After leaving the "urban" parts of Colorado, we headed west.
Our first stop was Great Sand Dunes National Park. Unfortunately, Lori (our navigation system) thought she knew a shortcut. After 12 miles along a meandering dirt road, we rounded a curve and came upon snow and mud. We both had flashbacks of our trip to Costa Rica where we tried (unsuccessfully) to get through another mud-covered road in another large van. Because it was beginning to get dark, we parked on the side of the road, and "roughed it" for the night before heading back to paved roads in the morning.
After arriving at the National Park, we realized that we had camped the night before less than six miles from the park. However, five of those miles would have been on a hiking trail that hasn't seen four-wheeled vehicles since the days of covered wagons. Apparently, Lori has been watching too many science fiction movies (e.g. " 2001: A Space Odyssey", "I, Robot", "Terminator", etc.)
Afterwards, we continued west, up and over the Rocky Mountains, through scenic valleys, mountain passes, over rivers, all the while surrounded by autumn colors and snow capped mountains.
We passed through Durango, missing our friend Annette (who was ranch-sitting there) by a day, then contemplated our route home. We craved a pit stop to rest and recharge before the final drive back to San Francisco, and Las Vegas was the only interesting city on the way. It didn't take too much convincing that this was the right place for our final fling. We took a scenic route through several states, passing fairly close to Zion National Park in Utah, and getting a chance to see the beautiful red rock canyons again.
Vegas was, well, Vegas. We exercised, ate, gambled and saw Lewis Black perform at the MGM. Joseph went birding, Fern surfed the internet. A good time was had by all.
Alas, it was time to leave and we took the quick way home (quick for us -- two overnight stops).
The rest of the Colorado photos are here. Photos for the rest of the trip are here.
