Colorado

We continued our travels to touch all 50 US states and flew to Denver, the capital of Colorado for the start of our next road trip. This place dates back to Old West days and is the entry point for some of the best outdoor activities like skiing, hiking, biking and camping as the Rocky Mountains are nearby. I’ve always wanted to see Colorado and hope to return to do a mountain bike trip at some stage. And, it’s called the Mile High city because, it’s elevation is 1.6km (one mile) above sea level making it the highest major city in the US. Our route map for the next 10 days is shown below. We are going to see Boulder, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse and other American Indian monuments, the magical Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Tetons, Jckson Hole, through Idaho Falls and into Salt Lake City. Hopefully there will be lots of animals to see and spectacular views.

Denver is 4 hours flying direct from DC. It took ages to navigate through the airport, get our luggage and hire car so it was a long day to get here. We were tired so spent the rest of the afternoon casually exploring the city. It seems busy everywhere but not crazy like DC. I guess it’s summer and a weekend. We wandered around some local markets which is a festival that happens once a year. There were lots of artistic and interesting things to look at. We spotted a painting called ‘Ruby’ which was bright, huge, funny and really grabbed our attention. The artist, Mark Ludy, was a charismatic guy who loved that we loved Ruby. He said he once owned a café and Ruby used to go there (not sure if she’s real). His wife said she wanted a painting to hang above the sofa at home and after his first idea of a racing car, his wife said no, I want a picture of Ruby drinking coffee with red lipstick on the cup. And so he did. It’s just a great piece of artwork. It was reasonably expensive but after we chatted and laughed with the artist (Mark Ludy), he said he would pay the shipping cost back to DC which encouraged us to buy Ruby. He’s a published author of children's books and people were buying his books and getting him to sign them for their kids. This guy’s a bit famous I think but as Aussies, we tried not to look ignorant. Anyway, it was great buy but will certainly cramp our spending for the rest of the trip. Check his website http://www.markludy.com

Artist Mark Ludy and 'Ruby'

We drove around the mountains and the scenery was breathtaking. We visited Red Rocks Amphitheatre which is a natural amphitheatre that plays host to the biggest names in music. The red sandstone is 300 million years old and the venue is quite popular for locals to do their cardio workouts. I would love to see a concert there as the views and location are spectacular. There is a museum below with pictures and info of the musicians who have played there over the years - it's a long list of fabulous artists and performers. We also popped by Buffalo Bill's gravesite on Lookout Mountain. There is a little museum there but we didn't check it out.

Boulder is about half hour away from Denver and is definitely mountain bike heaven and the perfect place for the outdoor enthusiast. Denver was crawling with roadies but Boulder was for the mountain bikers. I was so envious of all the bikers I saw riding the trails and the views, my god, it really was heaven. We had lunch in Boulder at a super trendy little joint called Foolish Craig's Cafe. It was very popular and the food was pretty nice. We also grabbed a great coffee at The Cup which went down well. Boulder is home to a campus of the University of Colorado and the city had a really nice feel about it. Everybody wore a camelback and there were people doing hikes, walking, rock climbing or riding everywhere. We took a drive up to the main Lookout and it was a beautiful but windy drive up. There were cars parked along the climb where hikers had taken off on some trail. At the top, we couldn't get to the main view because a wedding was about to take place. But, there were plenty of other vantage points and lots of places to stop and take a photo.

One of the most striking landmarks is the Flatirons. These slanted, red-brown sandstone rocks are iconic and appear in many Boulder logos or artwork. We didn't have time to talk a walk to get a closer look but I could imagine how beautiful they look up close. These formations are also 300 million years old. They had an early name called The Crags but when pioneer women said they thought the rocks looked like flat, metal irons used to iron their clothes, the name Flatirons stuck. The photo doesn't do them justice but there were very impressive in real life.

We loved Colorado and I am keen to come back to do a mountain bike multi-day trip. The weather was warm for us and while the elevation is mile-high, I found my morning run quite enjoyable. I was envious of all the bike riders and could easily live here. I found myself enjoying a coffee in Boulder reading the outdoor adventure magazines and thinking I might just stay here. I saw a sticker that said 'My life is better than your vacation'. Well, life is pretty good for me so I could understand that.

Tomorrow we head off to South Dakota to check out those famous Presidents at Mt. Rushmore and explore some more famous national parks.