Telluride and Colorado in the Fall

Left Mesa Verde on Saturday and drove towards Telluride to find a place to camp. We were running out of daylight so Ambereen told me to turn on the next National Park Access Road. We made the turn and drove 25 minutes into the park, past a herd of cattle and up to 10,000 feet before finding a clearing suitable for camping. I set up camp and she started the fire (in an established fire pit, of course!). It got dark quickly so we settled in and grabbed dinner and finished a bottle of wine. The fire was starting to die down when we heard a pack of coyotes celebrating a kill nearby. Kind of creepy when you can't see your hand in front of your face. I wonder what they caught? Checked out the night sky once again (hard to describe the thousands of stars and the Milky Way that you can't see in the city) then got some shut eye. Walked around camp in the morning then as I was packing up she heard the call of a make elk in rut. I missed it and he never made another sound. Must have been the right call? Packed up the car and hit the road. We were headed to Durango to drive around and have brunch. The San Juan Mountain Range is the most beautiful in all of Colorado (IMHO) and the leaves were turning so it was showtime. telluride was spectacular and we drove through town to head up a 4x4 trail taking us to an overlook. There was a house / structure at the top of the trail which was an old hydroelectric facility with caretakers still living there. It would give me the creeps living on the edge of that cliff. Unreal views though. Wow....
Had a great brunch (salmon eggs benedict with kick ass home fries and the drink special was a John Daly!) then headed to Placerville, Ridgway, Montrose, Delta, Hotchkiss, Glenwood Springs and back to Denver via I-70. That's a long ass drive for those of you unfamiliar with the territory. But the views were spectacular with the fall colors, especially through Telluride up to Glenwood Springs. Vail was pretty too, but it was nothing compared to the drive up 550.
Check out all the pics at - http://picasaweb.google.com/osuzigman/ColoradoFall2008#