Let’s take a drive….Colorado Day 12

Once again, it’s a drive on a dirt road up a mountain. It was a one way road with a lot of switchbacks, but the road was in great condition. No flat tires or dislocated bones. And I have ZERO pictures because I was driving and it was dusty.

Sort of like this minus the spindly trees.  {source}

This is the last full day here and it’s always a bittersweet time. It’s been a fabulous vacation and hopefully, we will be back next year. But that’s a LONG year. We are taking 2 days to drive back so leaving first thing tomorrow morning is important. We might have to fight some evacuation traffic from the High Park Fire. See why. On the last day, this huge plume of smoke was seen all over. Twitter and Instagram were lit up with pics from this smoke.

 

After we drove through the park, we stopped at the Alpine center to get Christmas ornaments and a shared coffee mug. We had the coffee from Steaming Bean, now we just needed a mug. Yes, we are typical tourists who hoard ornaments and mugs. I couldn’t care less about shirts, shot glasses, or bumper stickers. But I’ll search high and low for the perfect ornament and mug.

And some last wildlife pictures. I finally saw a moose!

And perhaps the best elk picture.

After a day of driving, it was time to eat the trout he caught. This is a very tender light fish. He caught these right behind the cabin in the stream that runs by at night. That hot dog…was FANTASTIC. Something about a grilled hot dog that just tastes right. Grilled zucchini and potato fries rounded out this huge plate.

Thanks, Colorado for the memories, the snow, the views, and the chance to hit the “reset” button again.