The pair went over the mountain

Strasburg, CO – We’re in a small community east of Den-ver, and the countryside here could not present a greater contrast with what we saw today if it tried. From our start west of the Rocky Mountains to this ultra-flat spot, we’ve risen to 11,350 feet in altitude and down again. We are still on the Colorado Plateau, so even though it’s flat, it’s up at 6,000 feet.

When we got up this morning and stepped outside, we could see our breath. The weather was good, though off in the distance there were quite a few clouds, some of which were wispy at the edges, signifying some sort of precipitation. With a route heading into the thick of the Rockies, we sincerely hoped we would not encounter snow on the road. We’d checked carefully before leaving, so we had some solid information to go on in any case.

Before we got to the serious mountain environment, we passed some farmers’ fields, and in one I spotted two clumps of animals. One was clearly a herd of cows, grazing contentedly, and the other, I finally realized, was a herd of elk, just a short distance away from the cows, enjoying the same field! I guess neither group felt threatened by the other, and there certainly was plenty of grass!

Once again, as the highway wound its way through the steep mountain passes, new vistas of sharply-peaked, snow-topped mountains came into view, like a series of picture postcards.  The higher we climbed, the more snow we saw on the ground, at first in the shadows of the evergreens and in the sheltered valleys, and then on meadows and roadsides. The outdoor temperature dipped to 1.5 degrees Celsius (and then, at the end of our journey, it was up to 21.5!).

When we reached ski country, we passed towns with chalets and hotels catering to downhill sports enthusiasts. They almost had an alpine look to them, with the tall evergreens and white mountains behind them.

We had passed this way before in 2011, and we did recognize a few landmarks, but one I’m sure wasn’t there last time was the snowboard course at the ski resort town of Vail – a huge half-pipe snow formation high on the mountainside with dozens of tiny figures zigging and zagging down. The ski-lifts were running busily, and in the town we could see skiers in their snow garb waiting for the bus to take them to the top.

Flashing message boards appeared along our route warning of a highway closure due to road maintenance on a tunnel at Idaho Springs and to expect delays.  Sure enough, as we rounded a bend we could see a line of red tail-lights as a long stretch of vehicles slowed to a halt. After a few minutes we could tell it would be a while, so we turned off the engine. Finally, traffic began to move again.

About an hour later, we were crossing Denver and driving past farmers’ fields that stretched all the way to the flat horizon. Somehow, it feels like we are much closer to home now that the Rockies are behind us. It was lovely to see the big sky full of huge clouds, and all that land.