Paul needed to check out some stone he hopes to use for an upcoming job for city. The quarry is in Lyons, Colorado. We decided to make a great rock plus more trip! We left on a Monday morning and made a long drive all the way to Parachute, Colorado that day with a stop along the way near Grand Junction to drive through Colorado National Monument. This is our second time there, but we took a bit more time to stop and see lots of the roadside attractions. This is such a beautiful park! It was perfect weather and my sore back/leg cooperated to let me walk without pain. We saw quite a few Rocky Mountain Sheep along the way which was awesome. One of our favorite stops was at an Echo Point overlook where you could shout out and your echo would come back at you perfectly. We tried to record it, but the phone wouldn't pick up the echo. We had so much fun there! After that we drove on to get to our stop for the night in Parachute, Colorado. We stopped for picnic lunch at a park in Green River and at Grand Junction for dinner at Wendy's. It was a long but so beautiful drive.
Tuesday we got on our way to the Quarry in Lyons, Colorado. It was about a four hour drive through some so beautiful scenery. We did our business there and then had time enough left of the day to get to Rocky Mountain National Park. We stopped for a picnic lunch in our car at Estes Park. Then we went to the park and got there right after 2 pm when you didn't have to have a timed entry reservation. We decided to take scenic drive over Trail Ridge Road which is the highest continuous paved road in the United States. It is 48 miles long. We stopped at most of the pullouts along the way to see the awesome views. It was good weather except for one stop when we got a little wet during a quick rain/sleet storm. SOOO BEAUTIFUL!!! There aren't words to describe it! We went up and back over that road and got down the mountain just in time to drive the Bear Lake Road which opened up without a timed reservation at 6 pm. What a beautiful lowland drive that was and we saw so many elk along the way. We hiked the short Bear Lake Loop at the end and then headed on to drive to Longmont for that night's stay. We stopped along the way and ate dinner at Freddy's after we failed to be noticed at Taco Bell! This was a much better motel than the one at Parachute!
Wednesday we had reservations to drive up to Pike's Peak. We got there a little early for our 11 am entry reservation but they let us in anyway. There are 156 curves in this 19-mile drive with a 6,715 foot elevation gain. It is a crazy drive, but the views and changes in ecosystems along the way are amazing. At the top is a beautiful visitor's center. (We had stopped at the two visitor's centers along the way up too.) There's a cog train that will take you up the mountain, but we liked the drive. We stopped off just before the summit and hiked around in some cool rocks for a little bit. At the top, you can feel just a little bit off because of the high elevation. Just a little bit of headache, nausea. It wasn't bad, but just kind of there. It was an amazing place with awesome views and it is the highest elevation place that either one of us has ever been to other than in an airplane. We crossed the continental divide twice on this trip. Once coming down from Rocky Mountain NP at Milner Pass and then again the next day going over Monarch Pass. We were among so many high mountains during this trip. We saw them all around us and also on a topo map at the top of Monarch Pass. Such massive mountain tops! That night we ate dinner at Arby's in Boulder and then drove on to Grand Junction for the night.
Thursday it was time to come home. We went through Green River, then over to Hanksville and across through Capital Reef NP. We saw a sign there that said "U-Pick." We stopped at the Visitor's Center and asked about it and they gave us bags and said we could eat all of the apples we wanted for free and pick more and pay $1.99 a pound. They gave us bags. We ate and picked! Some were quite yummy! After that we continued down through Escalante where we stopped for a picnic lunch and then down to Panguitch and over Cedar Mountain and back to St. George. It was again, a beautiful, scenic drive...very different, but still so beautiful! What a grand little trip this turned out to be. I had to lay down for a lot of the car time because my back was bothering me, but it was so worth it! What a beautiful trip!
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