Trip to Colorado

Saturday, August 25, 2007


Just click on the photo below for a "put your feet up" type of slide show (click on the photos in the slideshow for descriptions). Or scroll down for blog style browsing.

The Crew

Silverton Trip 318

******(this photo will link you to our flickr webpage where you can do a slideshow on the Silverton, Colorado ride photos-Flickr will probably be the place where we post our South America trip-much easier uploading etc)******



This is a real short video that Conchita took with our still camera while we were going over Cinnamon Pass. Nothing fancy- It is really more of a test to embed video in the blog.







Alllrighty then, yard is mowed, weed and feed is sprayed, garden work is done and bike is washed. Now it is Blog time!


I have to mention that 95% of these photos were compliments of Conchita. She wasnt just sitting on the back looking pretty!!




So here we are down backroad #899 in south-eastern Alberta. Something was amiss. Conchita is going back to read the small road sign. Turns out that someone had spun the sign around and had us going in the wrong direction. Ahhh, but we are really smart. We did a U-turn, took a right at the intersection and we were back on track.


This is our first camp of the trip. It is on the South Saskatchewan River and highway #41. The site itself was ok, but the rest of the area?? Heavy on lameness!!


The warning sign in the background ("Rattlesnakes have been observed"). It is creepy sleeping in a tent where rattlesnakes are. We didn't see or "hear" any. I was going to show Conchita a different kind of snake, but she wasn't interested!!




This is what Alberta looks like in the south-east corner. No trees make it great for spotting deer at 160km/h- hopefully not close up.





Montana in the north-east corner...arrgggg. There were signs warning of no residences or services for 200 km's - they should have said "nothing" for 200km's. Kinda scarey. No traffic though-meaning no cops!!!





Trying something to break up the monotony. It didnt really work too good. The road was still straight, long , and boring. Maybe cops would have made it more exciting!!






Second camp in Livingston, Montana, just north of Yellowstone National Park. We were camped close enough to a Super 8 Motel to pick up their Wi-Fi signal. It was great to be in the tent checking our emails. Real high rollers.






Our little collapsable cooler vanished over night. Although we didnt know it at the time, it turned out that we would really miss it later in the +40 heat. We suspected this fellow. Maybe he fancied the sandwich that was in it? Or worse yet, the one cold beer I had left.





Just outside the gates of Yellowstone park.




Just outside the gates of Yellowstone Park.....didnt I say that already??





Just INSIDE the gates, but not passed the toll booth. Am I the only one that is getting bored with these explanations??




Yellowstone: very interesting sights here.




Action shot!!! Where's the action???







Still Yellowstone.





Forget where this is - any guesses??





Some sort of fountain??






Nice campsite in Yellowstone.



I believe we had crossed over to the Grand Teton Park in this photo. By the way "Grand Teton" is very close to "Big Breasts" in french.......I wondered, Conchita looked it up and it IS related.









Gotta love the windy roads in a park with a posted speed limit of 20MPH.


View from the top of the twisty road. Reminded me a little of Jasper.






Conchita decided that I was eating too many eggs for breakfast, so she ordered me a nice bowl of hot oatmeal. It was quite good actually!! The waiter seemed quite concerned with Conchita's choice. He was always coming over to ask if I was ok with the oatmeal!!!



A Honda Goldwing Rally had just finished in Billings, Montana. I heard that there was over 10 thousand bikes there. We saw a lot of Wings going through the Park. Poor guys!!!!





We left the Tetons and headed south towards Flaming Gorge National Park. Little did we know that this was all desert as well. Very hot and flat-not a tree to be seen anywhere. 36 degrees was really hot with our gear on, even though my jacket is mesh-Conchita's is not. A nice cold beer out of that stolen cooler would have been very nice.



Except in places like these: campsites. Here the sprinklers go all the time and still the grass is barely able to hang on. The water comes from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir. These metal things are to protect from the wind and sun. We found the northern part of the park was bland and dreary, not much in the way of scenery. But the southern part ...........Ohhhhh...Ahhhhh





This is where we found out that our cheap Wal-Mart tent might not be good enough to take on the big trip to South America. The poles were really flexing in the wind.





We ended up tying them off to the BBQ stand just in case. I guess if we ended up flying away, at least we would have the BBQ with us.





Here is the Flaming Gorge on the southern end. Fantastic!!!

How sweet!!



Someday we would like to see it by boat.




Conchita caught with her pants down!!!

Cool down.

Ahhh a nice refreshing river stop.


(end of organization for now-much more to be added later)













Sheep Stampede.

Semi-trucks like the back roads to.





Highest paved road in North America.







Motel in the town of Estes Park, just outside of Rocky Mountain Park Colorado. A sort of Banff type of town. Lots of tourists and candy shops!! Of course I had to have a caramel covered apple with M and M's.

Now this was hot!!! This was right around Arches National Park in Utah.


Idaho-Seems to be a lot of cops in Idaho. He got us doing 81mph in a 65 zone. He dropped the speed down to 74mph which put the ticket at $85.00. No demerits here!!

Tunnel on the top of the I15 interstate in Colorado.


Inside the tunnel. We lost sattelite reception on the GPS, that's why the speed on the speedo isnt the same as the GPS.


It was a little chilly on the top of I15.


But it was short sleeve weather in no time.


Cinnamon Pass in Southern Colorado.



Dropping the air pressure down in both tires. Too much tire pressure was making for a rough ride over the rocks.

Rocks such as these!!




Over the pass two up....and not a rattle to be found!

Conchita trying to cool down.


"Artistic" photo?


Arches National Park was very interesting.


Arches National Park.


Arches National Park.


Arches National Park.


Arches National Park.