Rocky Mountain High, Colorado

Dr. C. and I are on our way home to San Diego today from beautiful Steamboat Springs.  We decided to take the long way home, and go through the San Juan National Forest and traveled the million dollar highway between Silverton and Ouray, Colorado.  This highway is 25 miles of hairpin turns, rising above 12,000 feet at Red Mountain Pass---driving our cute little Mazda 5 up and down these mountains was a challenge, but we made it safely, even driving through a "blasting zone" where there were areas of one lane traffic.  

Why do we always attract the motorcycles? Maybe it's the Jack Ball on the antenna!

We've loved seeing Colorado in its fall beauty; green and golden aspens shimmering in the wind, and thick forests of pine (inducing multiple sneezing fits from Dr. C. and me!) 

The southwestern part of of Colorado shares some of the red rock canyons that were so beautiful in Utah, and the contrast with the aspens, and fir trees, is magnificent---definitely God's country.  
We kept hearing John Denver's song echoing in our heads, as we putted along the highway to Durango, our stop for the night.  

Tomorrow we leave for Sedona, a place neither of us has been to before, so the adventure continues.  We have endured more road food, that was on a par with airplane food, but the scenery has more than made up for the food, and we still have some Tate's bake shop cookies in case of emergency!  We'll check in tomorrow, until then enjoy your weekend.