Great Western Colorado Lodge Salida

... and theoretically planned to make it to the Grand Canyon before stopping and sleeping for the night. Ryan, Christa, and I wandered out to the creek and down a path that ran under the bridge. Like the song, I hung out under the bridge for awhile. Ryan and I decided to get into the creek...yikes. We stripped down shoes and socks and climbed down the snow bank to the water. The numbing effect of the snow against our bare skin should have been the first sign to turn back but no, no thank ...

... than we imagined (see photos). It was great to be out on the open road, away from the cities, travelling through snow-capped mountains, thousands of feet above sea-level.

We stopped for lunch at Leadville, a picturesque ex-gold-mining town, before heading on to our destination - Buena Vista. Staying in Buena Vista was purely based on it being a three and a half hour drive ...

... from Frisco to the nearby town of Breckenridge. This was by far the prettiest town along the Colorado mountain spine we were following. The houses were so cute with great architecture with aspens and small pines all around. This place had loads of character but you could tell it had a snobby side to it. We camped just out of town before tackling our highest pass the next day. Boreas Pass was 11460ft high. Then we dropped down to Como, named after the Italian town ...

... and hopefully before storms come in. Vicki has sorted my connection from the border to the nearest town with Greyhound connections now, so that is a real weight off my mind. Off to discover the pubs of Salida now and to buy enough dehydrated food for every night I intend to camp. AM told that it gets much harder from here to buy stuff, so want to get all of the complicated stuff in. Bike ...

... of spires and the glass is stained glass. I don't think I can adequately describe this so best I provide a pikkie which you will note at the top of this blog. What an amazing piece of architecture. Mad rush now to get to Canon City, a drive beyond Colorado Springs, to do the Royal Gorge train route, a train ride into the Royal Gorge. Whilst we enjoyed the trip, we were a little disappointed though because it wasn't as narrow and as impressive as we ...

... just jumped into the car with them with the minimals and we took off. I was fortunate enough to come upon this opportunity because I let Nick know that I was in town and he just happened to set the trip up for the weekend right when I was free and he invited me. Who was I to say no... The drive was a little over 2 hours. We passed South Park on the way. THE South Park ...

... was our largest climb of the tour and the penultimate climb of the Rockies. A celebration was in order! So, we opened a packet of vanilla cookies from Family Dollar and made toasts to our darling Queen Elizabeth II and the Pope before heading off for Cotopaxi. As we descended from the pass the temperature change was vast from the snowy peak to the hot valley as we were now in a heat of around 90 degrees. We camped ...

We all woke feeling as tired as you would expect as we have by this stage been camping for around 20 days in the last month.Today was a short day as we were only covering 40 miles and so by midday we had crossed the barren landscape and were all in Sargent's which is at the base of the largest ascent, the ascent to Monarch Pass. It would be fair to say that we were all looking forward to ...

... M'Lynne depart for Istanbul. We loved our one week visit last November, and have signed up for a late May and June tour through eastern Turkey led by a Turkish Sufi muscian now living in Santa Fe. Such a tour appeals to us because we will hear lots of traditional music, visit his family, and have the opportunity to experience Turkish culture while traveling with a local. But first we are ...