Saturday, August 30, 2008
In Denver the day after the Democratic National Convention during which Barack Obama was officially nominated to run for President!
It was Obamania in Denver in the days directly after the DNC! I was definitely digging it, even though we sort of had to detour to Boulder before going to Denver because there were no hotel rooms anywhere in the city during the convention. We watched his nomination speech at a bar in Boulder and everyone was captivated, I think I did actually see some people with wet eyes. Let's hope he actually brings real progressive change to this country, which sorely needs it after 8 years of W.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Images of Boulder, CO
Boulder was gorgeous! We arrived at night and it was pretty cool out, we'd been moving further and further north and further and further up in altitude on our trip and we were really feeling the chill at night in Boulder.
Boulder is a cute town that is well-planned and has a great walkable downtown. It has a major public university, University of Colorado at Boulder, and was full of students and therefore good bars and places to hang out. The city is surrounded by a massive greenbelt full of hiking and biking trails, and of course there are a bunch of beautiful mountains all around Boulder that promise great skiing in the winter.
We went for a long walk through some of that green space:
Those are pine cones on the right.
A big fat bumbler:
Check out those roots:
Most of the pics I have posted from Boulder are from the outdoors, but the downtown is cool, too. That pic of me is from downtown Boulder, as is the theater below. That one of Carson on the rock is from a park.
They sold out a whole theater for Obama's nomination acceptance speech, which I might add, took place on that very night. (We took off for Denver the next day, so we soaked up some of the excitement there, too!)
Before leaving for Denver, we hit up the Celestial Seasonings factory for a tour. It was all worth it just for the "mint room," which was like taking a bath in Vick's Vaporub menthol. It was awesome, most people couldn't even stand being in the room for more than 10 second or so, ha! No photo's were allowed in the factory, so no pics of that.
Sleepy time!
Boulder is a cute town that is well-planned and has a great walkable downtown. It has a major public university, University of Colorado at Boulder, and was full of students and therefore good bars and places to hang out. The city is surrounded by a massive greenbelt full of hiking and biking trails, and of course there are a bunch of beautiful mountains all around Boulder that promise great skiing in the winter.
We went for a long walk through some of that green space:
Those are pine cones on the right.
A big fat bumbler:
Check out those roots:
Most of the pics I have posted from Boulder are from the outdoors, but the downtown is cool, too. That pic of me is from downtown Boulder, as is the theater below. That one of Carson on the rock is from a park.
They sold out a whole theater for Obama's nomination acceptance speech, which I might add, took place on that very night. (We took off for Denver the next day, so we soaked up some of the excitement there, too!)
Before leaving for Denver, we hit up the Celestial Seasonings factory for a tour. It was all worth it just for the "mint room," which was like taking a bath in Vick's Vaporub menthol. It was awesome, most people couldn't even stand being in the room for more than 10 second or so, ha! No photo's were allowed in the factory, so no pics of that.
Sleepy time!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
The Drive from Durango to Boulder, CO
I think these "driving" posts are sort of silly, but they help me organize my memories of the trip.
For this drive we opted for the slightly-longer-but-much-easier-on-the-newly-repaired-car path from Durango to Boulder. This way only had one major mountain pass whereas the other option had three and was the path on which the car had popped its coolant system on several days earlier.
I understand that heading through the mountains north of Durango is the prettier drive, but we headed to the east and then north, we got to drive by the Sangre de Cristo mountains, we met a nice chipmunk, drove over Wolf's Creek Pass, and we saw an awesome sunset!
That sunset was wild! In the pic on the right it looks flat, and it was, but if you look at the big version of the shot you'll see the Sangre de Cristo's looming out there on the horizon.
Ho hum just another waterfall here at the top of the Wolf Creek mountain pass.
A bunch of Elk, presumably this is a ranch and they're not just hanging out, but who knows.
He didn't seem rabid or anything, but he was crazy -- he was walking right up to me and practically taking stuff out of my hand (dumb I know, yeah yeah).
For this drive we opted for the slightly-longer-but-much-easier-on-the-newly-repaired-car path from Durango to Boulder. This way only had one major mountain pass whereas the other option had three and was the path on which the car had popped its coolant system on several days earlier.
I understand that heading through the mountains north of Durango is the prettier drive, but we headed to the east and then north, we got to drive by the Sangre de Cristo mountains, we met a nice chipmunk, drove over Wolf's Creek Pass, and we saw an awesome sunset!
That sunset was wild! In the pic on the right it looks flat, and it was, but if you look at the big version of the shot you'll see the Sangre de Cristo's looming out there on the horizon.
Ho hum just another waterfall here at the top of the Wolf Creek mountain pass.
A bunch of Elk, presumably this is a ranch and they're not just hanging out, but who knows.
He didn't seem rabid or anything, but he was crazy -- he was walking right up to me and practically taking stuff out of my hand (dumb I know, yeah yeah).
Images of Mesa Verde National Park, CO
Mesa Verde is AWESOME!!!! Definitely go there if you're ever in the Four Corners / Durango region. We only did one small trip of many that are offered and it was fantastic.
