Scenic Cycling Travel

RV COLORADO – LOOP #1

Every fall I see pictures from back east of “fall colors”.  In the west, fall is spectacular in my home state, Colorado, and I was on a mission in 2020 to share this with Doug!

After some time in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park (post here) we began the first of two loops from the suburbs of Denver through the foothills, the rocky mountains and into western Colorado.  We moved locations frequently to sample as much as we could.  Colorado’s fall colors, particularly from the turning aspen trees, along with majestic mountains did not disappoint!

FUN FACT: Aspen groves are genetically identical as they from from one common root system.  Truly amazing!

Suffice it to say that we have so many photos from Colorado and we moved so frequently that I’m using maps and videos to display this trip instead of typical pictures.  Turn your sound on and enjoy the videos!

We started loop#1 in Longmont, CO.

From Longmont we made our way toward Nederland through Boulder Canyon along the Boulder Creek River.  We passed through Black Hawk, which when I was growing up had a quaint old downtown with a few places to gamble.  The old downtown is still there but some areas were unrecognizable as huge multi-story casinos have now been built.  We continued on into Dillion for our first night’s stay.  Just a few yellow leaves were peeking out but were in great contrast with the backdrop provided by Dillion Reservoir.

We drove into Breckenridge for a wonderful dinner and to catch up with Doug’s nephew, Tyler, the next evening.  We’re still disappointed that we missed seeing him in his element – a dj at local clubs.  Another Covid impact. 

Leaving Breck/Dillion, we headed to Leadville for a fun walk around town.  We boondocked at Twin Lakes and Doug’s hike with Bailey above Twin Lakes show the aspen really popping with color!

TECH NOTE REGARDING VIDEOS:  If you have slow internet (like I do),

    1. Click the video (it will open) and then close it. 
    2. Wait until you see it has fully downloaded (as indicated by a time display). 
    3. Then open it again so it will play seamlessly.
    4. To replay, reload / refresh the entire wonderwherenow.com page

Doug’s hike with Bailey above Twin Lakes show the aspen really popping with color!

From Twin Lakes we drove Independence Pass to Aspen.  The drive was incredible despite some overcast skies.  Aspen’s deer and baby moose were so fun to watch.  We did a short hike to Weller Lake from a small campground where we stayed just outside of Aspen.  

On our last day in Aspen we bicycled 8 miles to the Maroon Bells trailhead and hiked.  Maroon Bells is probably the most photographed place in Colorado and during summer/fall the only access to the trailhead besides biking is via shuttle bus which books up weeks in advance.  The alpine lake and speckled mountain valley are perfectly framed by two of Colorado’s 14,000 foot peaks as if stepping into a Bob Ross painting.  You can’t beat this location for beauty in the fall.  It was nothing short of magical, making our top 10 hikes as well as one of my favorite days in 2020!

FUN FACT:  There are 96 “fourteeners” in the United States.  All of them are west of the Mississippi River and Colorado has the most (53) of any single state.  Alaska is second with 29.  #Coloradowinning!

You can’t beat this location [Maroon Bells] for beauty in the fall.  It was nothing short of magical, making our top 10 hikes as well as one of my favorite days in 2020!

From Aspen, CO we headed to Rifle State Park for an overnight.  This campground is very cool! 

The following morning we were off to Grand Junction to see the Colorado National Monument.  This was as far west as we went on this loop. 

Colorado National Monument is another stunning drive and we did a short but pretty walk from the visitor center.  I’m not frequently afraid of heights but the vertical drop in this canyon is enough to trigger vertigo as it sits more than 1,000 feet  above the Colorado River and  ranges in elevation from 4,700 to 7,280 feet high.  These heights also provide some stunning views of the surrounding area.

We had planned to hike to Hanging Lake on our way back, but a local fire had it closed down.  We likely wouldn’t have been able to do it justice anyway as were flying down Denver’s I-70 and then turning both south and east to get us to the Paint Mines where my sister had a photo shoot near the golden hour.  We made it just in time.

Having just spent the day looking down into a 1000 foot canyon, from the road, Paint Mines doesn’t look very impressive.  It’s only when you’re right down in it that you can appreciate it’s real beauty!

As you can see from these videos, this is my home state at its very best!

SIDE NOTE: I don’t remember where we were when we heard and then had a late night encounter with “our” mouse.  YUP!  I was not thrilled.  What I can tell you is that although it didn’t seem to bother Doug or Bailey (surprisingly) it kept me awake many nights!  Doug claims the little brown guy was Stewart Little cute but I insisted that one pet in the RV was more than enough.  Stewie had to go!

New regimes were put into place for Tupperware containing any and all pantry food, covering all dog bowls at night, wiping sinks of all water and sweeping the floor incessantly to remove crumbs, with the hope that the invader wouldn’t find food and just leave.

The internet claims Bounce dryer sheets keep mice out and although I’m not part of the official MythBusters staff, I’m confident in saying that myth is busted.

 

The internet claims Bounce dryer sheets keep mice out and although I’m not part of the official MythBusters staff, I’m confident in saying that myth is busted.

-Wendy Heigel

We tried 3 different humane traps.    We didn’t want to hurt it with an old style snap trap or sticky trap even though we knew those were likely very effective.  The reality is, we’re camping in its territory, not the other way around!

The night we caught our first mouse, Doug put it outside but in the morning, the trap was empty.  I’m only guessing that he scurried back to the RV after escaping the trap as I’ve read that mice can find their way back to your house if they’re released within 2 miles of it.

We finally found a humane trap that worked and we successfully caught a mouse while at Twin Lakes!  Yippee!

I made Doug release it with the RV revving in the background so the mouse wouldn’t return to the RV before we drove away.    I was excited to be rid of it and release it back into the wild until A) Doug noted, it was not “our” mouse (apparently they had gotten quite close by this time) and B) I saw it crawl out, lost my video nerve and went running for the RV myself (video below).

Now I was even more worried.  We have more than one mouse?!   How many?  You know that old phrase “breeding like rabbits”?  Well it turns out rabbits have a gestational period of 30 days (on average) but mice have an average gestational period of 20 days!  At 33% faster, mice put those rabbits to shame!  No, NO, NOPE.  This was not good.

We nabbed the next mouse about a week later…a “visiting” mouse as Doug nicely referred to it, but still not our mouse!  For the second time, I ran for the RV before I even got a good look at it (video below).

The day after that release, we literally saw some kind of kangaroo mouse sitting on the passenger side stair outside the RV.  I claim he was just mocking me while soaking up the sun!  Doug moved him, claiming he was probably ill.

 I was a walking zombie at that point and hellbent on purchasing sticky traps to put an end to all of this when Doug made a last ditch effort.  He knew the RV itself was solidly plugged and since he’s now watched “our” mouse quite a bit in the past few weeks, he spent a day plugging up holes where the RV connects to the cab.  We then went a week, then two with no sign of mice!  We don’t know if “our” mouse left after not finding food or water, if he had just hitched a ride far enough to visit his city mouse cousin, or (my fear) he died somewhere in the now sealed walls of the RV never to be found.  We never did hear, see, or smell decay from our mouse again.  

I slept and snored for a few days straight and when I returned to my senses I realized there’s no way to really plug up the engine compartment in the cab of the truck.  Mice are a reality – a downside to RV living. Sometimes I feel bad and kinda miss “our” Stewart Little mouse and sometimes I think it might be easier to trade the dog in for a good alley cat (just kidding Bailey). 

Stay tuned…more Colorado on the way in our second loop through the state in 2020.

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