Colorado, Rocky Mountain High

Road trips through beautiful scenery are a big part of our travel.  We spent several days travelling along very scenic US50 across south central Colorado. Without too many words, we'd like to share some of what we loved about this drive. This will be in several sections as we describe each leg we travelled.

Leaving Colorado Springs on 115 South we headed to 50 East.  The first part of the pictures were taken the day we went to Royal Gorge.  The next day we travelled the same route, although further, past the Royal Gorge turnout, as the sun was beginning to set.   

To see more pictures of this leg of our trip click here:
Colorado Springs to Sweetwater

Just outside of Cotapaxi we came across a small campground called Sweetwater River Ranch. We were surrounded by mountains, on the edge of the Arkansas River.    

A hanging bridge beckoned us to explore the other side of the river the next day, but when we tried to cross it the fierce winds dissuaded us.  (It could have been an amusement park ride!)

Bagging the plan to hike,  we headed west a few miles to Cotapaxi, a small town nearby, and then retraced our steps (by car) through the Bighorn Sheep Canyon to the Royal Gorge turnoff, and then back to Sweetwater.

To see pictures of the beautiful Bighorn Sheep Canyon, click here:  Sweetwater, Cotapaxi, and the Bighorn Sheep Canyon  (23 photos)

             

Leaving Sweetwater the next day, we headed to Gunnison. We had to go over Monarch Pass, 11316 feet in altitude.  The views were spectacular as we climbed.  And they kept changing.  At the summit we stopped to browse the souvenir shop and look at the displays about the mountains and the pass, then we began the slow descent to the valley.   


To see pictures of the travel from Sweetwater to Gunnison, click here: Sweetwater to Gunnison (36 pictures)

Gunnison is a college town with many shops and restaurants.  I wouldn't call it picturesque.  But it's a good location for day trips to the surrounding areas for hiking, skiing, fishing, or just looking.  Just looking was what we did as we set out for a day trip to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, about 50 miles away.  More on that in the next blog post.