The Cliffs of Insantiy

OK, well it might not take Andre the Giant to scale these puppies, but when you're driving along this little road in Colorado, between cliffs that shoot straight up several hundred feet, the view is rather impressive.

Buttes

Buttes of South Dakota

These upthrusts of rock really do look like one edge of the earth just shoved another edge up toward the sky. Some of them are mind-bogglingly tall and huge. Others are almost delicate looking in the near-distance. Looking at them today, I can really see why settlers, and the Souix and other tribes before them, chose to embrace the wild beauty of this land.

Psst. Buttes are pronounced with a long-U sound. No comments from the peanut gallery. :)


Buttes of South Dakota

The Glorious Road

Sometimes, the road itself can be beautiful. Photos like this one are among my favorites. They speak to me of possibility, freedom, and the thrill of discovery.


Road to Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Colorado Vistas

The following pictures were just a couple of the amazing horizons we saw while driving the loop from Denver to Colorado Springs, to Breckenridge and up to the western entrance to The Rocky Mountain National Park.

Garden of the Gods

South of Denver, CO, somewhere near Colorado Springs, is a little park called Garden of the Gods. I must admit, it had some of the most sheerly impressive natural rock formations I've seen. This is but on of them. The space under the pendulous rock formation is large enough for several people to crouch below, though I don't recommend it and the park service forbids it. That didn't stop several ninnies from doing it while we were there, however.

Beetling

Our Beetle at a scenic overlook in the Rockies

It's a tradition. Every cool place we go with my hubby's 2004 New Beetle Convertible, we take a pic of the Beetle in front of something cool. On the Oct 2007 trip, we took more than a few. Here's one of my favorites. The fellow in the shot is my hubby and the pilot of our adventures, Aaron.

Bull Elk

A bull elk in the Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

We spotted this group of elk soon after entering the part from the West side. The park west of the Continental Divide is much less traveled than the eastern side, with approximately one-sixth the visitors yearly. If you are looking for Rocky Mountain wildlife, this seems to be the place to go. Before we crossed to the eastern side, we spotted three herds of elk, a solo male mule deer, numerous birds, and several smaller forest dwellers.

Sunrise over the Rockies

Sunrise over the Rocky Mountains and Grand Lake, CO.

Sunrise was glorious this morning. Thanks to the dreadful accommodations at the Bighorn Lodge (aka The Stinky Goat), we got an early start on the morning and witnessed this brilliant sunrise.

St Louis Arch

The St. Louis Arch, Gateway to the West, Monument to US Western Expansion

On the first leg of our Oct 2007 journey to complete our honeymoon, we stopped off in St. Louis again. The city looks to have been cleaned up, particularly along the riverfront, where I spotted bullet holes in one stop sign on our last pass through in 1997. This time, we decided to make the ascent to the top of the Arch. The trip up was quite the adventure. As you can see from the photo below, the egg-like contraption we rode up 630ft in was rather cramped, and the door opening at the top was very much like being hatched.



The view from the top was lovely, but let's just say it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and we're rather pleased with that.