Regular readers of this blog may recall that my nursing friend Jenny and her husband Peter came over from Australia last year to travel with us in the RV for one week. They have returned again this year, and they will spend 12 days travelling with us. Each night after dinner we drop them to their hotel, and Murray and I hook up at a nearby RV park. The next morning we pick them up and drive to the next destination.
They flew into Denver, Colorado and we kept them on the hop, driving straight up to the quaint little city of Golden, Colorado, located at the base of the Rocky Mountains. There was an impressive array of vintage cars and some amazing motor bikes. After lunch we drove up a steep road to check out Buffalo Bill's grave. His name seems to be in every Western town we visit. Later that day we drove them into Denver city, and tried to remember some of the snippets of information that the tour driver had told us on our bus tour with Bev and Ross the day before.
The next day we headed NW to the Rocky Mountains, starting our day out with morning tea beside a bubbling stream in beautiful Estes Park. That fortified us for the steep climb up into the Rocky Mountains where the higher elevations were still covered in snow. Thankfully we had a rental car, and it made quick work of the steep climb.
We saw lots of animals, and got very excited when we saw several large stag elk close to the road. The elk in the top left corner of the animal collage was sitting right below a large patch of snow. While we were taking photos of him, the marmot, blue jay and the 13 striped ground squirrel came into the camera lens view finder. What a great stop for wildlife viewing!
After our exhilarating visit to up the Rockies, including touching the Continental Divide sign, we made our way downhill back to Estes Park. We celebrated with a specialty ice-cream - very decadent!
From Denver we made our way north to Cheyenne (capital and most populated city of Wyoming), and paid another visit to Terry Bison Ranch for the night. We took a bus tour of Cheyenne, recommended by Bev and Ross. Then we hightailed it over to Salt Lake City, Utah. We got a good view of the Great Salt Lake and the start of the salt flats (part of the location of the Bonneville Speedway) immortalised in the movie 'The World's Fastest Indian'. Back in Salt Lake City, the four of us listened to a recital in the Mormon Tabernacle, and Jenny and Peter did a bus tour of the city. We found a superb bakery in the mall, and voted it the best bakery that we had visited in the USA.
After 2 days in Salt Lake City, we headed NE to Jackson, Wyoming. What a unique, picturesque and quaint upmarket town. The photo below shows the scenery as we approached the southern entrance to the town. The next blog will cover our short but memorable visit.
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