Monday, July 7, 2014

Jul 6,7 – To Buena Vista, Colorado

Yesterday we move northeast and about 1000 feet higher in elevation (to 8300 feet) to Buena Vista.

When I booked our campgrounds many months ago, I forgot to avoid moving on the Sunday of a long weekend. The traffic on the highway was pretty solid but thankfully a good portion of the trip east was a slight downhill making it easy for me to keep up with traffic at the speed limit.

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Then came Monarch Pass. In just over 7 miles we went from under 7000 feet to 11,300 feet. At least there as a passing lane the entire way up because it sure took a long time when I could only manage about 15 –19 mph.

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We stopped at the rest area at the top.

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Jennie went into the gift shop.

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Someone was pulling a glider behind their car.

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There is a short gondola ride to the very top. In hindsight we should have taken the ride because the view from the parking lot was not great. They even had a 55+ senior’s rate.

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The trip down the pass wasn’t too bad because there were not a lot of sharp corners. I was still slow and pulled off a few times to let cars pass.

Once we headed north, we were in a wide, relatively flat valley.

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I think the rule for our stay here will be afternoon thunderstorms. I don’t mind getting a bit wet but lightning is another matter.

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I guess we will have to do any hiking as early in the morning as we can manage.

We are at the Arrowhead Point campground. It seems like a nice place and the hosts were very nice and provided a lot of information on things to do.

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We are here for 2 weeks. There is a lot to do here but we also need more days off as our last few stops have seemed very rushed.

Today was kind of dark and dreary. We got sprinkled on as few times. I had already meant to take the day off to do some planning for our stay so it was no problem.

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