Who the heck rented my husband a jeep??!!
Madi here, obviously. So. another beautiful day in Ouray, okay the first beautiful day. No rain and lots of sun. So we decide to go 4-wheeling. Beginner 4-wheeling, or at least that's what I was told. But I'm a little ahead of myself.
They call Ouray Switzerland of America. I can see why. It's beautiful. Incredibly beautiful Everywhere we look.
We woke up at 6 am (Mike is still waking up at 3:30 as that's 5:30 EST) and tried to wake up the kids. Anyone ever try to wake up rocks? Yea, now you understand. Even better was the fact that they giggled themselves to sleep last night and Ben started giggling as soon as he was conscious this morning. We actually got completely packed up and moving by 7:30 am by using the promise of a hot breakfast in town.
Casey, Alec and I found a restaurant and ordered breakfast for all of us while Mike and Ben rented the vehicle of terror, I mean the heap. Actually, it was a very nice Jeep, or so I thought. And they came back and breakfast arrived just after they returned. Mike had a really spicy breakfast burrito that puts Frisco's burritos to shame. I had a delicious omelet with jalopenos (don't ask don't tell) and the kids had pancakes and french toast and hot chocolate. YUM!!
We then packed the heap with our cooler and extra clothes and went off on our leetle adventure. The only thing I forgot was my depends, mental note to self.
It started out innocently enough. A few bumps, a few hills, some 4-wheelers, some mountains. Then the switchbacks and mining debris, slopes totally washed out-heap singletrack and Madi in adrenaline overload. OMGOSH!! I have not been that scared in a long time. Mike's been 4-wheeling. I haven't. All I could think was 'Who the heck rented Mike this thing? Does he know what he's doing? Will anyone find us when we go over the edge? Am I leaking onto the seat? (jk)' Fortunately I was smart enough not to open my mouth while we were on the ledges and switchbacks but Mike probably knew by how quiet I was. I do think I got all the adrenaline out because I was fine on the second set of washed out trails.
The views were amazing. You cannot get the same feel on the paved roads. The kids loved the 4-wheeling. They made up their own jeep jingle. And we got to hike to the top of the highest part around. hopefully those pics turned out and we'll include those. (The momma bear in me came out up there too, kids too close to the edge, eeeeeeek! Darn hormones.)
We also did a lot of geocaching. Ben is proving yet again to be our treasure hunter. He can find the geocaches anywhere. Alec and Casey are good too, but Ben is the expert. Quote of the day, "Is this the geocache?" Madi, "What is it?" Ben, "I don't know. It has signing stuff, a pen and paper and toys in it." Ben had found a box nailed to the trunk of a spruce tree that looked almost like a birdhouse with a ziploc bag in it and a margarine container. We found at least 3 geocaches already today and found our first multi-cache, a 2-part cache. The first part told us the coordinates of the real cache. Cool stuff.
Side note, Ben really wants to make pine needle tea. He learned about it on Man vs. Wild and we looked in up in our SAS Survival Book. You can use the green needles to do it or you can just eat the new needles. The ends are especially tasty in the spring and they are loaded with vitamin C.
Mike wants me to tell you guys we just finished going down a hill that was as steep as Ilchester and at least 10 times (I think 20 or more) as long. And we saw a cyclist almost at the top. He was AWESIOME!! We are south of Telluride on Rt. 145. Dave, if you get a chance, would you please look it up on Bikely? Crazyyyyyyy!!
Trivia question-how many miles have the West's traveled as of right now? The one closest to it will win a genuine arrowhead from the town of Ouray. Let the games begin!
Last note - we pulled into Mesa Verde tonight only to find that the trailer cable had frayed; no lights, no trailer brakes, no refrigerator, no power (for tonight). I guess the adventure has finally begun! - Mike
Ciao!
Madio
July. You can see and buy petrified wood in the park, or you can simply stop along highway 180 after you leave and pick it up off the side of the highway. It turns out that petrified wood is not rare; it occurs in all 50 states. While stopping to check out a geocache on 180, we noticed that the roadside was littered with agate, petrified wood, and other rocks you might pay for in a store. I guess geology is much easier when you go to a place that isn't slathered in asphalt and $400k townhouses.
It's covered with petroglyphs - stone art from native Americans dating back almost 2000 years. It was fun talking to my 6 year-old - who spent most of last year learning to read and write - about languages that lack a formal alphabet and grammar. (You can, of course, find better pictures and information on the net...)
