We got off of work early and hit the road to Monument Valley, stopping in Flagstaff for dinner. We found a dirt road right in the heart of the valley and turned off for the night. That first night was a rough one, hot and sticky and cramped in the back of my car. It seemed that every other tourist also thought that was the perfect spot to spend the night and were driving by at all hours with their headlights beaming into the back of our car before realizing they had company and speeding off to another site. Needless to say, we awoke early - early enough to enjoy the epic sunrise in the desert.
We continued on to Cortez where we got some breakfast and then made our way up 145 towards my favorite camping site ever, hiking the Bear Creek Trail between Dolores and Rico along the way.
We finally found Trout Lake and turned off on the Galloping Goose trail, towards Hope Lake where we stumbled upon the most incredible campsite I've ever stayed at. I camped farther down last month, overlooking an amazing little meadow that swooped up to a waterfall cascading down some pretty epic mountain ranges. This time, we ventured up higher and found a tiny spot off of the road nestled in the trees with a field of wildflowers opening up to the mountains.
We immediately noticed the mosquitoes and flies swarming us and quickly bathed ourselves and our campsite in bug spray. Neither of us got a single bite all weekend :) We set up camp and then ventured into Telluride for the afternoon, sharing pizza and salad at my favorite restaurant and then taking the gondola up to Mountain Village to explore and grab hot cocoa. Then we went up to Bridal Veil Falls and the mine, explored a little, and walked back into Black Bear Pass for a while before heading back to camp and enjoying our views and the fire for the rest of the night.
I'm not sure if it was the lack of sleep from night before or the crisp mountain air, but we both slept harder than ever and awoke refreshed and ready to conquer the world. We made a pot of coffee and headed into Mountain Village for breakfast at the Telluride Coffee Company before deciding to spend the day exploring Ridgeway and Ouray. After taking a Mine Tour and a lunch of BBQ ribs and a hamburger, we ventured up to Yankee Boy Basin, a famous 4x4 road up to some amazing views and the old Yankee Boy Mine. It did not disappoint. About a mile in, we stopped on a wide curve of the treacherous trail to check out a small canyon where we found an incredible waterfall and even an old mine that we had to crawl up to. The mine wasn't secured at all, so after checking to make sure that there weren't any animals hiding out in there, we poked in and checked it out.
We crawled back down to the car where we were nearly run over by UTV's careening down the trail way too fast that couldn't quite clear the corner on all four wheels. We continued up the increasingly sketchy trail, admiring the old Ghost Town ruins of the mines that littered the mountainsides and the wildflowers blanketing the ground.
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Once we reached the last point of return, we turned back towards Ouray for an ice cream cone and then hit the road to our campsite where we feasted on leftover ribs, went for a long walk up the road past our campsite, and took in the milky way until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer.
The final day, we managed to sleep in, pack up camp, and check out the road to Alta Lakes, only about a 20 minute drive from our campsite.
Again, the wildflowers were second to none and we traversed the mountainside up to the old mining town of Alta where we crawled in and out of the old buildings and imagined what it was like to know Westinghouse or Tesla back in the day.
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