Our Fall Vacation to Breckenridge and Yellowstone - Part 1

View from our vacation condo in Breckenridge

Ron and I traveled north for a Fall vacation September 3-17.  We stayed a week in Breckenridge, Colorado at our Timeshare Condominium.  No snow, the temperatures were in the low 40's to the high 70's.  The aspen had not yet changed to golden. We drove the Boreas Pass dirt road from Breckenridge to Como, CO http://www.thoos.com/snowshoeing/guides/boreas-pass-road  that was built for the historic Denver South Park and Pacific narrow gage railroad that serviced the mining towns of the Colorado Rocky Mountains http://www.narrowgauge.org/ncmap/ted/dspp2_leadville.html.

View of the Goose Pasture Tarn from Boreas Pass

Boreas Pass view of Breckenridge

  

The Inn at Como's former railroad station

Ron had his first chair lift ride up to the top of Peak 8 (nearly 12,000 ft. elevation). Peak 8 has a wonderful Fun Park for families with children http://www.breckenridge.com/peak-8-fun-park.aspx and is reached in the summer by a free gondola.

We took a rainy day whitewater rafting trip down the Colorado a few miles east of Glenwood Springs http://www.rockgardens.com/rafting.html.  There were hot sulphur springs the whole way flowing into the river.  We did the Shoshone rapids, but most of the route was a "float" trip in this late season.

We left Breckenridge Sept. 9th and traveled on Rte 9 through Steamboat Springs, CO and into Wyoming through dinosaur and fossil fields to the Flaming Gorge Canyon http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/flaming_gorge/nra.html 

Rocky Mountain Sheep along the road in the Flaming Gorge Recreational Area

We spent the night in Green River, Wyoming and went out on the Wild Horse Mesa Loop toward Pilot Knob in the morning to look for wild horses.  We saw only three but they were by the road.  I got up close and personal with one of them who was curious or protective.   

View atop mesa toward the Green River and I-80

We traveled US  Hwy 30 along the route of the California-Oregon Trail north west toward Pocatello, Idaho. We stopped at Montpelier, ID to visit the Oregon/California Trail Center http://www.oregontrailcenter.org/ to learn about the history of the westward movement of people in the 19th century.  We spent the night in Pocatello, visiting Ron's old friends, Roland and Nina.  They have a beautiful home filled with cultural and artistic collections from a lifetime of world-wide travel.

Roland and Nina

 We departed Pocatello on September 13 and headed for Jackson, Wyoming for Grand Teton National Park and then Yellowstone National Park.  Please go to Part 2 for that that story: http://theuniversesmiles.blogspot.com/2010/09/our-fall-vacation-to-yellowstone-part-2.html