Recently my husband and I have been trying to take trips more often. Mainly our trips are in Colorado, (other than Westcliffe). We’ve driven by Glenwood Springs a dozen times over the years but never really stopped, so this month we stayed there.
There are a couple of ways to get to the Western Slope, Hwy 70 (which sucks) or Hwy 50 through Gunnison. I love Gunnison so we drove Hwy 50 by the Arkansas River and by the Blue Mesa Reservoir. The Blue Mesa is huge and beautiful. The first picture is the Arkansas River and the rest of the pictures are of the Reservoir.
We started off by visiting my in-laws in Cedaredge, what a cute little town (albeit still bigger than Westcliffe). It’s important to visit family.
Then we drove over Grand Mesa, if you’ve never been there I highly recommend it. It was stunning and wildflowers were everywhere. Evidently there are 300 lakes on Grand Mesa. We stopped at a few and my favorite was Island Lake. Here are just a few of the pictures I took while we were there. We took over 2hr to get over the pass because of all of our stops.
There were so many flowers on Grand Mesa. I just couldn’t take enough pictures of them!
We stopped in Rifle and ate at Shooter’s Grill. This little café supports the 2nd amendment and some of the waitresses are wearing guns. It was a fun little place and the food was pretty good and the staff was so friendly.
When we got to Glenwood Springs we checked into our room and went to the visitor’s center. Saturday we hiked Grizzly trail, what a fantastic place. We hiked by the river the entire time, the river was amazing and the trail was so green. Here are several pictures from our hike.
Afterwards we walked by the White River, lots of rafts. It was pretty warm and there was no shade so we didn’t walk long.
We also went to the Yampah Vapor Caves, they date back to the 1880s. That was pretty interesting they go up to 127 degrees so we didn’t stay inside long only about 10-15 mins and we’d come up and take a break. It was invigorating and enjoyable. No pictures inside but if you want to know the history just click here.
Sunday we went to the Iron Mountain Hot Springs. I liked that it was outside and the weather was perfect. We tended to go to the 99-103 tubs. One of them had pebbles in the bottom, I really liked the way they felt on my feet. Here are a couple of pictures of the Hot Springs.
On the way home we took Independence Pass. If you are in Colorado and want a stunning drive I highly recommend it. Here are some pictures.
One of our stops was at the Independence Mining Ghost town. They are working to rebuild some of the buildings. It was so interesting and so many flowers, even wild irises. I enjoyed walking around and looking at some of the old buildings. Here are some pictures.
Another place we stopped was the Continental Divide. Such a pretty spot, there was still a bit of snow. Here are some pictures.
This is the other-side of the Continental Divide on the way back down the mountain.
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Keeping my kiln warm,
Karen
