Day 7
Ophir Creek near Rye, Co.- Medano Pass (near Westcliffe, Co)
Leaving Ophir Creek where we camped.
Then up and hopefully over Greenhorn Mountain Road.
Saint Charles Peak or Greenhorn Mountain. Not sure which
Finally in the Aspens.
Trees!
Up...
Up...Around...
Around...
And down.
Who can say no to 14 miles of downhill?
Needless to say, it was a blast.
And I moved much faster than the car.
Oh, there was some uphill.
And, man, did I feel it. Somehow not caught on camera is Steph running after I got off the bike. I think she deleted all the photos of that. She was in the habit of waking up before the kids and running. I think that stopped sometime around here. Maybe when we saw the bear.
Not a bad spot to settle down.
After dropping out of the mountains we ran some highway up to the town of Westcliffe. We were hoping to meet some friends of ours there but it ended up not working, so we stocked up on gas and headed south to cross over the Sangre de Cristo range on Medano Pass.
Westcliffe is one of my favorite towns in Colorado. Always a good time to be had there. These are the Sangre de Cristos. Somewhere in there is Crestone Peak, Crestone Needle and Humboldt. All formidable climbs.
It was so exciting to know that in a few minutes we'd be in the heart of the range.
Harper and Bailey kept commenting on the snow asking if they could play in it. I tried to explain how far of hike it would be to get in it but never quite got through to them. I told them that we might see some snow near Telluride.
We can't get enough of these views.
At the campsite on Medano Pass Road.
It was quite warm in the valley but in the mountains we were breaking out our jackets.
And the fire was nice, though not necessary.
Mule deer in the background.
 |
| These huge mule deer could care less |
Well, we eventually ran them off on accident.
Breakfast, I think.
Often when we are taking down camp, we put Larkin in the back of the car on top of the sleeping bags and let her play and crawl around.
This became her new favorite spot. She was able to look out at us and see what we were doing and she could practice standing and jumping in place.
We like looking up and seeing her there too.
Not much mileage but a great relaxing day. And we got some exercise. Camped pretty high up there too.
