Riding Easy on Canada Day!

Breckenridge (elev. 9,600 ft) is the largest historic district in the heart of the Colorado Rockies. The town features lots of shops, activities, year-round entertainment. People enjoy skiing and snowmobiling in the winter, then summer has it's Fun Park for the whole family. It is only 62 miles or 100 km from Bailey Co. to Breckenridge Co. We enjoyed the easy, peaceful Sunday ride today with these stops along the way...

 

Looking through a park area to the mountains

In Alma we ate at the Highest Saloon in the USA....

and window shopped in the Highest Boutique in America!

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

14,000 Feet

Jim and I thought yesterday's ride on Trail Ridge Road at 12,183 feet was high. Todays ride to the summit of Mount Evans was an outstanding excursion that did not disappoint!

At 14,264, Mount Evans has the highest paved highway in North America. Trail Ridge Road is the highest paved through-road!

This is a very popular destination for autos, motorcycles and cyclists. You definitely have to share the road, and we were hoping to see some herds of big horned sheep. It is very barren as we are well above the tree line.

 

On our way back, we stopped in at the Buck Snort Saloon for a snack...this is in a rustic location in scenic Sphinx Park, Colorado.

 

 

 

 

This just down the road from the Buck Snort...

 

The whole day was totally awesome!

Posted with Blogsy

Rocky Mountain High, very high!

 

Today's ride was over 400 km through the Rocky Mountain National Park. The highest elevation was 12,183 ft., on Trail Ridge Rd. With the threat of the raging wildfires here in Colorado, we weren't sure if parts of the park would be closed....we took a chance and it was a very beautiful scenic tour!

Bits and pieces of the highway...many hairpin turns! Lots o' fun!

Just can't get enough of the view.

 

Cool trivia, we rode through Estes Park, the location for headquarters of Rocky Mountain National Park. The trivia part is in the town of Estes Park is the Stanley Hotel which inspired and was featured in Stephen King's The Shining! Kind of spooky.

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Red Rocks ...Really Rocks!

After we ventured into Denver this morning, our front tires brought us to a few little towns called, Morrison, Evergreen and Kittredge which led us into the Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre. This park of natural rock formations is known for its very large red sandstone outcrops. The Red Rocks Amphitheatre, is a world famous venue used since 1941, which hosts many concerts and other events.

Of course we had to snap a photo with our favourite artists...

 

Walking up the many steps into the amphitheatre was our exercise for the day! Alan Jackson is playing there tonight and while we were walking up his crew were doing sound check. Great views all around.

 

 

At the top ...

Denver is behind me

 

 

From behind...

 

 

 

...And one of the groups who started it all!

 

Rock On!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Odds and Ends

Today was all about "housekeeping"... After a very comfortable sleep in the mountain air, waking up to the sweet sound of the soft wind through the trees, with the birds singing gently, we relaxed with our coffee on the deck.

Hey, she has a bandana on!

 

Bailey, Co is 8,000 ft. elev, so we had to capture a couple pics of our trip to the laundromat and grocery store.

This lovely "barn" is located right beside the laundromat. We had to go check it out....cheap wine and beer!

 

 

Oh, and this is the scene on the small road to our place.

Then back in the cabin/cottage/home....very beautiful and cosy!

Thanks to our hosts, Judith and Richard for making us feel so welcome :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heat wave into Fresh Mountain Air

Today was a record setting heat wave in Denver, Colorado and the outlying area. While Jim and I were making our way from Kearney, Nebraska to our destination Bailey, Colorado the temperature was 100 degrees and we rode through a couple of towns at 106!!

Needless to say it was "stinking" HOT. Dehydration set in very fast so we had to stop often to drink water, it was a very weird feeling.

We navigated by writing the directions with crayola writers!!

This is one of the highways from Nebraska into Colorado.

Finally as we approached the mountains in Bailey the temperature changed with a cooling breeze and even some sprinkles on our hot bodies. Just riding to our cottage was amazing with winding highways and elevation at 8,000 feet! We saw a Mule deer with her 2 brand new fawns, and a cute cottontail rabbit leading to our cottage.

 

Ah, the Heartland of America, Nebraska

Our first stop after leaving Cedar Rapids was in Des Moines, Iowa. We looked around here at Big Barn HD then rode through tons and miles of corn fields to Lincoln, Nebraska. Did I mention that we saw lots of beautiful corn fields??? US 34 was the way to travel... It seemed as if we had the road to ourselves, with just the wonderful heat and wind at our faces.

 

Here we are at Frontier HD in Lincoln, Nebraska and although it looks a little cloudy, it was a sweet relief from the hot sun and 90 degrees! So back on the road until we reached our stop for the night in Kearney, Nebraska and this was our sunset.