Monument Valley, Colorado & southern Wyoming

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After a couple of weeks in the desert of Utah we were looking forward to getting to the cooler climes of the mountains. The heat was pretty brutal at times, especially when camping but we actually found it ok during all of our hikes in Utah.
Our first destination on the slow trip north was Monument Valley, a stunning collection of giant stone monoliths that appear out of the desert for reasons beyond my ken. The weather was a bit ropey and we had plenty driving to do, so we didn't stop for long. We also stopped at Glen Canyon Dam, which is the equivalent of Hoover but at the other end of the Grand Canyon, pretty impressive - the canyons are kinda tailor-made for damming! After several hours of driving across endless stony desert we finally hit the Rockies at the town of Durango. The route north of here through the Sanjuan mountains is renowned and lived up to its billing, with endless mountain vistas from several passes over 10,000 ft. We both got massive house envy consistently along the way as giant wooden mansions popped up in the trees, the standard of living in this bit of the states is pretty sweet! We finally arrived in the teeny town of Ouray, one of many ex mining communities, made even better by a couple of nearby hot springs. We were re-energised by a long dip in the springs, was a wee bit surreal though as we were about the only ones wearing any clothes! As it got dark there was all sorts of shadowy movement going on, will have to ask mummy and daddy what that was all about when I get back......... Colorado is endless mountains and trees and we drove through another several hundred miles on the way to Aspen, one of 'The' ski resorts in the US. It was a cracking place, though pretty expensive, we counted over 80 private jets at the airport there! We also caught up with my old friend Mel and her mate Charlie, we had a great catch up over a few beers and a BBQ. The next day we pottered around the town, had a trip on the gondola up to the top of the ski slopes for a wander and then made our way to the old mining community of Leadville, full of stories of boom and bust from gold and silver mining. It's all pretty run down now but it did have a cracking diner. The reason for visiting Leadville was to climb Mt Elbert, the highest mountain in the Rockies at 14,400 ft (4,400m). Mel & Charlie came with us too and after a long trek we were rewarded with brilliant views in every direction, the seemingly endless mountains of Colorado. After Mt Elbert, we were the heading north towards Wyoming, and the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. It's a long drive, broken up by stops at pretty ski resorts like Vail and Steamboat in the first couple of hours. (Vail was my favourite, Donald also conveniently forgot to mention that I beat him on a race down the luge in Steamboat!) Once you get to northern Colorado though, there's very little happening. In about 7 hours driving we didn't pass one town with more than about a thousand people, just endless prairies. We're now just short of the Tetons at Dubois (pronounced dew-boys much to our amusement). Tonight we're planning to hit the local rodeo and chat to some locals, can't wait!! Love to all back home. Donald & Kirstin. Xx

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