We headed out of Colorado Springs and took route 24 west. We were working our way to Moab. While on or way, we came across a massive valley on top of the mountains and saw some antelope which was neat. I believe it was 48 degrees when we left and also when going through this elevated valley northwest of Buena Vista.
From there we went up route 82 over the Independent Bypass. The roadway was very similar to Pikes Peak. It was truly amazing. The views were beautiful and the drops were steep. You could see down to the bottom into a luscious green valley on both sides of this pass.
Without realizing it, the other side of route 82 dumped us out into Aspen. Aspen was very busy. I thought it was just a ski village, but I guess I was wrong. The cool part, however, was that there was a corner with a bunch of people taking photos. I thought there may be some type of monument or historical thing. We pulled into a gas station to fill up before continuing. We overheard someone say there was a bear with two cubs in an apple tree eating apples. We looked over and there they were! You could see the limbs bent and a brown blob. Then they ran down, jumped over a short raught iron fence, and up a pine tree. It was really interesting to watch.
We then booked it to Utah for a while and instead of taking I-70 all the way, we got off onto route 128. We were told it parallels the Colorado River, so we gave it a whirl. At first it was flat and boring, but we were heading closer to the beautiful red rocks. Sure enough, we got to the river and, wow! The views were absolutely amazing! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so incredibly surreal.
We were so intrigued with the beautiful red rocks right along the river, we had the GoPro’s out getting pictures of each other and trying to record what we were seeing. We were like kids seeing something awesome for the first time.
We followed route 128 until we got onto route 193 and headed into Moab. We found a campground, set up camp, and went for dinner. We were eager to start the next day and check out Arches National Park!
Adventures of Matty Q 