Welcome to Mesa Verde --
This massive rock greets you as you enter the park:
Sportin' my Stetson from Steamboat, CO, which inexplicably disappeared later on the trip, check out the valley behind me! I was scared driving on the edges of some of these cliffs, I'm not gonna lie...
A gnarled old tree and a bunch of burned trees. They had massive wild fires at Mesa Verde a few years back.
WOW! An ancient Puebloan village built into the cliff! We walked down to it with a guide and were able to go in there and check it out in a respectful manner. That black stuff on the top of the cliff is from fires that the people in the town made over the decades that they lived there.
Me and Carson before heading down to the village site. This hole, built into the ground of the village, is called a Kiva, the ancient Puebloan people performed various rites and rituals in them.
Another shot of the city from above.
A Puebloan skyscraper!
High up and having a blast at Mesa Verde!
Welcome to Mesa Verde --
This massive rock greets you as you enter the park:
Sportin' my Stetson from Steamboat, CO, which inexplicably disappeared later on the trip, check out the valley behind me! I was scared driving on the edges of some of these cliffs, I'm not gonna lie...
A gnarled old tree and a bunch of burned trees. They had massive wild fires at Mesa Verde a few years back.
WOW! An ancient Puebloan village built into the cliff! We walked down to it with a guide and were able to go in there and check it out in a respectful manner. That black stuff on the top of the cliff is from fires that the people in the town made over the decades that they lived there.
Me and Carson before heading down to the village site. This hole, built into the ground of the village, is called a Kiva, the ancient Puebloan people performed various rites and rituals in them.
Another shot of the city from above.
A Puebloan skyscraper!
High up and having a blast at Mesa Verde!
Images of Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, CO
Canyon of the Ancients is very remote and frankly there just isn't much there, relative to Mesa Verde, where much of the archaeological material left by the Puebloan people are found in small, easily visited areas. Still, it was quite a drive to get out there and see the countryside and the Puebloan ruins. The landscape is amazing -- sagebrush fields, lots of farms, rolling hills, and gorgeous colors.
Welcome to this vast area full of archaeological treasures of the ancient Puebloan people.
There were loads of vultures flying above.
We spotted this Bald Eagle a long ways off in the distance. If you would like you can click on the pic and see the large version of it in which you can see that the eagle is looking right at you. There are a few other pics of this guy on my Flickr page, if you want to check them out.
The ruins of a massive Kiva.
The ruins of a Puebloan town.
Of course I didn't touch or disturb anything, but the neat thing about Canyon of the Ancients is that it is so remote, that literally there was no one else around and we were free to wander about the ruins in a way that you could never do at Mesa Verde, where you are typically going on tours led by Rangers. Canyon of the Ancients is a MASSIVE area and we only checked out one small area containing a large area of ruins.
The original Route 666 was recently renamed Route 491. How lame.
Welcome to this vast area full of archaeological treasures of the ancient Puebloan people.
There were loads of vultures flying above.
We spotted this Bald Eagle a long ways off in the distance. If you would like you can click on the pic and see the large version of it in which you can see that the eagle is looking right at you. There are a few other pics of this guy on my Flickr page, if you want to check them out.
The ruins of a massive Kiva.
The ruins of a Puebloan town.
Of course I didn't touch or disturb anything, but the neat thing about Canyon of the Ancients is that it is so remote, that literally there was no one else around and we were free to wander about the ruins in a way that you could never do at Mesa Verde, where you are typically going on tours led by Rangers. Canyon of the Ancients is a MASSIVE area and we only checked out one small area containing a large area of ruins.
The original Route 666 was recently renamed Route 491. How lame.
Car Trouble in Durango!
This is the first episode of trouble and required a new coolant system and timing belt kit (all installed by the awesome crew at Animus Automotive, they were the best mechanics I've ever had and I'd certainly recommend them if you're in the Durango area).
We left Durango for Boulder, but didn't quite make it to the top of the first pass (of three total) before the coolant pump quit and the coolant overheated and came spewing out of an emergency release valve in a steamy cloud. I let the car cool back down for about 40 minutes and then, I kid you not, coasted the car almost all the way back to Durango, it was a good 40 miles down that mountain. When we hit Durango things flattened out and I had to press on the gas. The car almost overheated again and started beeping just as I pulled it into a parking spot downtown, SCORE!
We ended up getting an SUV for a bit over $20 a day while the car was being worked on, not bad. There's so much to do in the Durango area that even though we stayed several days longer than planned we couldn't do everything we wanted to!
We left Durango for Boulder, but didn't quite make it to the top of the first pass (of three total) before the coolant pump quit and the coolant overheated and came spewing out of an emergency release valve in a steamy cloud. I let the car cool back down for about 40 minutes and then, I kid you not, coasted the car almost all the way back to Durango, it was a good 40 miles down that mountain. When we hit Durango things flattened out and I had to press on the gas. The car almost overheated again and started beeping just as I pulled it into a parking spot downtown, SCORE!
We ended up getting an SUV for a bit over $20 a day while the car was being worked on, not bad. There's so much to do in the Durango area that even though we stayed several days longer than planned we couldn't do everything we wanted to!
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