Skip to main content

Day 23 - Aspen, Snowmass, Redstone, and Carbondale


Today we “saddled up” the bikes and drove up 133 to a little town called Redstone (Ruby of the Rockies).  We walked the streets some, being tourist, ate at their local pizzeria, and  checked out the old Coke Ovens.  They would burn coal in these ovens until they turned into ore, then the ore was shipped via railroad to be turned into steel.  Next we went through Carbondale.  Carbondale is very active with supporting local artists.  They have turned the old rail road beds into walking/biking paths with art exhibited along the way by their local artists.  What a great way to utilize old space!  Next we drove through Snowmass to Aspen where we were tourists again.  We went into a gallery that exhibits Peter Lik photography and got to talking to one of their associates.  He rides a Vstrom like we do, only he has the 1000 version (ours are 650).  He told us about a really good ride starting at the dogsled training facility in Snowmass.  So off we went to do the ride.  It started on the backside of Snowmass and was quite steep the first mile or so.  We finally leveled off in a valley to observe mansions beyond belief!  What a way to live for the people that owned those houses and property.  It was beautiful!  We got a little lost and had to ask a bicyclist how to get back to 133.  We made it back to camp where we relaxed and got to know some of the other campers that came to visit and comment on how we had the best spot in the campground.  Nikki got to play more ball.  It was all good.


Our campsite
Our campsite looking up river

Coke Ovens






Yellow Rumped Warbler



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day 15 - Miles of Adventures

Today started out with an outing on back dirt roads to see the Mexican Hat up close and personal.   We were hoping to be able to ride down to the San Juan River, but the descent was very steep with loose sand.   We did get to the back side of the Mexican Hat though. After that on to the Valley of the Gods!   WONDERFUL RIDE!!!   The road through the valley was as perfect as we could ask for for a dirt/sand road.   There was one time when my back wheel got a little squirrely on me in deep sand.   I was to blame because I was riding in Ray Charles mode (swinging head left and right to catch all the sights) and didn’t pay attention to my immediate surroundings.    It was very deep sand!   But I made it and Kevin following made it through with no problems.   Valley of the Gods is beyond words to describe!   I’m so disappointed that my “go pro” camera was not rolling as we drove through the valley.   I thought I’d turned it...

Day 16: Starry Starry Night - Kevin

Day started off at 5am on a trip back to Cortez to have a bed cover installed on the truck. Got back at noon and goofed off for a while and took a nap, Got up before sunset for a photo shoot in the Valley of the Gods. Amazing Milkyway, shot until around midnight until someone came down the road with a flashlight and cut through the desert scrub to get to faster. We loaded up and left before they reached us. I never saw them but it scared Stephanie pretty good. I had a 9mm on my hip and a 380 in my pocket and Steph had a death grip on her 38 for miles down the road. Aside from the spooky person it was a blast. I did randomly scan the area with my flashlight looking for eyeballs, there is a photograph on the office wall of this campground of a big mountain lion in the Valley of the Gods.

Day 11 - Moving to Silverton

We packed up and moved to Silverton, CO this morning.  The air system Kevin put on the truck seems to have done the trick!  We did get into some heavy winds but we were not blown around this time.  We actually have internet service at this place!  We took a little motorcycle ride up into the mountains - 20 miles on gravel, dirt, and some large rough rocks.  The large rocks were just a bit too tough for us to tackle so we turned around and came back to camp, ate a quick bite, got Nikki and our cameras in the truck and returned to the same mountain area in search of an old mine, bears, moose, and whatever wildlife we could see.  Saying it was a rough ride does not give the ride up the mountain road justice.  It was tooth jarring!  But we made it to the mine.  Nikki enjoyed the adventure. Here are views from our campsite: Here is the road ending in multiple lakes and beautiful scenery!  Along with photos of a...