Mountains Again ?!

Tuesday, July 26:

We slept late today.  We’ve been pushing the schedule pretty hard since we hit the string of National Parks, so we decided to wind it down a bit today.

Had originally been hoping to squeeze in a trip on the Cog Railway up Pike’s Peak.  But it just isn’t in the cards.  David did that ride with his family during their 1980 RV trip of the US.  It was one of his favorite memories.  

We have about 6 hours of driving to do today, the first part through the San Juan Mountains of the Rockies along route 160.  We hit 10,000+ ft elevation at Wolf Creek Pass.  The V10 Ford engine sounded like “I think I can, I think I can” as we ascended.  At the top we found the signs for the Continental Divide and stopped to take some pictures.

After finishing our drive East on 160, we picked up US 25 through Pueblo and Colorado Springs to Denver.  We had originally made reservations for 2 nights at a KOA in Central City, Co.  That was when we were planning to return via I-70 through the Rockies.  Well when we changed our route to bypass 70 and Rockies we should have changed our reservation.  BIG mistake.  By the time we realized our BIG mistake (7pm today) it was too late.  So we had to drive 30 miles back into the Rockies to our KOA for the night.  It is a beautiful vista, but took an extra hour plus of driving East (wrong direction) and 8% grade up and down mountains.  Well we made it and are having a campfire to take advantage of the beautiful mountain air.   Have you ever made Jiffy Pop over a campfire? The directions say absolutely not to do that - but we do it all the time.  Lots of fun. :)

Tomorrow we drive 1.5 hours west out of the mountains and into Denver to spend the day at Elitch Gardens Amusement Park (Colorado’s version of Valley Fair).  The girls are really looking forward to it.