Road Trip 2012; Thursday 10/18

187 miles: camped at the home of Tanya and Dean Victor in Fort Collins, Colorado.  Tanya is the daughter of good friends Dave and Ann Wright.  Tanya has the distinction of being one of a small group of people who's birth certificate states that she was born in Gouverneur, NY.  However, her parents moved to Colorado when she was six months old, so her only memory of Gouverneur is the birth certificate.  :-)

Kremmling, Colorado to Fort Collins, Colorado

I had two ways to get from Kremmling to Fort Collins. One was a southern route around Rocky Mountain National Park and the other was a northern route.  I chose the northern option because I would avoid Denver traffic and it would offer more options for side trips for hikes.

We left the campground about 8:30 and the temperatures was a chilly 22 degrees.  I was supposed to get to Tanya's about 5:30.  The GPS said it would take about four hours, so I had lots of time for a leisurely drive.  Heading north from Kremmling, you travel through a broad wide open region with mountains to both the west and east of you.  This area is called the North Park.  I'll let this interpretive sign explain it.

It is a beautiful area with many ranches and hundreds, if not thousands of beef cattle grazing the meadows.

We took a side trip to explore the Arapahoe National Wildlife Refuge at the northern end of the park.  After a stop at the visitor center, I checked Google Maps and decided to take a short cut on some county roads back to the main road.  Apparently, as you shall see, Colorado's definition of a county road is different that what my New York definition of a county road is.  But we made it.  The scenery was spectacular, and there was no traffic.  :-)

We made a quick stop at a Colorado State Park visitor center.  A sculpture of a moose made out of barb wire (yes, the same wire used to build livestock fences) greeted us.  I also discovered the reason for so many dead pine spruce trees that was seeing.  The mountain pine beetle and the spruce beetle attack stressed trees and eventually kill them.

We had to cross the Rockies at some point, and that point was Cameron Pass.  There was several inches of snow on the ground, the temperature was 31 degrees, but the roads were bare.

After crossing the pass, it was all downhill to Fort Collins.  The highway and the Poudre River share a narrow and steep canyon all the way to Fort Collins.  We stopped numerous times for short hikes.  As we descended, the temperatures increased and leaves began appearing on the trees.  It was a warm 65 degrees by the time we got to Fort Collins.

I found Tanya and Dean's house and settled in for an evening of catching up.  It was a very nice day.