Buena Vista, CO - May 30 - June 4, 2006

After leaving Chama, NM we traveled up through the center of the state to Buena Vista, CO. Now we have our first sight of the highest points in the rugged Rocky Mountains. Our route took us through wide grassy plains surrounded on all sides by snow-topped peaks. Buena Vista (pronounced Byoo-na Vista by the locals!) is a charming little town nestled between the mountains on the west and the Arkansas River on the east. We enjoyed driving around town looking at the historic downtown and the quaint Victorian homes. Another flashback – the Comanche Drive-In Theater! We hadn’t been to the drive-in in over 25 years, but we couldn’t pass up seeing Tom Cruise in MI3 on the really big screen. No portable speakers these days – you tune to a specific channel on the radio to pick up the audio feed. That was the only high tech aspect of this flashback experience though!

The mountains of central Colorado are littered with the remnants of old gold and silver mines and the ghost towns where the miners settled. We visited several of these old towns – St. Elmo, Winfield and Vicksburg . Some of them are still inhabited or are partially restored, others are just falling into decay. But all of them are fascinating glimpses into how people lived back in the day.

One of our day trips took us across the Continental Divide over Independence Pass to Aspen. This road would almost qualify as a carnival ride with all of the switchbacks, steep drop offs and narrow roads. Aspen is pretty swell – lots of swanky shops, fancy dining and fabulous homes – so of course, we fit right in! We stuck around for a coupcouple of hours, had dinner at a Mexican restaurant, and then headed back home over the pass.

On our drive we noticed some old buildings on the far side of a lake we passed – we even stopped to check them out with our binoculars and wondered how you could get there. Well . . . our neighbors at the RV ranch told us how we could get to a trail that would take us to the buildings and some great fishing! The next day we hiked about two miles to the old Inter-Laken Resort that was built by a successful mine owner from Leadville. We visited his elaborate summer cabin by the side of the lake as well as the hotel and other buildings designed to amuse the wealthy visitors from Leadville and beyond. One highlight – a round outhouse with six separate compartments that featured leather seats! The height of luxury in those days I guess. .

The other highlight of the day was catching a nice mess of trout from our spot at the edge of the lake! I caught most of them – but Ez claims this is because he was always having to unhook my line when it got caught in the rocks or take my fish off the hook, etc. . . There may be some truth to that, but the fishing gods were also smiling on me that day.

We enjoyed the area around Buena Vista so much that we extended our stay for a couple of days. That gave us time to visit Salida, another quaint historic town, and get in a round of golf at the little course in Buena Vista. The course wasn’t world class, but the views were amazing! One evening we saw over 20 deer in a meadow that adjoined the course. We also saw about 15 Rocky Mountain big horn sheep grazing along the side of the road near the Arkansas River.

After enjoying the charms of small-town Buena Vista, we’re off to the Denver area on the next leg of our trip. Check in later for more of our hair-raising adventures!!