CROSSING THE ROCKIES DIVIDE - DENVER TO THE UTAH BORDER

We woke this morning with the exciting news that Steve and Sarah's little girl was born at just after 4 am. A 23 hour labour --- so Stella Catherine has at last made her appearance. Wonderful news.

Did I say we were tracing summer?

 

Brrrr-----

We left Denver this morning stopping off in the quaint mining town of Georgetown for coffee with snow drifting down. Past Vail and all the ski resorts through snow drifts with the fir tree branches heavily laden and the roofs of houses covered in snow - this in May? It's a great surprise and exquisite. Then through the Glenwood Canyon tracking the fast flowing Colorado River winding deeply through the gorge, where the rocks are layered and stacked like lego and the aspens new lime coloured leaves contrast with the red stones of the mountains. We had a pub lunch in Glenwood at a hotel where Teddy Roosevelt stayed and it is claimed that this is where the teddy originated. Apparently he went out bear hunting and was disappointed that he was unsuccessful so the hotel made him a bear out of material - his young daughter named the bear Teddy.

Home of the teddybears 

Conal cunningly disguised as a true blue Ozzie watching the passing scene in Aspen.

The temperature ranged between 32F - over 60F!
It was too cold to walk up to Doc Holliday's grave but we drove to just below the cemetery on a little kopje - and on through the beautiful valley to a monastery called St Benedict's a peaceful secluded retreat nestling in a wide valley with the backdrop of snow covered mountains. David has been there on a number of occasions.  It is a spiritual place where Thomas Keating wrote and taught and was well known for the Centering Prayer. The monks originally belonged to the order where silence is practised and there are rooms for meditation and accommodation built of stone that blends into the surroundings where people can come for a retreat  - it was a difficult place to leave.
We got to Aspen for tea and can understand why this is the most exclusive ski resort in the States - the town has lovely old buildings and the shops - well Dior, Prada -  says it all. The people walking through the streets all look as if they could be in movies. The ski lift starts right in the village & if one lost control one could easily land up crashing into Dior!

We arrived at our hotel - Redstone Inn - an old Victorian building in a tiny village originally built in 1902 by John Osgood who made his fortune from mining coal in the valley nearby. The road where one turns off to the hotel is lined with the coke kilns. It's been a perfect day driving through the most spectacular scenery.