Day 2: all the riding is starting to take physical tolls in weird ways. My bottom teeth hurt, why?! It's also helping break some patterns that I just can't do anymore. Compulsive social media consumption, snacking, too much coffee, there's too much ground to cover to keep up these habits
Day 3: we made it across The Big Flat! 16ish hours including stops, from St Louis to Denver. It was exhausting, and boring, but also beautiful. We had about an hour of setting sun and brilliant sun-rays (📸: @crissdragon.bsky.social), one of my favorite sights so far. 2k miles in... now we rest!
Day 5: Denver to Pikes Peak to Ouray is a route that is so beautiful, words fail to do it justice. Mountains, prairie, lakes, rapids, the best we could come up with to describe it was "breathtaking." This state is breathtaking. 📸: @crissdragon.bsky.social at Cottonwood Pass
Damn I'm jelly. I didn't make it to pikes peak. I was so close but I chickened out and turned west.
Day 6: kind of a wash, sadly. Many of our adventures were washed out by rain (including our airbnb lol) and we didn't get a ton of photos. But we saw some buttes and some mesas, and made memories just in unexpected places. Who knew August was the rainy season in the desert??
Day 7: Grand Canyon is real cool! We went to see it in the morning then spent the entire rest of the day driving around it to get to Vegas. After being in so much wilderness, Vegas has been complete sensory overload and I wish to escape to the mountains. But first we gotta get through death valley!
Day 10: we made it. It took a lot longer than we wanted today but we made it. Boots in the water Pacific coast version tomorrow!
Planning a first trip to the Grand Canyon can feel like a lot. I wrote down the basics that helped me if you’re curious: www.thetraveler.org/grand-canyon...
YES. it's fucked up just how amazing it is to ride though. It's the only thing I've been able to think about since. Y'all doing the San Juan Mountain Skyway?
We did that today actually!! It was excellent but we got rained on most of the time, so viewing distances were fairly short and tbh we need a redo sometime in the future. I bet it's a hell of a road when it's not pouring
That sucksss. :c But it's worth it, IMHO, especially if combined with Unaweep-Tabeguache and Hwy 92. Could make a trip out of just riding SW Colorado and visiting sites like the Black Canyon!
Such a beautiful skyscape!