Hey hosers.
We had choppy air leaving Denver, had to divert around bad weather over Indiana, and had some more choppy air a bit after that. And there was a child in the back row who cried during take-off and landing, and during the rest of the flight, felt the need to let out loud hoots at intervals regular enough that earphones were required, but thankfully not regular enough that jumping from the plane seemed like a good idea.
So yeah, "thanks" for all your wishes for a smooth, quiet flight
Colorado was lovely. For only having one week, we managed to cover quite a bit of ground. We flew into Denver and immediately drove our rental car over to Durango. It was a long day and we were quite tired - 4 hours in a plane and 6 hours in a Nissan with an anemic transmission and a mushy AF suspension - but it was a beautiful drive and we got a flavor of what it feels like to move from flat to foothills to mountains.
Four days in Durango, including a ride on the narrow gauge railway train to Silverton. We got seats in an open car and it was fantastic - really felt like we were in the environment rather than being cooped up in a closed stuffy train car. We saw a ton of prairie dogs (I know they are a nuisance to ranchers, but I am not a rancher so I can enjoy their adorableness with total abandon!
), a mountain goat scurrying along a steep mountainside, and some elk.
We then drove to Ouray via Rt 550, which is said to be one of the most scenic roads in the country. It certainly was gorgeous. It would be scary in the best of circumstances, but we also were driving in a snow storm. I thank my lucky stars that it was the kind of late-spring snowstorm that will dump a dry powder that sticks on the ground and in trees, but not on the roads, so it looked beautiful but just made the roads wet instead of snowy and icy.
Million Dollar Highway
It snowed most of the next day, though it continued to not stick on the road, so we ventured out in the other direction for lunch (it was nice and flat through the valley! Whew!), and then came back and walked around the town a bit, took some pictures. Ouray is in a box canyon, so we were surrounded by beautiful snow-covered mountains, and our hotel was right next to to the river so we had a built-in "sounds of nature" sleep-sounds machine
The next day was our last full day and we planned to stay the night in Grand Junction so we could be right on the highway to shoot across for our flight to Denver. We decided to drive from Ouray to Grand Junction via a more circuitous route, and it turned out to be the right decision. We ended up driving along an outstandingly beautiful canyon. It was like a mini Grand Canyon. We were quite stunned but delighted because we didn't expect it at all. And it was doubly good because we found Grand Junction itself to be somewhat...soulless. So it was a nice contrast.
We stayed right near the highway, got up, ate breakfast, and set off for Denver. First part of the trip was fast and easy. Then we had to go over the mountain passes. The highest was the Eisenhower Tunnel approaches, at 11,158 feet. And yes, it was snowing all through the mountains (no real accumulation on roads - whew!) But we still made it to Denver without incident and in plenty of time for our flight.
And now I'm back. The end.
![[No title]](/data/xfmg/thumbnail/41/41892-d6f91fd1c816420825658ffaad56df78.jpg?1734176245)
![[No title]](/data/xfmg/thumbnail/41/41924-6ae94add98501b0c7ebd13870b86cf70.jpg?1734176284)
