Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Marie, Eric & Murray with 4 Rainbow Trout
Lunch on the River in Steamboat Springs (Eric had just finished a 50 mile bike ride)

Balloonist farewell - leaving Steamboat Springs (that is Marie & Eric's camper in front of us)

Scenery en Route

Ranch with Snow-Capped Mountains at Rear (beautiful when magnified)

Our 2 night stopover in Steamboat Springs, Colorado was really just to give us a break before attacking the high elevations of the Continental Divide. Our campground was very basic, but because it was outside of the city limits, it was nice & quiet. Murray was having a chat with the owner and asked if there were any good fishing spots & was thrilled to be told there was a good spot only 2 miles away, on the owners property. Before our engine had cooled, the owner had taken Murray for a drive to check the river out. By 5.30 am the next morning, Murray was on his bike with fishing rod in hand. He was back by 9am with 4 beautiful rainbow trout 20-21". He was stoked & couldn't get the grin off his face. Eric then left to do a 50 mile bike ride (he has done 200 miles in one day in the past), so that left Marie & I simply no choice but to head into the delightful shops in town. Murray declined joining us, citing the 4 mile round-trip uphill bike ride, the adrenalin of the fish catch plus the early start had worn him out! Either that or he didn't fancy following two women around the shops - don't blame him! The shopping was fantastic, and 4 hours went by in a heartbeat. Before we knew it, Eric had finished his bike ride and was ready for a feed to replenish his energy levels. We rang Murray to see if he wanted to join us for lunch, but he took a rain check, so the three of us treated ourselves to lunch at a new restaurant right on the river. Stunning.

The next day we exited the pretty city, aptly farewelled by an air balloon! Murray suggested that they were ensuring we left so that some fish were left for other anglers. Ha ha. We initially crossed the Continental Divide at Rabbit Ears Pass - at a height of 9,476' above sea level. Our destination was the Rocky Mountain National Park, and we could have taken another route right through the NP, but other travellers had advised us to go north to Laramie, Wyoming as the NP road was not for faint-hearted RVers. We have since learnt that we could have turned off before Laramie and headed down towards Denver then into the park, but never mind, we enjoyed our drive and picnic in Laramie. We saw beautiful snowcapped mountains in the distance, with ranches dotted along our route. We survived the traffic congestion and road works in Fort Collins, and entered the canyon drive leading into Estes Park, located at the Eastern entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Park. Ready for our next adventure...