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Published: October 15th 2016
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After the drive from Tennessee across the majority of the width of the US of A to Colorado, we discovered a few things: the sky really is bigger in the plains; having absolutely no trees in a campground makes you feel kind of naked all the time; and somehow, accidentally driving right by the Wizard of Oz Museum in Kansas is way too easy to do.
We made it to sister Carol and Phil's place in Glenwood Springs (a few hours west of Denver) in a few days-- we're not in Kansas any more, Toto! After recuperating and some preparation (Preparation I?), the four of us (and Mika) went for a canoe trip on the Green River, which is a big tributary to the Colorado River that flows through Utah. The scenery is amazing! See the photos for just a taste of the canyon views and the astounding scenery that surrounded us for virtually the entire five days.
A few highlights of this trip: our ancient shuttle van that honked randomly on the way to dropping us off; the river discharge nearly tripling over the first few days of the trip (some other trippers lost some gear overnight due
to the huge increase in water level!); and always managing to find kick-ass campsites with great hiking. Oh, and 'no trace camping' really means 'no trace' in this park. We packed all of our food back out again but in a different, browner form.
At the final takeout the super silty riverbank threatened to swallow us alive -- we thought we might completely lose Mika!, but all in all the trip was fantastic and anybody who hasn't done something like this in Utah should really add it to their bucket list.
After completing the canoe trip Phil drove the few hours back home with Mika, and Carol stayed with us the next day to take us through Arches National Park, just outside Moab, for a day. It was scenic, to say the least. Then we headed back to Glenwood Springs for a few days, where Frase did some fantastic fishing on the Roaring Forks before we headed out for another adventure: rafting the Colorado River! Phil and Carol own their own raft and two-man kayak so we headed out for the weekend northeast of town to spend a couple days paddling/floating through some mighty rapids. OK, I guess
Green River Canoe Trip
Yes - we are in the middle of the desert. A lot of nothing is surrounding us. they were far from mighty compared to spring flows but we still managed to have a blast and got pretty wet in the process. Mika was not too thrilled!
With Mika settled in her temporary new home in Glenwood Springs, we packed up and, some of us a little teary-eyed, headed a few hours northeast to the Rocky Mountain National Park area. We ovenighted in Grand Lake just outside the park and woke up to a pile of snow! Fortunately we'd heard the forecast and had bailed on our original plans to camp in the park that night. The next day we had planned to drive through the park to Fort Collins, but because of the weather the road was closed and we had to detour around the park, which was a nice drive, the first time. Unfortunately the passports got left behind at the hotel so we ended up driving a couple hours back around the park to Grand Lake to get them and then back through the mountain passes a third time to get to Fort Collins. That makes for six mountain passes, several snow storms, and three continental divides in one day! Our car may never
be the same.
In Fort Collins we spent a couple nights at our friends Andy and Stacy's house, and we got to sample some tasty local brews. Andy took us for a a nice drive on the other side of Rocky Mountain National Park for some more wildlife viewing and light hiking. Sunday morning we packed our backpacks a final time, left our car behind, and caught a shuttle down to Denver airport. Let the next big adventure begin.
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