Moab & Arches

I can't believe how few photos we took in Moab! We both LOVE Moab so much. It was my first time there and I thought it would be all desert & grit but it was amazing. Neither of us wanted to leave and we can't wait to go back.

Glenwood Springs

Glenwood Springs, Colorado is famous for the hot springs spa located on the outskirts of town.

We found it to be a bit commercialized for our tastes so we searched out the secret hot springs on the other side of town instead. We enjoyed them by ourselves for a spell and then had an adventure meeting a couple of locals who were as different from each other as two people could possibly be. That was an interesting conversation, let me tell you.
We camped east of town at another fantastic site alongside another river ($free-fifty, of course).
In the morning we headed to a popular attraction called hanging lake.

On to Aspen

After Fraser we headed toward Aspen, Colorado. Mark had been there ages ago and wanted to see if it was as amazing as he remembered. We drove the back way along Highway 82. It was stunning and there was surprisingly little traffic. On our way we encountered one of Colorado's infamous afternoon storms. Let me tell you, it goes against every survival instinct to drive straight towards black, black clouds. . .

. . .but, that is exactly what we did.

Fraser and Winter Park

After Rocky Mountain National Park we cruised to Fraser and Winter Park, Colorado.
Of course the first thing we spotted as we rolled into town was a Thai restaurant.
What a treat while camping!

Top of the World!

Mark and I absolutely loved the Rockies. On our way out we traveled Trail Ridge Road which crests at 12,183 feet!

Rocky Mountain National Park

We cruised to Boulder, CO after Fort Collins. We were there for all of one afternoon before heading west toward a unique alpine village called Nederland. We camped nearby in a

Ft. Collins Rocks!

Horsetooth Park Wildflowers

Chris has chosen to live in a very beautiful area of the country. He was teasing us about how hot it gets in Redding by the time we left. I was hiking to the "waterfall" so I got dibs on the camera that day

Summer Lovin'

I don't know where to begin. We have had a fantastic summer.
Mark and I went kayaking down the Trinity River from Lewiston to Steel Bridge to celebrate both his birthday and my completion of school for the semester. (Poor Chris was still studying away.) We remembered this section of the river as meandering and lazy from a previous trip which we'd taken during late summer. Sure it was now early spring and the flows were much higher but it couldn't make that much difference. . . Could it? It did. The river was crazy! Holy Crow it was full and fast! As soon as we began we were taken on a wild and bumpy ride. (Do not be fooled by these photos from the first half of the trip.) It was so much fun. . . for about half of the way. That is when I flipped in an eddy as wide as the river. After we righted the boat, settled in, and continued paddling, the river got even faster with long, long white water sections and unbelievable eddies. I'm pretty sure that it was about then that we realized we might be in just a tad bit over our heads. In fact, we didn't think it--we knew it. Immediately after I flipped we hit the gnarliest section of the river with four foot waves and big obstacles like boulders and trees. All we could think of was, "DON'T FLIP" and "Please don't let Mark/Michelle flip" and "Stay straight, stay straight." From there on out we clutched our paddles with white knuckles and scouted constantly for our pull-out site. After every crazy fast section we would yell to each other, "Are you okay?" We were so relieved to finally see the sandy beach in front of our campsite at Steel Bridge Campground. We did a lot of hugging before Mark took off on his bike to get our car. The only other people in the campground were these amazing two couples from Oregon who rolled down on their Harleys and built a really warm fire.