09.20.09
Heading to Colorado
So it’s been quite a year for us traveling all over – Yellowstone in February and paddling trips for me over memorial and labor day weekends out east and South. We thought why not do another vacation later in the year as well. So we planned to hit Colorado at the beginning of the fall color with our good friends Andy and Neely (and her family). Let the trip writeup begin!
Arrival
So we debated on how to get to SW Colorado… flights to Durango were quite high and most of the other options included getting a rental car and driving 4+ hours once we landed. We opted to fly into Albuquerque since it was so much cheaper (almost $1k cheaper!) and it happened to be on the way for our Texan folk, who would be driving up instead of flying. This way they could pick us up and we wouldn’t have to worry about getting a rental. We were quite happy with our solution and even surprised to find out that Neely’s cousins who happened to be flying in from North Carolina also happened to be on the same connecting flight through Chicago that we were taking. How much more convenient could it get? They were just 1 row behind us making it easy for us to get reacquainted after meeting them at the wedding last year. The TX crew pulled up just as our bags were coming up on the conveyor – timing was perfect.
Was so nice to see our friends again 
we caught up on life on the 5 hour drive from ABQ to CO with fun little tidbits of history from Neely’s dad over the walkies while we were driving. We went from dry deserty buttes to the higher altitudes and wonderful Colorado mountains.
We rented a cabin just outside of Dolores, CO and were lucky enough to have Neely’s uncles just down the road from us. So after our drive, we pull on up to Uncle Buddy and Gail’s and are welcomed with a hot bowl of Cowboy stew with corn bread and most of the family to welcome us. Not a bad way to start vacation!
Explorin’ Colorado Y’all
So our first full day the gals (Neely and her sister) go off to Cortez to get our fridge stocked for the week, while Bela, Andy and I decide to go exploring in the area. We start driving up along the west fork of the Dolores. We decide to take a small detour and head up a fun mountain road to see how high we can get and to see if we can find some of those beautiful aspens that were starting to turn. We wound our way up and did find some cool aspens as well as some hunters and some very large mushrooms. My GPS decided to taunt us with the thought that there was a through road, but alas it was a closed road and thus a dead end so we wound our way back down to the main road.
We figured we still had plenty of time before our rendezvous and kept going up the main road, where it eventually turns to dirt/gravel. It led us to a restored Ghost Town called Dunton that is now used as a B&B. There was a closed gate even though there was a sign mentioning tours (and it had started to rain) and both Andy and I were like let’s forget it… but Bela saw another sign that said just give a call for a tour. So he did, and we did. We wandered the estate with our tour guide. It really doesn’t look much like a ghost town, but it has the flavor of olden times with the old wooden bar, wheel wagon light fixtures and big fireplaces. The hot spring house and nearby outdoor hot spring seemed quite tempting due to the cold rain but we opted not to pay the $100 lunch and soak fee to continue our explorations of the nearby mountains. (Now if we were super rich we might have changed our minds)
So we continue our drive up some mountain roads to see what we can see. Had some nice views of the mountains as we kept winding our way up. We ran into a few hard core mountain bikers (and we swear 1 of them might have been Ed Visteurs but we’re not positive he mtn bikes) and waved them on with cheers of good peddling. We decide to try to work our way back down to town via a different route. I’m not entirely sure why we trust the gps for small dirt road information considering our previous experience just an hour before but we did… had we had my wrangler we may have tried a few of these roads (and gotten to town that way) but since we were in Neely’s NEW 09 CRV we decided not to risk it too much. We did enjoy going through some big puddles and doing a little crawling up roads that had little ATV signs on them. We start up this ATV road (whoossh! though a big puddle), then decided to try another route since it seemed a bit too vertical. so we turn around (whoosh!) and try an alternate road, which also became a bit too rocky and questionable so we turned around yet again and decided to try the ATV road again (whoosh!). We make it a few more miles (maybe!) and come upon a HUGE puddle. we get out to scout to see just how deep or muddy it is and decide the right side might be ok with just 3″ of water, but the left side seemed muddy and with at least 6″ of water let alone how deep we’d sink and possibly get stuck in. Not our idea of fun with no winch available. so we turn around yet again and really enjoy going through that first puddle yet another time (with fun pics)- WHOOSH!.
Andy likes to claim i was doing the driving but this pic proves he was having a bit o fun in the driver seat. We eventually just back track back the way we came and enjoy the views yet again now that the storms had passed through – AND we were only a few minutes late even with all that backtracking! We enjoyed a wonderful dinner with all the extended family that night.
