Return to splendour (and some teeth gnashing)

I spent my final few days wandering along the canyons, ridge roads and forests of Northern Colorado in the Roosevelt National Forest and the Rocky Mountain National Park.

The scenery is spectactular but, outside the National Park, it's also highly settled - a combination of old history where settlers hit the Rockies and stopped, laying down backwoods roots and new history where lots of new money simply buys a piece of forest, builds a house on it and comes to 'summer' or 'winter' here (Americans do love to turn nouns into verbs). The good stuff is only an hour or so from Denver airport so it's become a popular destination.

Compared to the wilder states I'd been through over the last 50 days, where similar scenery felt more open and less controlled, my frequently thwarted attempts to find parts that weren't privately owned or prohibited from parking/swimming/enjoying became quite frustrating. The constant stream of fences, private property (how does one feel about possessing wilderness?), 'no parking dusk to dawn' and 'fee required' areas really started to chafe, accreting a hard to ignore noise that my roadtrip was coming to an end and I would soon be returning to civilisation.

The 40 mile detour I'll never regret

Travelling down US191 towards Canyonlands National Park, my eye was drawn to a sign labelled 'Needles Overlook'. The Needles are one of Canyonlands most famous areas, stuffed with fins and spires, so I thought it would be worth a look. When I turned off at the indicated point, I was met with a sign saying Needles Overlook, 20 miles. No prizes for figuring out that's a 40 mile detour there and back...

Things in the distance are bigger than they seem

One thing that keeps hitting me is the sheer scale of this place.

The long way to Moab

One of those occasions when turning the sat nav off (I never tire of shouting at sat nav lady that it's 'calculating root' not 'calculating rowt') and following my nose proved inspired. I should have just sat on US50/I70 freeways and pointed West. Instead I took the long way round, travelling down US141 through a small place called Gateway, then heading across the Paradox Valley into Utah.

From mountains to red rocks

Leaving the high mountains behind after my long trip up the Million Dollar Highway, I arrived in Grand Junction to a different world. The temperature difference was massive for starters. From the air-conditioned comfort of my car I had no idea how hot it was until I got out to get some fuel (body + car). Even late evening when I arrived the heat just hit me like a wall. With no nice shady spots or lakes to hobo camp out in I caved and booked into a motel with air con.

What 2000 feet straight down looks like

Day 3 finds me teetering around the edges of the deepest/narrowest canyon in North America. Black Canyon National Park is just east of Montrose in Colorado. It's hard for the eyes to get a handle on just how far down the floor of the canyon is. At it's deepest it's 2000 feet down. How deep is that? You could get get the Empire State building in and still have 500 feet of headroom....

More Photos on Flickr here

Million Dollar Highway

A number of legends exist around how this stretch of US550 came to be known as the Million Dollar Highway. There's a huge history of gold and silver mining in the area so one story has it that men who built the roads linking the crucial mining towns of Silverton and Ouray discovered lumps of precious metals along the way and made themselves millionaires. The other story is more closely related to how perilous the road itself is to travel given the twists, turns, height and consequences of getting it wrong. A visiting VIP was heard to remark that "you won't get me going back down that road for a million dollars".

The True Grit Burger - 13/25

The original True Grit featuring old bandy legs himself was filmed in these here parts, so eating lunch at the bar of the honorific True Grit cafe in Ridgway surrounded by images of Mr Wayne seemed too good to miss.

Who needs a laundromat when you have a lake?

Lake Haviland, about 20 miles North of Durango was my second overnighter and proved to be a brilliant little spot for some swimming.

The Boss Hogg Burger - 15/30

Driving through the resort community of Pagosa Springs (most people who live here have 2 or 3 homes) my eye was drawn to an establishment going by the name of Boss Hog's Restaurant & Saloon. Walls were covered in dead heads and antlers and the menu comes as faux antique olde worlde newspaper. Locally reared Burger + Bacon avec Frings et BBQ sauce was duly ordered and, as I'm now coming to expect, arrived deconstructed with the salad to one side. Usual condiments present.

40 miles in a straight line

Next stop after the Pikes Peak was the Great Dunes National Park, nestling in the San Luis Valley - a desert basin between fingers of the San Juan and Sangre de Cristo mountains. After the eye candy of mountains and massive vistas where 1 inch on the horizon equates to 38 miles, hitting the desert plains was educational.

What a difference a day makes

From this:

To this:

The Cherry Cricket Burger - 19/30

So, the scoring begins. Back in the UK, when a bar describes itself as 'American Style', The Cherry Cricket is what they have in mind. Almost Cheers-esque in it's good time crowd, decor and simple pleasures. As recommended by Man vs Food, I went for the standard 1/2lb burger and partnered it with Frings (Fries + Onion rings) for just under $12.