Colorado - Day Seven

On Day Seven we started to round back up to Denver by taking a pretty route through the mountains. We'd be going over the Continental Divide two more times! I loved the Continental Divide - loved it. Shout out to Lewis & Clark.



By the way - we still love satellite radio. Bryan Adams, Warrant, Tupac, Wham - they all accompanied us for this long trip.

Can you believe there is actually a Big D's in Colorado? How awesome is this? It's like Big D has an alternate path in life in a parallel universe - like a hardened saloon owner/bartender with many tattoos and hardened attitude giving love-lost customers relationship advice. Hmm....





Rocky Mountain High Baby. We still saw a lot of motorcyclists without helmets. Bless them.

This is on our way to Telluride - I really wanted this part of our trip to last forever. Every once in a while we'd see something new in the scenery and I'd yell "Oh my God!". Big D felt the same way.





This is Telluride - I felt the spirit of Warren Miller everywhere. I loved this little ski town - it reminded me of being in Whistler but on a WAY smaller scale. Telluride seems small and extremely humble. They currently had a jazz festival going on. I think that whole town is high! We kept on seeing that everywhere. I guess the ski lifts top out over 12,000 feet. My lungs would implode I think.

So these are Colorado Aspen trees that I absolutely loved. Along this drive, as we sang along to Motley Crue, we noticed so many happy cows on their farms. I've never had so much cow-envy before.

I would love if this was my future home. And I'd name every Aspen Tree around me as if they were my children. *sigh*

I just liked this picture because the sign references the San Juan Mountains - it reminded me of home (shout out to the San Juan Islands!).

This was my first glimpse of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. This place is so huge and goes on forever and ever. We knew our cameras would not do the scenery justice so you're just going to have to go there yourself.

So I did write down some info - the Canyon is between 1700-2700 feet deep with it's narrowest point at 40 feet across. Big D read some info about the many failed attempts back in the day by river rafters. So eventually they just gave up and put a net up in the river to catch all the dead bodies. Nice thought. Moving on...

Big D and I decided to do a moderate hike taking us a bit down into the canyon. But not all the way because we were scared of falling rocks (you'll see) and if we'd be able to make it back up the hill still struggling with the elevation change.

I don't know what my attraction is but when I see a rocky cliff that's somewhat dangerous I immediately run up to stand at the edge. Yes, I've had close calls. I'm sure the cause of my death will be caused by me standing on a cliff's edge and getting a violent sneeze out of my system. I'll lose my balance then....splat! That's my prediction. That wouldn't be a bad death though - I wouldn't mind that. At least I'd have a pretty view on my way out of this world. Ok, but I digress...



That little speck was our trail - we actually did better than we thought making our way up the hill. Colorado wasn't kicking our a$$ as bad as it used to.

Very dangerous people. But seeing this sign over and over again made me want to really throw a rock.



I took this one for Hulster - a contemplative Big D taking one last look at the canyon before we left.

Memories from our 20s:

Krista: Being in Telluride reminded me of Whistler - one of my favorite times at Whistler was when the Schmucks got engaged (age 22). And having the Schmucks in my life has been one of the most important things in my 20s. I consider them a 2nd set of parents - always encouraging, supportive and loving even when I don't deserve it.

Big D: Being around all this green again reminded Big D of returning from Arizona when she was 22 - she literally got drunk off the Washington greenery again and realized Washington was meant to be her forever home.