The USA Road Trip
Yes folks were back.... Starting the second part of our
summer holidays, the road trip from Colorado down through the US South West and
up the West Coast, finishing in San Francisco. This time I’m changing the
format and grouping stories based on destination as we’ll be in most places for
more than a couple of days. So here goes, destination One Colorado.
Day 1 Arrival in
Colorado
Leaving Burlington around midday 20th July we
drove down to St Catherines dropped our car off and then got a lift to Buffalo
International Airport, much cheaper to fly from and far less hassle. From
Buffalo we flew across to Boston and then to Denver, rather a roundabout way of
doing things, but there you go. We arrived in at Denver about 1200 local time
or for us 2am in the morning. After a few hiccup’s with room allocations we
finally fell in to bed around 3am.
Next morning after a late breakfast I headed back to the
airport to pick up our chariot for the next few weeks while Chelle took the
kids to the pool. Once everything was packed we were on the road to Eagle
Colorado, to spend a week with Michelle’s cousin Tanya and her family. The
drive through Colorado was everything I thought it would be, high mountain
passes, deep valley’s, rugged mountainsides and everything topped by fir trees.
Even an hour stuck in roadworks couldn’t spoil the trip. Mid afternoon we
finally caught up with Tanya and followed her to the Ranch, where Troy her
husband is the Ranch Manager. The Ranch is something to be seen. As with most
ranches in this area it is owned by a multimillionaire who spends most of her
year living in Hawaii, only visiting the ranch for a couple of months over the
summer. For the remainder of the year
Troy has to run and maintain the place, this includes living onsite. The place
is beautiful and a great place for their kids Wyatt and Claire to grow up.
There are ponds out the back and a river behind, plenty of open paddocks with
horses and hiking trails everywhere, not to mention all the fresh air.
The owners of the Ranch are moving back in shortly, so for
Troy this is a busy time getting it all ready for them and moving the family
back into their own home in Eagle, not to mention trying to entertain visitors
from Australia. So after getting a tour of the ranch and a short trip further
up the valley we all headed up to their place in Eagle. All I can say is Wow!!!
What a view they have.( As I sit here and type this I am looking out across the
town of Eagle watching the sunrise above the mountains and it is just stunning,
equally stunning has been watching the sun set on those same hills and seeing
the colours change). It looks great in Summer I can only imagine how good it
must look in Winter.
The rest of our first day was spent getting acclimatised to
the altitude, (Eagle sits around 3 kilometres above sea level) and for Chelle
and Tanya to catch up, the girls haven’t seen each other in 18 months.
Day 2 Vail
After breakfast Troy headed off to continue getting the
Ranch ready for the owners, while Tanya took the rest of the tribe in to
Vail/Lionshead. Those of you that are keen skiers will probably have heard of
Vail, it being one of the top ski resort towns in the USA. Don’t know what it
looks like in winter but it is beautiful in summer, at every turn you are
presented with mountain vistas.
During summer the Vail area becomes a mountain bike mecca
with all the ski slopes and trails being given over to bike tracks, so as you
can imagine there are bikes and cyclists everywhere. Must mention the
temperature it is sitting in the low to high thirties, but this doesn’t seem to
deter the diehards. Vail isn’t a large town population wise during summer but
during winter the population swells fourfold. Most of the places in town are
either hotels or rentals. Being the optimistic person I am and with the
downturn in the American markets I thought
I’d grab a Real Estate guide and see if I could pick myself up a
bargain. Is $USD 5 million considered a bargain???
After exploring downtown Vail and doing a couple of parks
for the kids we then went to the local pool to cool off and relax and there
ended our second day.
Day 3 Saturday
Fishing and Parshall
Saturday Troy hooked up his boat and he and Tanya took us to
Wolford Lake to do some fishing. Once again this drive was stunning,
paralleling the Colorado River and passing through some steep canyons. After
getting out of the Canyons we got to the town of Kremling so I could pick up a
fishing licence. When we asked Troy and Tanya to describe Kremling the first
thing they said was Redneck lol. It really knocked the woman in the store for a
six when she asked me for a licence and I gave her my NSW one, why do you need
to give your height and weight to get a fishing licence??
Not far from Kremling is the reservoir of Wolford Lake, this
is a privately owned lake, but it is open for public recreation and is
continually stocked with fish. Troy, Wyatt, Ryan and myself headed out for the
first run . Sum total of our efforts, Ryan caught two small trout that we let
go and lost half a dozen. I only got one shot and lost it, but enjoyed the rest
of the time driving the boat while Troy sorted out rods. The girls not to be
out done went out and Claire and Natasha each caught a salmon, both of them
keepers. Mid afternoon we packed up the boat and headed to a small town called
Parshall, where Troy and Tanya own a small ranch with a bit of land. This area
is vastly different to what we had seen so far being fairly arid and scrubby
country, but again with stunning views. For dinner Saturday night we headed to
the Parshall Inn, which looks and feels like it was taken straight off the set
of an American Sitcom set in the Midwest. The steak was great and the staff
very welcoming.
Day 4 Sunday More
fishing
Sunday morning Troy, Ryan, Tash and I headed out early for
more fishing with high expectations of having a good day. Unfortunately this
didn’t come to fruition and we only managed one caught and one lost, Tash
getting the keeper again, much to her brothers’ annoyance. After fishing we headed
back to Parshall and spent the afternoon there exploring the property. Then we
headed back to Eagle for dinner and an introduction to Elk. Troy keeps a well
stocked freezer with Elk he’s bagged through the year, so we had Elk steaks for
dinner and much to everyone’s surprise Tash loved them. She now doesn’t know
whether she would like to see a live Elk as much as she would like to eat one.
Day 5 Hiking Glenwood
Canyon
Monday, Troy had to be at the ranch to bale hay in near 40
degree temperature. So Tanya took the rest of us to a place called Glenwood
Canyon and a hike up to Hanging Lake. Despite it being a hard trail for little
legs and the temperature creeping up near 40 degrees everyone made it in good
shape. I know I’ve over used the word stunning but I can’t think of another
word to describe the scenery and the views, especially the lake itself. All up
the hike took about three hours including the stop at the top and all the kids
made it without assistance. Heading farther West along the interstate we then
went to Glenwood Springs and the adventure park at the top of one of the
mountains, more amazing vistas and a whole load of rides to keep everyone
entertained. Spending the rest of the afternoon there pretty much wore us out
so we headed back for dinner and more Elk, to Natasha’s delight.
Day 6 Rafting on the
Eagle river
Our last day and another exciting one organised by Troy and
Tanya. Troy has his own raft which is capable of taking 5 people comfortably
and with the assistance and the raft of his mate Ed we all went rafting on the
Eagle River. Chelle and I had had visions of this being a recreational rafting
trip but instead it turned out to be a fishing trip. These rafts are well set
up, having chairs coolers etc and a floor and a frame at the front for ant one
casting to lean against. Troy took the girls while Ryan and I went with Ed, who
is a professional fishing guide, so after a couple of short lessons on how to
fly cast, Ed rowed us down the river and put me into some good spots to fish. I
ended up catching half a dozen brown trout and losing possibly just as many as
well as losing a good size rainbow trout. As the Colorado River isn’t stocked
any fish caught are re-released. We travelled down the river for 11 miles and
fished for about 4 hours. After pulling the rafts back up we then headed back
to Eagle for the rest of the day.
