Rockies and Aspen Colorado

Not too many miles done today but the same amount of hours driving. We decided to take the hard and winding path through the Rockies to Aspen and the views were to die for. We kept driving and driving sort of knowing that we are climbing all the time but there were no signs indicating the elevation on the way till we reached the pass - 12 095 ft. The air was really thin over there and we noticed it walking to the vista point. I am really positively surprised with the little Subaru we have. It showed no signs at all of getting tired at altitude.

first time we didn't miss the state change on the freeway

the highest I've ever been with ground contact

little rest in the thin air

one of the very few ones

getting as high as possible

restroom door

The main attraction for the day was supposed to be Aspen which unfortunately turned out to be fairly disappointing. We passed so many much more interesting places on the way. One of them was a little country town somewhere in the mountains.

exploring the cute little town

socializing with the locals

what a surprise - the guy could even speak a few words Polish

After a challenging drive through the mountains with sometimes just one lane for both directions we finally made it to Aspen. This very famous winter holiday destination was as I already mentioned before a bit disappointing. The town itself was just beautiful and clean as it can be but ... it felt artificial. I think it's meant just for the big bucks customers and simple tourists like us are not really welcome. We had a nice lunch and decided to leave the place heading to the north. No need to stay there for the night. Just after we left town we were passing by the airport and found the explanation for our perception of Aspen. I have never seen that many private jets on one airport. We tried to estimate the number and ended up with 100+.

downtown Aspen

We drove about 40 miles further north to Glenwood Springs, a place with a very vibrant history, and checked in our first priority lodging location. This time we're having a Flinstone bed! It's cosy and smells like a well deserved long night sleep:

Flinstone bed

The plans for our further travel underwent some serious modifications today and we decided to proceed to the Grand Canyon tomorrow. A very long drive is ahead of us but Ziggy hasn't seen the Canyon yet and i think it's really worth it. We've got some 9 hours drive so it's better to hit the road pretty early in the morning.