The Road to Denver

Ok...so today we get off the road to check out the Arches National Park...you know...the one where there are all those neat arches and things out of the rock. We were going to check it out since it is supposed to be awesome. The thing is, you had to crawl around the mountain or plateau or whatever and we didn't get very far before we chickened out. It was a wee bit scary...for both of us...instead we left and took the scenic route back to the highway...travelled along the Colorado through the canyons. Exceptionally good scenery....but hey....those mapmakers lie.....the Colorado is not blue, like on the map. It is muddy brown...

Anyway...that area was gorgeous with all the red rocks...just like in the old westerns (which were black and white, but you know what I mean). It got to the point that you simply did not know where to look.

We finally hit the Colorado Rockies today. Well....they are massive, and how fun to see the snow still on them in places, but they have no character. After seeing all the color striations and the different shapes of the plateaus and canyons, the Rockies were sort of dull. They have real pines instead of the chapparel and juniper and scrub brush we got used to. But imagine how big they must be. At one point we were over 10 thou feet high. Needless to say, 'chelle drove again today, but I must admit I certainly helped her in several places. Those downgrades can be scary. And the Johnson tunnel outside Denver....well....I really don't like tunnels. And that was long. 'chelle thought it somewhat amusing when she realized how nervous I was.

Some things we have learned along the way:

It is not a real gas station unless it has a store attached
Less adventurous people make reservations
Some national parks are just drive throughs
Those coupon books you find in restaurants come in handy when trying for a cheap room
The roads in Colorado suck...we thought we were back in Detroit
The Continental Divide really works....the rivers on the west side of the Divide do run west and the ones on the east side run to the east. We know because we saw it happen today.

And that is it for the day