Day 5 – The Drive Through Colorado and Utah

Remember when I said some days were “let’s get there” days? Well today was another one of those.

However …

It was the most spectacular “just get there” day I’ve ever experienced. The drive from Denver through the Rocky Mountains and then into Utah and its incredible mesas and buttes was almost overwhelming. Every new turn brought another incredible landscape. Pictures and video don’t do it justice. And any words I come up would be meager grasps at poetry that I’m incapable of producing. It is something that must be experienced … and I’m so happy I experienced it with Laura and Max.

In the car, Laura wrote up some great descriptions of the day … in her inimitable Laura style. Once again I used my handy-dandy iPhone and dictated it into a text file. Take it away Laura …

The highway is nestled between the mountains, and the mountains are breathtakingly beautiful. The clouds, in many places, are hovering over the mountains, or obscuring their tops. Is that snow I see on the peaks?

Elevation is 8519 now. We drove past Idaho Springs, an old, now restored, mining town. Just when you think, wow, this is so awesome, you round a bend and say the same thing again. Some of the towns look like a model railroad layout.

Elevation 9118! Sun is peeking out now. Sign: Avalanche area! 8:37 AM. Stopped at a rest area just before Vail Colorado at an elevation of 10, 800 feet! Our stop included pictures with a backdrop of snow covered mountains. I was wearing the skort! 31 degrees. Stunning views!

8:52 AM. Glenwood Canyon. Drove through stacked rock mountains carved by the Colorado River. Max: “This is ridiculous!”

1:44 PM. “One Headlight” is playing. Song of the day? Moving into Utah.

Ode to a rock:

The sandstone amber-tinged range is a favorite … rising seemingly out of nowhere it envelopes you with its natural beauty like a stony wave. Magical experience of low-wide muted sandstone … mocha, red, green, plateaued mountains. Now the road cuts between two sheer cliffs. Dynamite? In more ways than one.

Haiku high points:

Majestic beauty
As we drove 70 West
Nature at its peak

Photos:

Timelapse:

Song of the Day: One Headlight, The Wallflowers.