Wednesday, July 29, 2009

A Black Diamond Day

Yesterday, we had the day off from jeeping so we did laundry, shopped and rode our bikes into town for lunch. That was a real workout! It was up hill all the way in but down hill all the way back and that was good because we had to beat the rain that was threatening. 13 miles round trip.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009 Today we got to do two of the most difficult trails in the Ouray area -- Black Bear and Imogene. The front 1/2 of Black Bear is tough but not a horribly steep climb, lots of rocks to go over. But then we have to go down! The first 120 or so feet is called "The Stair Step" and it is very steep and has very loose rocks that could slide. John did great job driving but I white knuckled it. Then came the switch-backs where we have to back up the jeep into the mountain in order to make the very tight turns. And its not just one or two but about 10 of them. It was a "Woo Hoo!" moment when we got the the bottom of Bridal Veil Falls. From there on in to Telluride was a piece of cake.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

After lunch we went on Imogene Pass. It is not as steep as Black Bear but it is tricky due to narrow roads and big rocks. This is one of the highest passes in the Rockies at about 13,114 ft. Great scenery, lots of flowers, and some historic mines to view.

We finished early, so we stopped by another campground to see our friends Ann and Dick who we met on our Mexican trip.

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