This year we have not been able to travel as much as we would wanted to due to some medical conditions I developed this spring. So we pretty much stayed at home most of the summer but we did get away for three weeks in August and went to Colorado again this year. We also had the BIL with us and what a trip it was. John lives in Florida 5' above sea level so we got to take him with us on some hellish trails in the Rockies well above 13,000 feet. It was a time he will never forget. At one point he jumped out of the Jeep and kissed the ground thinking he had survived and had made it to the top of the world but his jubilation was short lived when we told him we had about 2 more miles and another thousand feet to climb.
We traveled to Ouray, Telluride, Silverton, Leadville & Breckenridge Colorado this year to do the mountain trails in our Jeep and to once again be with our friends John & Nancy Hall. All in all it was another great trip, no mechanical issues this year I just had to keep my oxygen bottle handy and stay hooked up above 10,000 feet. Once I got down to around 8500 feet all was well again. No matter the health setbacks it was a nice trip, we saw pronghorn, moose, mule deer and eagles nesting this year. One surprise we ran into an extremely large flock of grazing sheep on one trail one day and looking down on them from 2000 feet above they looked like rocks in the grass but the closer we got to them we noticed it was grazing sheep.
Traveling throughout the country you can see some beautiful sites but you can only see the true beauty by getting off the pavement and getting into the mountain ranges to see what is on the other side of that next range. Jeep trails are exciting, you can travel and see things you would never imagine, find old mountain passes once traveled by horse & wagon then followed by narrow gauge railroads once used to support the mining industry of the 1800's. When riding trails in a Jeep there are certain rules of the road or trail etiquette and I would advise anyone wanting to trail ride read up on the rules of the road so to speak so we all can have an enjoyable trip. There are those who want to take their mall crawlers, the never scratched Land Rovers, or their giant Hummers off road only to find out they are too big for the trail. Etiquette come into play when knowing who has the right of way on a mountain trail, so do a Google search and learn before you go so you won't get into a bind while out on the trails.
Our next trip we hope will be in January when we can go back out to Quartzsite, AZ and find a few more new to us trails.
Picture #1 (top) coming up on Peak 10 near Breckenridge; #2 near Mosquito Pass near Leadville, #3 going down off Peak 10, #4 somewhere near Silverton, #5 Turquoise Lake near Leadville, #6 at an old transmission tower on Peak 10, #7&8 between Silverton & Telluride heading to Black Bear Pass.
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