A wayside exhibit at a rest stop pointed out a historic landmark: the Kit Carson Carousel. We decided to go see it, but expected it to be run down and rotted. We were wrong! It was beautifully restored and is considered the "crown jewel of carousels". The animals are all hand carved and contain original oil paint. The best part is you can still purchase tickets to ride for a quarter.
We tried to go to Outback, Sweet Tomatoes, then Ruby Tuesday but since it was the Fourth of July nothing was open. We figured some of our darker brethren may be skipping the festivities and would surely be hungry. We had already eaten burritos for lunch, so we decided to search for an Indian restaurant. Eventually we found this gem. It was absolutely packed at 10:30 pm, which wasn't surprising considering the quality of the food.
After leaving Yellowstone, we headed back to our camp in Grand Teton. We both decided we like the scenery and the lack of tourists better in Grand Teton. We also saw more wildlife there, including a black bear. Although the bear looks small in the picture, it was only about 20 feet away. There are just some things you can't capture on a phone.
We camped two days in Grand Teton National Park and drove into Yellowstone for a day. Yellowstone had amazing geothermal features. We went to Old Faithful Geyser which erupts on average once an hour and spent some time at the Old Faithful Inn where Chris's mom worked when she was 19. We also saw great waterfalls, canyons, and the beautiful Yellowstone Lake.
Moab is a very red, rocky, and dusty place. We spent the day at Arches National Park where this rock has been formed into spectacular arches. You can see a lot from the road that travels through the park but some of the cooler arches require a short hike to see them. Our favorites are Pine Tree Arch, Landscape Arch, and Balanced Rock.
We camped in Telluride for two nights. We enjoyed the free gondola, downhill biking, and hikes to waterfalls.
Gunnison is one of those towns you almost always pass through when headed somewhere else in Colorado. As a kid the thing I remember most about Gunnison is a store that has tons of stuffed animals (not the soft fuzzy kind). For tradition's sake Cindy and I stopped there.
Chris went into an outdoor shop to figure out where we could hike in Crested Butte. He asked for an easy to moderate hike. The girl who worked there, who also said she grew up in the area, suggested going up to Copper Lake. It would be a moderate 5 mile hike up to the lake. What she did not tell us was that this was probably the wrong time of year to hike there. The beautiful lake she mentioned was frozen and the campsites were covered in snow. The mountain was just starting to thaw so at about 11,000 feet up we also had to hike through about a mile and a half of snow and cross five creeks of pure snow runoff. Needless to say they were freezing and moving fast. As we were getting closer to the lake, there was only one other set of footprints and they were pretty old. When we got to the top we realized we are probably one of very few people who manage to see the lake the way we did.
We attempted to go over Engineers Pass to get from Lake City to Ouray. After 16 slow miles and thousands of feet of elevation gain, we had to turn back just short of the pass because the road became too rough for our Toyota Yaris. Fortunately I had the bike with me so I took it off the car and rode the 16 miles back into town. It was extremely fast and allowed me to ride through a canyon, along a river, and through a ghost town.
Chris found an old mining town that he wanted to see so we headed there for lunch. The main street has historic buildings that are nestled between sheer rock cliffs. There are many shops and restaurants, even a Creede Repertory Theater. We ate lunch at the only place on the street that has a rooftop patio. We were shocked that we were the only ones up there. It definitely provided the best view of the town.
Due to Chris's impatience to climb the dunes and the fact that the posted park warnings may have left some things out, we set off for the dunes a little unprepared. What we were not expecting was to be blasted by sand being carried across the dunes by 50 mph winds. Luckily I was wearing pants and longsleeves. Chris was not so lucky. We both agree that it was well worth it though! Seeing Sahara-like dunes set against alpine mountains was an impressive sight.
