lunch at Subway, Lynn took over driving and we headed south on the US-285 towards Poncha Springs.  This road stayed in a wide valley for the 20 miles that we were on it.  Just before Poncha Springs, we turned west again on the US-50 towards Gunnison.  This road is very scenic as it climbs through the small town of Monarch, with its associated small ski resort, up to the summit of the Monarch Pass (11312ft) where we stopped for pictures.  The last time that we had visited the pass, the road was open but there were snow drifts 11 feet high either side of the road.  At the summit we also met up with a group of men riding Honda Goldwing motorcycles.  It seems to be a very popular holiday to go with a group of like-minded bikers and tour the USA as we have seen lots of such groups, some on Harley Davidsons others on Goldwings.

Following the river Tomichi we dropped down from the pass and near Parlin the river became the headwaters of the Gunnison river.  Eventually, mid to late afternoon, we arrived in Gunnison and found some accommodation at the Super 8 on the east side of town.  The rates were very good, the rooms comfortable and the owners very friendly and helpful. The hotel had a hot tub, so we lazed in there for an hour in the afternoon.

In the evening we took a short walk into town which is a 1880-1900 town with many original buildings, all in good order.  We found a restaurant called 'The Gunnysack' which was excellent.  They had a monday night special on 'Gunny burger with all the trimmings and fries for $5 all washed down with local beer.

Hotel - Super 8 Gunnison
Weather - Cool to start with, but clear skies and got warmer during the morning.  Sunny and hot in the afternoon.

Rocky Mountain National Park

09 Sep 2012 (Sunday) Denver - Rocky Mountain National Park - Denver - 280 miles

Following a better nights sleep and breakfast at the hotel, we headed into the middle of Denver, just to get a flavour of the place.  As it was sunday. the traffic was fairly light, but it still took about 35 minutes to get into the centre.  The State Capitol, the US Mint and other governmental buildings are very impressive neo-classic in style, but we didn't stop in town.

Heading west we eventually joined the I-70 West and started to climb into the Rocky Mountains.  The road passes several abandoned gold mines and small communities along the valley we were following.  After about 30 miles we turned north onto the US-40 heading toward Empire and Granby.  The road quickly climbed out of the valley through forest and eventually we crossed the Berthaud Pass (11315ft).  The road, which gives fantastic views of the Rockies descended into the fairly modern ski resort of Winter Park where we stopped for coffee.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was pleasantly warm sitting outside.

We continued on to Granby where we joined the US-34 north toward Grand Lake.  The road initially skirted Granby Lake which was fairly empty and then Grand Lake before arriving at the town of Grand Lake. Grand Lake is the largest deepest natural lake in Colorado.

We had a picnic lunch sitting by the lake before we had a wander around the old town.  The main street is still lined with boardwalks in front of the old buildings, very touristy,  but quite pretty.

From here we continued on the US-34 to the ranger station at the entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Park.  Here we stopped and bought an annual pass for the National Parks which allows a car and passengers access to all parks, the pass cost $80.  The cost of a day ticket to this park was $20. It won't take long to recoup the cost of the pass!.

The road through the high Rocky Mountains is spectacular climbing over several passes including the Milner Pass (10758ft), the Iceberg Pass (11800ft) and culminates in the Fall River pass at 12183ft, our highest point on our trip.  The scenery throughout the park is nothing less than spectacular and speed limits keep traffic going slowly, so it is easy to see everything.  Eventually, after a brief stop at the eastern end of the park, we arrived in Estes Park.  It is rutting season for Elk and we seen a small group in the park, but in the middle of some houses in Estes park we came across a large stag and two hinds.  Hopefully we have some good pictures of them.

It was a long drive back down to Denver and we took the scenic route along the Colorado routes 7, 72 and 119.  The road was beautiful, but we were all very tired by the time we reached Golden just outside Denver.  From here we headed back to the hotel briefly stopping at a Texas Roadhouse restaurant just off East Iliffe in Aurora.

Hotel - Fairfield Inn and Suites Aurora
Weather - Sunny and warm, but cooler up in the Rocky Mountain National Park

Arrival in the USA

08 Sep 2012 Aurora, Colorado.

Yesterday, after driving from Lincoln and following an uneventful 9 hour flight with BA from London Heathrow to Denver Colorado, we collected our 'tour-bus', a Grand Caravan 7-seater, from the airport and drove to Aurora, a town that ajoins Denver.  The whole journey went very smoothly although it was a long day.

