After leaving the Boulder we headed to Buffalo Creek area.
It rained right when we got there, but thanks to the Tsuga we stayed pretty
dry. It got chilly that night (down in the 50’s) which was a big change from
both Boone and Boulder.
The next morning we did a big mountain bike ride up to baldy
peak which was desert like, but thankfully it was overcast so not too hot out. The only wildlife we saw were a few deer,
although there was some trail evidence of some larger animals. We came back
down some of the more wooded trails and it rained just as we finished. Our loop
ended up being about 15.5 miles.
We spent the rest of the day driving to our next destination
and checking out Buena Vista. We stopped at the Brown Dog Coffee Company to get
some coffee and then walked through their whitewater park downtown. We set up
camp that night on Clear Creek of the Arkansas.
The next day we drove up to Aspen via Independence Pass. We
checked out a lot of the scenery along the way…the view was amazing.
We didn’t do much in Aspen, just walked around the town and
checked out the music school there. This area of Colorado seems to get a
thunderstorm every afternoon so we drove back over the pass just in time for
Will to get a little kayaking in on Clear Creek.
On Saturday Will got the chance to boat Clear Creek again
that morning while I did some paddle boarding around Clear Creek Lake. The
views from this whole area were amazing!
Sunday night we drove up to Silverton to camp with Will’s
friend Richard. We drove through several small towns were everyone was lining
the streets for fireworks. We went through Ouray and then the Red Mountain Pass
where they were just about to shoot off fireworks from the top. This pass was a
little scary but thankfully little traffic when we went through. There was no
guard rail and just a straight drop off down the mountain! We rolled into
Silverton just as the fireworks were starting and basically got a front row
seat. The show was 40 minutes long and seemed like a grand finale the entire
time. I highly recommend checking it out
if you are ever in the area. People had come from several towns over and up
from New Mexico just to see them.
Will spent Sunday kayaking the Upper Animas. It’s 26 miles
from Silverton. Here is a pretty neat article about some of the
first rafters that went down.
I drove on into
Durango and went for a run on their Greenway that follows the Animas river
all the way through town. So many of these towns are commuter friendly and
people use the Greenways for everything. On this greenway in particular there
are tons of restaurants along the path and whitewater rafters entertain you as they pass. We plan to spend
the next few days in Durango and then start making our way back up towards
Boulder.
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