Uncharted water: Colorado

With a bit of sadness we drove east from Utah. We enjoyed all the National Parks in Utah, the weather was terrific and there was much we didn't have time to explore.

Grand Junction was the first stop for us in Colorado. We visited the nearby Colorado National Monument and were intrigued by the cyclists riding up to the monument. The elevation in Grand Junction is over 4500 ft, and then they cycle up to over 6100 ft. I'm sure the ride down is fun.

In the photo below, we are near the top of the drive up to the monument looking down at the winding road up.

Balanced Rock is a huge boulder perched precariously above the road on the drive up.

We saw some of the prettiest scenery driving east along I-70 through Colorado. Normally the Interstate highways aren't noted for the scenery, but this was an exception, and photos taken at over 60 mph don't really do it justice, but here they are.

We found a spot just west of Denver to camp (Echo Lake). It was early in the season and the campground wasn't really open, but the information person said camping is ok. With scenery like this, we didn't complain about the lack of facilities.

We stopped in Denver to check out the big REI store and then an outlet mall. Next we went down to Royal Gorge, a spectacular gorge with a bridge that spans the Arkansas river.

We were not allowed to drive the RV over the bridge and the road to the south rim was closed so this was a close as we could get. In summer it is an apparently very touristy place with a cable car over the gorge and a zip line over another section. Down at the bottom of the photo below you can see the Arkansas river over 1000 feet down.

We visited friends in Fort Collins for a couple of days before another scenic drive over to the Rocky Mountain National Park. We camped in the park and hiked up to Cub Lake in the afternoon.