Road trip: heading into Colorado

After the busy summer singing season for me, it was time for a vacation.  We wanted to eventually end up in CA to see Kean, but decided to take a long scenic route through Colorado to camp in some places we hadn't been before.  It's almost impossible to see everything and do all the hikes, bike ride, etc that one would want to do, so we treated this mostly as a scouting expedition for future trips.

Short stop for a hike near the NM/CO border gave us the opportunity to spot the Cumbres&Toltec narrow gauge train.  This is apparently a pretty scenic ride that we will need to do someday, as it goes through some pretty country. 

After driving through "cheap land Colorado" (look it up, good book), we pulled into our campsite for the night

right next to the Great Sand Dunes.  

We enjoyed watching the play of the light along the dunes as the sun went down and the full moon came up.

The next day brought a bike ride around a lake near Crested Butte and a nearby campsite near KEber Pass Road.

After driving the good dirt road over the pass, we stopped at a roadside hot spring in the river to rinse off.  The hot spring comes up in the river, and locals arrange rocks to make soaking pools of varying temperature.

That night, we camped just outside of Vail next to a clear running stream.  Some rain came in, so we skipped our planned bike ride and watched the hungry squirrel chow all nearby pinecones in preparation for the upcoming cold season.  He was quite focussed.