Vacation 2001 to Telluride Bluegrass Festival

Vacation motto: "Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing." Helen Keller

Reluctantly posted for those who requested it: stern looking photo taken for ID card. The money backdrop is left over from a business website of mine..

Columbia River separating Washington from Oregon w/ rented convertable. Mine looks like this but is a much prettier dark metallic green. :)

Sunset in high desert of Oregon

 

Next morning. About to go over pass, down to Boise, Idaho and on to Sun Valley. On vacations I usually manage to get away from crowded highways to unspoiled places like this where the air is clean and and the views are beautiful..

The Open Road: Sunny day, top down, wind in your hair, motivational tapes to listen to. Life doesn't get much better than this. :)

 

Just south of Ketchum and Sun Valley. Sun Valley is one of the most famous ski and vacation areas in the US. Sign says "Galena Summit Open". Driving north from Ketchum has been described as one of the best motorcycle (and convertable) drives in the country, along the beautiful Wood River, over Galena Summit and down into the headwaters of the Salmon River.

 

Ketchum morning scene (if you know where to stay). In the background is Mt Baldy and the ski lifts. On summer mornings hang gliders launch from the mountain top and drift down (see red glider at top of photo). We'd like to stay but time to be off for Utah.

Arches National Monument just outside of Moab, Utah. This is high and hot. Getting out of my car I saw a woman who did not look well: skin coloration not good, sickly appearance. Several minutes after walking on these trails I felt the same way from the heat and altitude.

From tee shirt for nice friend: Nearby to Moab is Monument Valley where many western movies were shot due to the scenic vistas.

Tee shirt for grouchy friend. This person is not to be trifled with. Dinosours like these roamed Utah in ages past and remind me of my friend when you get on her bad side. ;)

Downtown Telluride. What a great place. :) Like many other mountain towns in Colorado, Telluride was a Victorian mining town, now a vacation/ski resort and home for those lucky enough to be able to figure out a way to live there: rich folks, skiers, hippies, some working folk.

Telluride Bluegrass Festival...Hooray!

The crowd. At the top of the photo ou can see a road with buses, etc where the hippies live. No one bothers them so they stay in Telluride rent-free.

These folks can't stand still during a good tune. :) With all the scenic beauty, Telluride is a grand place for a music festival.

Outside of Telluride. Most of the Rocky Mountains are uninspiring but these are the newer San Juan Mountains and a treat to the eye.

Back roads. Photo doesn't show it but the Aspen trees here are huge and only seen at this height, probably about 10,000 ft elevation

Guess the road stops here, huh? Hope that cliff doesn't give way before I get the car off of there.

Now we drive carefully through the creek so the rental car doesn't bottom out.

Hooray, back on safer ground

Last shots before leaving Telluride. Every valley in the Colorado Mountains spawns beautiful creeks and rivers. This is the San Miguel river starting at Telluride's most famous vista, the waterfall.

San Miguel River downstream a ways, with picturesque cabin and red cliffs.

Beautiful Taylor River, enroute to Crested Butte, another wonderful former Victorian mining town.

Crested Butte, great place to live if you can figure out how to live here. :) Driving to Crested Butte I was listening to a favorite tape by Dr Wayne Dyer. He describes a trip to Bali where the people live close to nature but are also bad drivers. A child was killed in a busy intersection and the family held a vigil right in the middle of the interesection to honor the child. For 72 hours they kept their vigil and not a single person honked their horn or otherwise showed disrespect. I drove into Creste Butte that day and before taking this photo I stopped by a play field and noticed a small shrine on a corner that had a child's mementos and toys there on the grass. A man rode by on a bicycle and asked me "Do you know what happened here?" Yes, I knew what had happened there...too weird. It's experiences like this that make me agree with Dr Dyer that there are no coincidences in our lives...everything happens for a purpose.

People don't lock their bikes here. Not many places where this would work, but it works here.

Beaver ponds outside of Crested Butte, enroute to Aspen.

In the Fall, some of the most beautiful colors in the Aspen trees are seen along this road over Kebler Pass.

This beautful river joins the Colorado River some miles downstream. Before that we turn East and drive along the Raging River to Aspen.

Ahh Aspen, what a lovely place to be. Lots of pedestrian areas downtown, ski area beyond.

More pleasant, pedestrian areas in Aspen

This is one of the sandstone buildings from Aspen's Victorian Era, now a bar and grill.

The Raging River borders Aspen and is beautiful like all the other rivers in this area. If one had a lot of money they could buy one of the homes in the background. Aspen would be a great place to live, long as you had something productive to do there and didn't mind all the snow.

Aspen's "over the top" (financially) life style: This is the parking lot of one of Aspens two fancy groceries. Up in the mountains you'd expect not so great a selection and quality of fresh vegatables? Not true. The people here demand and receive the best that there is. The car is a Jaguar (I think) V12 cylinder convertable. A friend knew a person who owned such a car and advised me to line up a mechanic before buying one. Think I'll stick with my "not yet paid for" more modest convertable for now. ;)

Leaving Aspen via the "back road" over Independence Pass. My mother lived much of her life in Colorado and spoke of scary mountain roads. Well this one is scary enough for me, dropoffs right next to the road w/ little border. Independence Pass is 14,000 ft high and I don't linger there long. It's hard to breath at that elevation, your stomach feels weird; I can't imagine living and mountain climbing at this and above elevations. I'll go play on the beach or go out on a boat instead. ;)

Just across the state line into Wyoming, this is the Platte River which will go on to join the Missouri and then Mississippi River. The signs at this boat launch warns that there are rapids ahead.

Jackson, Wyoming which feels like a cowboy town and the home of the law office of famous trial lawyer Gerald Spence, the most spell-binding public speaker I've heard. Gerald defended such people as Imelda Marcos and has never lost a defense. Standing below this sign you just "know" that if someone tried to deprive you of your rights, Gerald Spence could win your case. I have one of his books and his tape "How to argue and win every time." (I don't win every time, by the way, so need to listen to the tape more. *wink*)

Downtown Jackson with the famous Cowboy Bar in the background where you sit on saddles at the bar (not very comfortable, frankly). The arches to the town square are made of horns and I was lamenting at all the animals killed but then realized "Hey, dummy, the antlers FALL OFF each year"...duh. ;)

Snake River below Jackson. Oh My is this a beautiful river. The road is on the right. Years earlier, driving east alone to relocate and apply to medical schools, I drove up this road at night, all my possessions in my car (kinda scary and lonely, a little) and saw one of the greatest things I've seen in my life. Two large dog-like animals ran across the road in front of my car. They'd introduced wolves into this area, these were too big to be coyotes, they had to be wolves. :)

North of Sun Valley, Idaho just past Galena Summit. This is the head waters of the Salmon River, on of the most famous wild water and salmon rivers left in the US. To the left you can step across the Salmon River which continues to the right, through inaccessible mountains to join the Snake and then the Columbia River. Explorers Lewis and Clark called the Salmon the "River of no return" because once you embark on the Salmon through the rugged mountains downstream from here, there would be no return the way you came. Popular river for float trips.

Salmon River a few miles downstream from the headwaters. The beautiful Sawtooth Mountains are behind the trees in the background.

Last photo: Beaver dam in the mountains to the east of the above photo, while enroute home. It is such a treat seeing unspoiled woodlands that allow our native creatures to live as they have since before the settlement of our country. :)