my travels in pixels

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado The best thing about a National Parks pass is that you can bypass the queues going past the entrance kiosks as you can swipe the card reader to open the boom gate up, which came in very handy during the peak times such as the weekend. The queues going into the national park were very long and we just sailed passed them all. We can't fit in the campsites in the National Park as we are too big and unfortunately we couldn't get a booking in the county campground that we had been to before as it was booked out, so had to go to a commercial one. We spent most of our time down at Sprague Lake inside the RMNP photographing the moose, trying a sunrise picture of the lake and mountains and finally a Milky Way shoot but there was too much light pollution and the pictures just came out red. At one time Lindsay had gone walking off in the dark to talk to another photographer leaving me alone in the dark. I could hear noises was it a bear, co...

Mt Evans, CO The road to Mt Evans is only open for a short period each year and the last time we passed it was closed so we were determined to make it this time. It’s the highest road in America, but we weren’t going up there for the views like most people – we wanted to see mountain goats up close. There are usually around 20 near the summit. On day one: we saw nothing. On day two: we saw a mother with her two kids born this year and a yearling from last year. Four is better than none. We spent quite a while with them and felt really happy. It is said they usually roam between milepost 11 and 14 and sometimes at the summit. I don’t remember any grass at the summit, so am not sure why they would be up there. On our third day it had snowed overnight and there was a light sprinkling everywhere, it was 32°F/0°C at the top and no goats that we could see so we at least we didn’t have to stand out in the cold to take photos of them. The drive up and down didn’t get any eas...

One of the most photographed places in Colorado apparently is Maroon Bells. It's near Aspen and as we had some time we did a bit of a detour down to it. There are no campgrounds in Aspen, but I found one National Forest campground called Difficult to the south of Aspen that would fit our 35' trailer. Under the "know before you go" section they said that vehicles over 35' are prohibited from going over Independence Pass and as we are about 52' when hooked up, that meant us. When I looked at the pass on the map I could understand why as it has a series of nasty switchbacks. The road is understandably closed in winter. Independence Pass CO All the mapping software takes you this way as it's the shortest route, so we had to force our GPS by giving it other towns to go through. This meant we had to drive the long way around and approach Aspen from the north, going through places like Vail. The colours going down the I-70 were spectacular. Roadworks at on...

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado Bear Lake This is the first time we have been to Rocky Mountain even though we have been in Colorado before. You just can't do everything. We couldn't have come at a busier time of year. The first weekend Estes Park was hosting a fine art festival whereby people had stalls up and down the mains streets. Lost of photographers, so we got to see some wonderful pictures of the area. The second weekend, there was a beer festival, plus it was a "free weekend" at the national park, which always brings herds of people. The weekends are bedlam. We spent about about twelve days here and could come back to do more. No moose unfortunately as we are a bit late. It's hunting season now, so they have dispersed. Good on them. The elk have started rutting, but we haven't seen too many punch-ups. The best times for viewing them are early morning and late afternoon. By 6pm, it's getting too dark for a good photo as you can'...

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado 480 acres of land was given to the City by the children of Mr Perkins who had wanted his land to be a free park for the people.  There are many unusual rock formations that you can either walk around or rock climb if you obtain a permit. Siamese Twins with Pikes Peak in the window

We were feeling a bit hot so decided we needed to head to higher altitudes, so we found a drive that headed north: the skyline scenic road in Colorado. From the Mesa Verde, you head east to Durango, a really pretty town with a lovely French bakery. We found a campground in the San Juan National Park at Haviland Lake, which is a very pretty area but the mozzies are ferocious at night! It might have have had something to do with the creek that ran behind our campsite… gee, do you think? The drive from Durango to Silverton is spectacular, if a little scary. The road has no shoulder and the drop is steep and long. Along the way we read about the avalanches valleys they have and how the road can be impassable in winter. They liken it to a mini Switzerland with the mountains and pine trees. you could be in Switzerland! Silverton is an old wild west town that used to be full of saloons and bordellos for the miners. We boondocked at South Mineral a few miles out of town for a coup...

Mesa Verde National Park, CO This park showcases the dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloans who made this place their home for more than 750 years, from A.D. 550 to A.D. 1300. The first afternoon we drove the Wetherill Mesa and took the “tram” which has tyres not metal wheels! around to some outlooks that allow you to photograph some of the cliff dwellings from across the other cliff. Mesa Verde (may-sa ver-dee) means green table. The following day we took the Mesa Top Loop road and toured the Spruce Tree house and the Cliff Palace, the later is a ranger led tour that you pay for in advance. There are two other ranger led tours, but we felt that one was enough and had given us an insight into how these people had lived. Not much is known about them as they didn’t leave any written records, so much of what they know is a guess. These communities were built high above the valley floor for security against attacks, all food and water would have had to have been carried in. They had ...