Day 2 - Into the Mountains

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Breathe deep and smell America

When the air conditioning isn't working - you can't help but breathe deep and let your olfactory sense do what God intended it to.

Alfalfa just mowed, sharp ozone from a thunderstorm, the distinctive differences between cow, chicken, sheep and turkey manure. FYI - Nebraska off the interstate is really fragrant in that respect...

And surprisingly - as we made our way from Denver up into the Rockies then south to Pagosa Springs - the air didn't have any smell at all. Clean and refreshing. Breathe deep, O travelers!

But the van had other ideas. As we labored up steep grades - the engine was producing some funny smells (though we can't figure out exactly what - since the fluids are all in great shape). And going down those same grades let us know that our brakes were working very very hard.

All slept well at the Day's Inn in Denver. Nice and cool and spacious.

We made our way up I-70 and took a recommended route down Colorado 91 - a road called the "Top of the Rockies" drive. Lots of "fourteeners" all around (mountains over 14,000 feet).

A very beautiful change of pace for us flatlanders. As we were driving through the very sparsely populated landscape - reminiscent of desert scrub landscapes seen in movies - someone said let's play the alphabet game. And the alphabet letter has to start the word - not just be anywhere in the word.

Well - the remaining 2 1/2 hours of the drive were taken up by this endeavor. Q for Quality, X for Xpress and Railroad X-ing.

We stopped at one of our favorite pictures spots just after crossing Wolf Creek Pass. It's an outcropping on the top of the valley that offers spectacular views and photo ops galore. Treasure Falls was plainly visible from this spot as the snow is still melting and providing lots of water. (More on Treasure Falls tomorrow).

We stopped to load up on brochures at the Pagosa Springs welcome center - then checked into our condos. The Tres Amigos (Ben, Zack and Joe) dived into their accomodations with gusto and the leftovers (Amy, Isaac and Matt) took welcome respite from the heat in a spacious 2 bedroom condo. We'll get you pictures this week (though it's already too late to get you "neat and tidy" pictures of the Tres Amigos abode...) - we promise.

Tomorrow the hiking begins in earnest - but first - some high altitude rest (about 7900 feet here in Pagosa Springs).