July 19, 2017 Day
41
I woke up with the sunrise and snapped a few pictures while
I boiled water for a cup of coffee. With
coffee in hand, I drove away towards Aspen, CO with no real plan of
action. My main objective was to hike
within the Maroon-Bells Snowmass Wilderness; however, it turned out that that
would not be the case.
The drive toward Aspen on the “Top of the Rockies Byway” was
phenomenal! The land was very lush,
green, and vibrant in wildflowers and the air was crisp due to the cool
temperatures. I had to keep stopping and
taking pictures of the landscape for there were rapids, waterfalls, and just
pure un-kept beauty. This is exactly the type of climate that I enjoy and could thrive in! At one point, I was driving up this steep highway and ended up at the Independence Pass-Continental Divide sign and when I stepped out of my vehicle the view was beautiful. Just a day ago, I was traversing sand dunes and now I was walking out over a tundra with mountains surrounding me that still contained snow. Every day I am taken aback by the beauty and diversity of this great planet of ours and to think I have only covered a few states within only one country! How much more there is for me to discover and experience.
While driving my mind went to many things like relationships...or should I say the lack thereof and just life in general. Though I do not have the answers to many things that are and have occurred in my life I do know that in this moment I am blessed to be able to do what I am doing now. I know that I will never regret my decision to quit both my jobs and do this journey for already I am happier then I have ever been and this is the first thing I have done in a long time that feels right. Well now that I went off track some lets get back to the day at hand shall we.
I had reached Aspen, which is a quaint little mountain town that I would have loved to explore more if I didn't have my camper behind me. Before I knew it I was already out of Aspen and did not find a spot in which I could have parked my camper. I was going to go back thru for there had to be somewhere that I could park it and get out and walk around; however, as I was leaving the line of vehicles heading into town was insane. I would have been sitting in traffic for at least an hour just to get back in and since I didn't really have any place in mind to see in Aspen I didn't not think it worth the headache and wait. So I drove on towards Snowmass village and mind you every town I go through I am trying to find a laundromat also.
Snowmass village is like something out of a Christmas movie...minus the snow of course. It had that small Alpine village feel and therefore was quite odd to see mountain bikers absolutely everywhere when one feels as though they should be seeing skiers instead. I think this village along with Aspen would be fantastic to visit in winter and that is what I plan to do one of these years. I also discovered that I am not a fan of mountain bikers or at least the bikers here in Snowmass for they are very rude and act as though they own the roads...let me tell you little bikers my vehicle is bigger!
After I drove to the top of the village and back down to the information center I went in to speak to the lady there to find out about hiking in the area and a possible laundromat. To make things short the lady was nice but completely unhelpful. It was actually quite entertaining to watch for as she tried to explain trails to me she was going in circles pointing in different directions outside the building as to where a trail may possibly begin. All the trails she mentioned were within the town, which I didn't want, and she kept back tracking on what she was saying and at one point she even confused herself! HaHa. I couldn't get frustrated with her though because it was just too cute to watch her get lost in her own directions.
Leaving the information center, with no information mind you, I spoke to my friend Travis for some time and he was very informative on things/places I should stop and see and so once I got off the phone with him a plan was forming in my brain. By this time one would think it should be late afternoon...nope it was only going on 10:30 am! The temperature at this point had risen so I changed into shorts in my camper, made a protein shake and headed towards Glenwood Springs, CO to do laundry. While my clothes were in the washing machines and then the dryer I made use of the free WiFi and hatched a plan.
The plan. Due to Travis having the 26th thru the 31st off of work I planned to meet up with him near Cody, Wyoming and we would see the Big Horns, Yellowstone, the lower part of Montana and possibly the Grand Tetons. Basically, we were going to have one epic couple of days and rock it all on a low budget! In order to occupy my time until the 26th I was going to do a couple hikes in Colorado and then head to Arches National Park in Utah since that was only an hour and forty minutes away.
With my laundry completed I felt a million times better and drove to Rifle, CO to spend the night in a Walmart parking lot for there was no free camping nearby that I could find. The funny thing about all this was when I was talking to my friend Josh I told him that I would have to call him back later since I wanted to find a place to stay for the night due to it already getting late and dark out. Come to find out it was only 14:00! Here I was thinking it was like 20:00 or later and so with all this extra time I decided to just chill in Walmart and create Excel spreadsheets of my finances. I also planned to update my blog, listen to a talk, and get back to someone about doing an exercise program while traveling; however, none of that happened for first one friend called me, then I called my mother, then another friend called and by the time all that was over it was practically 22:00.
I had reached Aspen, which is a quaint little mountain town that I would have loved to explore more if I didn't have my camper behind me. Before I knew it I was already out of Aspen and did not find a spot in which I could have parked my camper. I was going to go back thru for there had to be somewhere that I could park it and get out and walk around; however, as I was leaving the line of vehicles heading into town was insane. I would have been sitting in traffic for at least an hour just to get back in and since I didn't really have any place in mind to see in Aspen I didn't not think it worth the headache and wait. So I drove on towards Snowmass village and mind you every town I go through I am trying to find a laundromat also.
Snowmass village is like something out of a Christmas movie...minus the snow of course. It had that small Alpine village feel and therefore was quite odd to see mountain bikers absolutely everywhere when one feels as though they should be seeing skiers instead. I think this village along with Aspen would be fantastic to visit in winter and that is what I plan to do one of these years. I also discovered that I am not a fan of mountain bikers or at least the bikers here in Snowmass for they are very rude and act as though they own the roads...let me tell you little bikers my vehicle is bigger!
After I drove to the top of the village and back down to the information center I went in to speak to the lady there to find out about hiking in the area and a possible laundromat. To make things short the lady was nice but completely unhelpful. It was actually quite entertaining to watch for as she tried to explain trails to me she was going in circles pointing in different directions outside the building as to where a trail may possibly begin. All the trails she mentioned were within the town, which I didn't want, and she kept back tracking on what she was saying and at one point she even confused herself! HaHa. I couldn't get frustrated with her though because it was just too cute to watch her get lost in her own directions.
Leaving the information center, with no information mind you, I spoke to my friend Travis for some time and he was very informative on things/places I should stop and see and so once I got off the phone with him a plan was forming in my brain. By this time one would think it should be late afternoon...nope it was only going on 10:30 am! The temperature at this point had risen so I changed into shorts in my camper, made a protein shake and headed towards Glenwood Springs, CO to do laundry. While my clothes were in the washing machines and then the dryer I made use of the free WiFi and hatched a plan.
The plan. Due to Travis having the 26th thru the 31st off of work I planned to meet up with him near Cody, Wyoming and we would see the Big Horns, Yellowstone, the lower part of Montana and possibly the Grand Tetons. Basically, we were going to have one epic couple of days and rock it all on a low budget! In order to occupy my time until the 26th I was going to do a couple hikes in Colorado and then head to Arches National Park in Utah since that was only an hour and forty minutes away.
With my laundry completed I felt a million times better and drove to Rifle, CO to spend the night in a Walmart parking lot for there was no free camping nearby that I could find. The funny thing about all this was when I was talking to my friend Josh I told him that I would have to call him back later since I wanted to find a place to stay for the night due to it already getting late and dark out. Come to find out it was only 14:00! Here I was thinking it was like 20:00 or later and so with all this extra time I decided to just chill in Walmart and create Excel spreadsheets of my finances. I also planned to update my blog, listen to a talk, and get back to someone about doing an exercise program while traveling; however, none of that happened for first one friend called me, then I called my mother, then another friend called and by the time all that was over it was practically 22:00.
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