Summer 23 Trip Wrap Up

I'm reflecting on our five-week summer trip to the cool air of Colorado. 

Maroon Bells reflection

We got out of Texas just in time on July 11th. It got very hot and stayed hot. My weather station stopped reporting online on Aug 4th, but the temperature has remained well above 100ºF each day. We returned on Aug 13th and it was 106ºF. We had great weather in Colorado. It's so nice to cool off at night - sometimes down to the low 40s!

Our Winnebago Travato (The Bebopabago) performed well for us again. We had our 2-year ownership anniversary while on the trip, and we rolled past 23,500 total miles during this trip. Data is at the Travato link above. We climbed several high mountain passes over 12,000 feet and reached the top of Pike's Peak at over 14,000 feet.

I managed to post a few blogs during the trip, and there are numerous photos in each. I included the Telluride blog from 2022, which was written by our dog Bebop. And, I added a few favorite photos below as well.

Our blog site: https://westbrooktravel.blogspot.com/
- Trip Plan and Map
- Early Stops on the Way
- Colorado Front Range
- Rocky Mountain National Park
- Maroon Bells Wilderness
- Telluride (from 2022)
- San Juan Mountains

I do love data, so here are the trip stats:

Miles Driven: 2,815 miles
Average miles/day: 83
Time Driving: 73 hours
Avg Speed: 38 mph
MPG: 16.6 (vehicle calc); 15.8 (actual)
Gas Used:  177 gallons, average of 5.2 gallons/day
Gas Cost: $651 ($19/day) - avg of $3.68/gallon
Campground Cost: $881 (avg $26/day)
Campground Cost: $695 (avg $20/day)

A few photo highlights:

Mount Sopris view from Red Hill in Carbondale, CO

Bear Creek Falls in Telluride, CO

Hiking up to Bridal Veil Falls in Telluride, CO

Sunrise on the Maroon Bells near Aspen, CO

Mountains through an old mining structure near Leadville, CO

Elena the climber in Rocky Mountain National Park

Pikes Peak view from Garden of the Gods in CO

Pikes Peak in CO

- Paul

Read More

San Juan Mountains

We spent five great nights in Tellruide at the city owned campground. Can’t beat $29/ night in Telluride. We were in Telluride 13 months ago and Bebop wrote a blog, so I’ll just refer you to that - Bebop’s Blog. I’ve added a few more Telluride photos from this year.

Telluride Hikes - Bridal Veil and Black Bear Creek

Telluride Falls - Bridal Veil Falls and Black Bear Creek

We departed Telluride and returned to Ridgway Lake for one night, where we played on the paddle board. The next morning we headed into Ouray for a planned 4 hour jeep tour of Corkscrew Pass near Red Mountain - with a guide doing the driving. We started driving that way, but ran into road construction on the main highway. After sitting for 20 minutes, the driver suggested we turn around and go to Imogene Pass instead. It was a very busy Saturday with Jeeps, motorcycles, and rental OHV, but we navigated up to near the top of the pass, which is over 13,000 feet. The wildflowers were stunning. Our guide said he was a microbiologist, but he looked like a regular size biologist to me. He knew all the flower names and pointed out many interesting species, including a rare elephant head plant. The paintbrush plants slowly changed color with elevation. He brought us to the largest field of Colorado Columbines I’ve ever seen.

Imogene Pass Jeep Ride - up over 13,000 feet

Rare Elephant wildflower - look at the little elephants

After the jeep tour, we drove down the Million Dollar Highway and made a few stops at places such as Red Mountain (there are actually five red mountains numbered 1-5). The Uncompahgre River is an ugly yellow color as it cascades down toward Ouray. Some of the yellow is natural, The name came from the native tribe in the area. Our guide said Uncompahgre translates to “ ,” but I think it was an old native phrase for “I wouldn’t drink that if I were you.” Much of the current color is due to minerals leaching from the many historical mining

Three pics near red mountain, and one at Molas Lake

Our Molas Lake campground - I thought the colorful parasols made a nice photo.

 Our campground that night was Molas Lake just south of Silverton. Molas lake is at 10,500 feet in elevation and the morning low was 42ºF. The following day we headed to Durango and made several stops along the way. 

We camped the night at Junction Creek Campground north of Durango. Tomorrow we raft the Animas River, then head to Pagosa Springs.

 

- Paul

Read More