Leaving Lincoln shortly after 9 in the morning, we headed down the A1 towards London.  The traffic was light and there were no hold-ups so we arrived in the St Albans area after 2 hours.  In order to waste a little time, we 'hung around' in Sainsburys restaurant for an hour before continuing to Heathrow.  We arrived shortly before one-o-clock and were met by our driver.  For the first time, we used a 'meet and greet' service for car-parking and found to be very easy.  Turn up at the airport, unload your bags and abandon the car to a driver who takes the car to an off-airport carpark.  Hopefully, when we get back, a driver will meet us at the airport with the car!

We met our fellow travellers in Terminal 5 and quickly checked our bags in and headed through security, a largely painless experience.  We'd  bought sandwiches at Sainsburys, so found a quiet corner to settle down and wait and eat lunch.  The flight was delayed for 45 minutes (apparently because the aircraft had arrived late from Rio de Janiero), but we were soon onboard a Boeing 777.  Hopes of an uncrowded flight were quickly dashed and we shared our row with a largish gent from Sheffield.  The flight route took us north over UK and out over the Atlantic, passing south of Greenland before making landfall at Baffin Island.  From there, we headed southwest over Hudson Bay and into northern Ontario.  The clouds which had been below us for most of the route, cleared as we flew south and we were able to see the ground for the rest of the journey over Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska and eventually Colorado.  As we were landing, the local time was 1920 and it was getting dark.

Immigration was painless, we didn't have to fill in the usual form, only the customs declaration, and weren't subjected to fingerprinting or photographing as we had 'previous' entries into the USA.  Having raided an ATM, we caught the shuttle-bus to the rental car depot and after a few signatures were told to go and choose any vehicle in row F!  All were mini-vans and we picked a white Grand Caravan 7-seater with 7000 miles on the clock.  As it was dark, we didn't initially appreciate the finer points of this vehicle such as the automatic tailgate and side, sliding-door, opening at a touch of a button!  After a 20 minute drive down the airport boulevard, the I-70 and the I-225, we arrived at the hotel in Aurora just off East Illife avenue.  After checking in, we walked a couple of hundred yards back to a Ruby Tuesdays restaurant and had a late supper and a beer.  We reckoned we'd been on the go for about 24 hour.

Follwing a good nights sleep, we had a late start and enjoyed the complimentary breakfast at the hotel before exploring the finer points of our 'tour-bus'.  We discovered a huge storage area under the floor (used when you fold the middle row of seats down) and lots of other areas to squirrel away our maps, books etc.

We then headed out and drove south down the I-225 and I-25 to Castle Rock, a town about 20 miles south of Denver.  The purpose of our visit was clothes shopping at the Outlet Centre.  The drive down was pleasant with views of the Rockies to the west and we arrived as the shops opened.  Several hours later we left with various bags of new clothes.

Ken took the wheel for the first time for the journey back to Aurora and he quickly discovered that driving in the USA for the first time can be quite daunting.  Road signs, direction signs and driving customs take some getting used to, especially 4-way stop signs.  He quickly settled in to driving, but it was a bit of baptism of fire as the roads were really busy!

After a foray into a Supermarket to purchase a coolbag, water and snacks for travelling, we returned to the hotel to relax for the afternoon.

Final Expedition Preparations

The bags are packed, we have checked in on-line and have managed to get seats we want on the aircraft. It is just a shame that the 'Worlds Favorite Airline' won't let you choose your seat until 24 hour before the flight unless, of course, you pay £28.  Checking in was complicated because our fellow travellers were elsewhere in UK.

Watching the countdown clock on the BA site on one computer and with the 'check-in' link highlighted on another I waited for the appointed moment when check-in was open.  Pouncing as the countdown reached zero, fumbling through the registration process, the seating allocation shows were are lined up in one row, three on one side of the aisle and on the other.  Trying to manipulate the pre-assigned seats to those of our choice was not intuative and led to a few frustrated 'cussings' before I manage to get two window seats, an aisle seat and a middle seat - roughly in the same part of the aircraft.

Time to charge up phone, camera, Kindle and MP3 batteries whilst stuffing clothes into a bag. Weigh bag and then remove half the clothes and repeat step one again.  As usual, guide books, maps and wildlife guides take up far too much space.  Epiphany moment when I realise that I can take a lap-top bag in addition to day-sack in the cabin.  Room for Kindle,MP3 player and en-route sweeties.

Programme the satnav and find that my Tom-Tom hasn't been keeping up with the times and has no idea that Heathrow Terminal 5 exists.  I try the the post-code gleaned from the internet, and find that too is unknown.  Looks like MkI eyeball will be more use in locating junction 14 of the M25.

Doubtless, tomorrow morning will be chaotic prior to leaving the house, but once we are headed down the A1 calm will prevail - I hope.