Greetings from Telluride, CO!!

We woke up this morning & our first thought was, "In one week from today...we'll be taking our first steps on the PCT!"  Well, hopefully that's true...we still have miles to go before we make it to California but so far, we're (mostly) on track.

After an eventful & memorable 3 days & nights of sleeping in our Subaru (which is actually deliciously comfortable), we have landed in one of the most beautiful towns either of us has ever seen - Telluride, Colorado.  It's nestled in a valley up at 8,750 ft. in the San Juan Mountains in southwest CO.  Here's a look at the downtown:

Last night we stayed in a FREE campsite we found just outside of Ouray (another adorable town tucked in a valley lower down in the mountains).  We stopped & ate a homemade doughnut & a yogurt parfait for breakfast before heading up to Telluride.  We got here early & found a room at The Victorian Inn & we have been relaxing a bit as well as exploring the town/area & are glad to be here during off-season because it's quiet & not so busy.

So let me backtrack a little bit...here's what Keith was doing YET AGAIN in Fort Collins 3 days ago, the morning after we had arrived in Colorado:

Can you see the Rocky Mountains in the background?

This time, it was the starter...something we had been putting off fixing for a long time but when our car had trouble starting the morning we were planning to head up to Rocky Mountain National Park, we decided we no longer had a choice...whenever it was cold, our car wouldn't start & it was going to be COLD in the Rockies.  So we spent that morning fixing it as well as the heat shield that was slowly starting to fall off underneath our car.  We're pretty sure we're in good shape now...........:)

After putting our car back together (hopefully for the final time), we headed up the mountain toward Estes Park & into Rocky Mountain National Park.  When we first arrived, there was only snow at a certain elevation & we were camping below, where it was dry & actually kind of warm.  We traveled up into higher elevation to hike to Alberta Falls as well as Bear Lake, which were both frozen solid yet still beautiful.  Although it was snowing & the wind was howling all night long, we were toasty warm sleeping in our car.  The roads were icy the next morning & as we were heading out of the park, we heard they were expecting much more snow so we managed to sneak out just in time...

Bighorn Sheep on our drive up to Estes Park/Rocky Mountain National Park

Elk herd as we were entering Rocky Mountain National Park

Keith "glissading" down the frozen Alberta Falls

A frozen Bear Lake

We awoke to Rocky Mountain snow!

So we headed back down to the valley & toward Longmont, the town where I spent the first 5 years of my life, in hopes of visiting some old & familiar territory.  I couldn't find our old apartments but we did find "the" King Supers that I remember shopping at as well as Twin Peaks Mall, both of which we explored & I shared stories.  I could've spent a lot more time exploring & searching for familiar places but we had a long day of driving ahead of us & storms to try to beat out.  I have high hopes of coming back here with my family someday.  We also drove through Boulder (the town where I was born) & kind of fell in love.  It's a bit large & sprawled out it's actually quite nice & it would be so amazing to live with the Rockies just within reach.

We spent the entire rest of the day driving through the Rockies in a snow storm but around every bend was a breathtaking view.  Mountains in all directions.  We had plans to make it all the way to Telluride yesterday night but it would've been late & we wanted to soak up all we could from our one night splurge on a hotel.  So we traveled into Ouray & that's where this story began.

We knew we'd fall in love with Colorado.  And we have.  But tomorrow it's time to say goodbye...for now.  Next stop:  Zion National Park, Utah.

Here's a little inspiration I found on a building here in Telluride.  Cheers!