Colorado Rockies

New Mexico Outdoor

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Colorado Rockies

We've been wanting, in 2009, to concentrate on getting up to Colorado LOTS! Gabriela and I had the opportunity to use a Vail condo (at Lionshead) owned by generous friends down here at Tesuque.

We headed North on 285 and into Colorado, just past San Antonio Mountain at Antonito. Along that way..we saw LOTS of Pronghorn Antelope. We were surprised at how flat Antonito is, since the Cumbres/Toltec line runs there billed as MAJOR mountain-ous. Thru Alamosa, we stayed on 285 and to Saguache and snapped pics of each other cruisin:

Much of the way the Colorado Sangre de Cristo Mtns we either ahead or on our right: Passing thru Villa Grove: ..we hadda nice bowl of Buffalo Chili ...and looking North toward Poncha Pass:

We almost bought a local season ski pass..that included 3 lift tickets to Monarch..past Poncha Springs. I'm glad we didn't..because it's a haul! Buena Vista was great! It really is a great View! In fact..we were mightily impressed with all the 14's (14,000ft peaks).

Granite was unique because:

These guys presented themselves in downtown Granite ..then ..as we shot..they hustled behind us and across the road in front of a Semi: ..demonstrating a "warp speed" that made me confidant that no Semi would flatted any of these Mtn Goats! As we approached Leadville, last weeks 4ft of snow up there was becoming evident in the Mtns:

Leadville

Vail was HOPPING!!! We met some friends there for to ski: < That's NOT me!
Gabriela and I out at night on the bus system at Vail..FREE and BUSY: A ride thru Avon (Great Swiss Hotdogs!!!), Eagle and Gypsum, at the confluence of the Eagle River and the mighty Colorado: and into Glenwood Canyon where Gabriela spotted some Big Horn Sheep: ..which Lyndon Johnson called the most spectacular section in the federal highway system in the US: In Glenwood Springs we took a left and onto Aspen. Folks..we were shocked at how slow Aspen was. No snow..AND no people. We heard they had a very poor season: After another day or two of skiing..we came home to our Jemez mountains: