Cross country trip: Aspen to Grand Junction

Traveling route 82 from the south east to Aspen, CO is a pretty cool trip. I mentioned in my last post that the road has some harrowing features to it, but it's full of interesting scenery too. I loved watching the environmental changes as we decended from Independence Pass toward the famous ski town. We watched as the scene outside the window changed from lots of snow and no trees in sight, to evergreens on both sides. A few times we would round a corner and see a patchwork below us of pale green interspersed within deep evergreen; the Aspens that gave the area it's name. Route 82 comes right into Aspen, CO on Cooper Ave, turns to the right for about 3 blocks on Galena and then turns back left on Main St. Even in early June, after the ski season has ended, this town was full of activity. Street parking was difficult to find, but worth the effort. I don't enjoy shopping much, but I could see that Aspen offers LOTS of shopping from inexpensive T-shirt stores up to very high end boutiques. We walked the streets for a few minutes and then headed over to the resort. The gondola to the top of the mountain was still running for the day, taking tourists like us up to enjoy the view of the surrounding mountains andthe town. They offered several outdoor activities at the top as well, and there were still a few inches of snow up there, which my kids were immediately drawn to once we made it up.

We had a hard time convincing our son to get in the gondola. He thought it was an airplane and the whole idea of it frightened him. I had to carry him on and he wouldn't sit anywhere other than my lap for the whole ride. He sat there with the most serious look on his face for the entire trip up the mountain. We didn't spend a lot of time at the top. Just enough to look around, take some pictures and head back down. We were going to have lunch up there, but the lodge was closed to get ready for a reception later that evening.

Back at the bottom, we stopped in at a restaurant on a street corner. Actually, a store was on the street corner. To get to the restaurant you had to enter the store and go up the stairs. I don't remember the name of the place (that's the hazard of not writing your memoir until 6 months after it takes place!!) but it had a nice balcony seating area with a view of the rest of the street below and it served delicious hamburgers. After lunch we were ready to get on with the trip except for one small errand. My husband had a beer called "Fat Tire" with lunch. He thought it was very good microbrew and since he hadn't seen it before he wanted to get some to take with us. A quick trip to a minimart secured that purchase and we were on our way. He was pretty excited about his new find too. He thought it was just a local brand, but we'd later find that it was pretty common at least from CO westward.

We left Aspen and continued on route 82 back toward I-70. There was a lot more traffic than we expected along the way. This part of the drive was ok, but there wasn't anything in particular that drew my attention until we got back to I-70. From Glenwood Springs on west almost to the Utah line, I-70 follows the Colorado River. The road leaves the river occasionally, but never for very long. We saw several kayakers and white water rafts along the way, which made us wish again that we had more time and a babysitter. The snow-topped mountains and thick evergreens gave way to more redrock and a desert-like appearance the closer we got to Grand Junction, CO. I guess we were entering the Great Basin. In Grand Junction itself, the thing that caught our eye was an A6-Intruder monument. This was the plane that my husband began his naval career working on and he had to have a picture of it. Both of us wondered why the monument was here, but we didn't have the time to look for the answer. We wanted to get to the hotel and get some sleep before the next days trip in Utah.