Montana Wolfpak: Colorado Trip

Monday, July 19, 2010

Colorado Trip

Gary and I had a wonderful time on our motorcycle vacation to Colorado. We went through four states and six national parks.

We spent a week with our good friends Pat & Sandi Breckenridge and Dale & Kitty Butterfield. These couples live in Billings and we met them in Hardin bright and early just after 6:00 am on Saturday morning. Made our way to Loveland Colorado through Wyoming. Got pretty warm after we left Buffalo and hit the famous Wyoming wind from Wheatland to the state line.

We lucked out with motels, we were able to stay in the Comfort Inn, Quality Inn and Best Westerns. We did stay in two mom & pop motels in Moab Utah and Jackson Wyoming. All the motels were under $100 except Jackson, there we paid $150. Every night we went out and drank beer. The first night I drank margarita's, they were very tasty after a hot day of riding. After that I stayed with beer. I broadened my horizons with beer, tried different kinds, but Gary stayed with his Coors.

The National Parks we traveled through were Rocky Mountain, Mesa Verde, Black Canyon, Arches, Teton and Yellowstone. Went over alot of mountain passes, the highest elevation was 12,000 feet at Independence Pass. Going over the Red Mountain from Durango to Ouray was a scary one. Very narrow mountain road with no shoulder and no guardrails or berms and a 9,000 foot drop to the bottom. Naturally we were on the cliff side of the road. This road also had many hair pin turns. I was so glad when we got to the bottom, seemed like it took forever.

Got caught in a hail storm near Kremmling Colorado, that was not fun, good thing the hail was pea sized. No place to pull over and nothing to hide under. We managed to find a place to turn off the highway, at a private driveway. Rode out the storm, lasted about 10 minutes. Otherwise the weather was nice. Cool in the mountains and very hot in the desert.

In Rocky Mountain NP we were able to see a moose with two calves. She stayed in the trees so getting pics was hard, but I managed. In Yellowstone we saw a sow grizzly with two cubs at Mt. Washburn. Got a bunch of good pics there. Otherwise we saw elk, buffalo and deer.

I got all my photos downloaded and uploaded onto Picasa. Now I just have to get them edited in photoshop. Will be making cd's for my friends. They are going to do the same with their pics.

Now I get ready for road trip number two to Idaho and California with Mom and Jen.

Here are some photos of us on our trip, the rest are on my picasa site.