Colorado – Cool, curvy, colorful

We just finished 7 days in Meeker, Colorado. Had no idea what a “famous” place this is to the rest of the world. Did you know they have the largest herd of elk in the US? Did you know they hold their sheepdog competitions each year and draw people from multiple states? Did you know they have turkeys in the campground? Did you know it’s actually green there?

It was so refreshing to actually see something a deep, green for once. We have been looking at sage green and brown for the last few weeks and to actually see some green grass, pine trees and reeds along the rivers edge, was amazing. Still no bugs and the morning and evenings were nice and cool. What a beautiful and relaxing place – unless you are driving the windy, mountain roads into Rifle, Colorado to try and get a haircut. Then it’s not so relaxing. Also, after getting a really, bad haircut, it just feels like a waste. However, given my optimism, I did capture some amazing shots of the mountains in the rain. Even on a dreary day, they can be quite spectacular.

This has been Dave’s favorite place to visit so far. He loved the size of the town, the fact that the new high school has a great view of the mountains and of course the fact that we actually got to see some animals. We saw fields full of mule deer, he caught sight of a black bear when he did the morning sunrise drive, and even found a couple areas that had antelope just lying around. Add that to the turkeys that were running around our campground and of course all the free range cows, and we both felt like we had experienced why people live in this magnificent state. For him, Meeker is the place to top.

To be honest, this was a great way to finish out our summer in the mountains. We have thoroughly enjoyed seeing high deserts, canyons, mountains, rivers, mule deer, turkeys, antelope, stunning sunsets and sunrises, a few buffalo and A LOT of free range cows. We have learned a lot about this area of the US we had always seen pictures of, but never experienced. While each state we have visited has had it’s own beauty, we are both more than ready to begin our journey south to water, water and more water. The main thing we learned is that the mountains are great to visit, but it’s not a place we want to settle in and find our forever home.

We have decided as we head south to Florida, we are going to do our next trips rather quickly. Drive for 8 hours, stay for two nights, drive for 8 hours, stay for two nights, etc. We will be headed across Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and then into Mississippi. We won’t be doing much sight seeing on the way through the majority of the states and we are hoping to acclimate to a faster schedule than we have been keeping. I’m sure we will still find some interesting sights to share so until our next post;

See you on the road,

Dave and Theresa