The next morning, we headed for the mountains where we stopped for lunch in Downtown Salida and then drove to Elbert Creek Campground (elevation 10, 500 ft. above sea level) near Leadville. We enjoyed the next four nights camping and marveling at the cool weather. We also spent one morning rafting down the Arkansas River - our river guide lives in Terlingua, TX of all places where he guides trips on the Rio Grande! We plan to meet up with him on our annual Big Bend camping trip next March. We spent another day reading and watching the rainbow trout jump out of the clear water at Emerald Lake - nothing could have been more relaxing!
On Friday, after driving through Independence Pass and spending one night in Aspen at the Hotel Aspen and having a fantastic dinner (no hot dogs!!) at the Wild Fig thanks to our friend Beaver's recommendation, Leah and I drove north and then east in route to visit and stay with Dave, Kate and Siena in Thorton (near Denver). On the way, we stopped at one of Teddy Roosevelt's old stomping grounds in Glennwood Springs before having lunch in Vail at Garfinkels at the bottom of a beautiful ski slope. Leah and I concluded our trip by hiking through the Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado Springs. We arrived back in Rockwall at around 2:00 AM Monday morning. What a week!
