Drive pPage 9 of 10 - Trans-Americas Journey

During a week of Rocky Mountain Bliss at our friend Marca’s Valhalla cabin in Eldora, Colorado we enjoyed extreme golf cart off-roading (those things are tougher than they look…), speed hiking through three different seasons in a single afternoon, hot tub soaking, 50 mph wind (okay, we didn’t enjoy that so much) an old musical favorite (Galactic played live at the Fox theater in Boulder where we were charged a TicketBastard style surcharge even though we bought our tickets at the venue’s box office) plus a brand new musical discovery.

Marca’s friend Stephanie tipped us off to a now-defunct business called the Caribou Ranch recording studio in the nearby ghost town of Caribou. Before a fire ruined the studio in 1985 Caribou Ranch enjoyed more than a decade of star studded years. A short list of the dozens of diverse mega artists who recorded mega albums there includes Joe Walsh, Sheena Easton, Chicago, Jerry Lee Lewis, Frank Zappa, Rod Stewart and Supetramp. Oh, and John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Elton John and Stevie Wonder who drove a car around the ranch between recording sessions.

It’s estimated that music produced and recorded at the ranch sold more than 100 million copies combined. Whether these are your favorite artists or not, you’ve heard the work they did in dinky, tiny, inspiring Caribou.

If we had more time on our hands we’re sure we would have found even more to love about the Eldora area, but it was time to move on toward Dunton Hot Springs (a place we’ve dreamed of visiting for years) via Gunnison and Ouray. To get there, we headed back the way we came over Independence Pass for the second time in as many weeks. When we drove over this 12,095′ monster a week earlier we did it in a snow storm. This time the skies were crystal clear and the snow was already piling up.

At the very top of the pass we passed a Mennonite family as we all walked through the snow to a lookout point. We’ve bumped into tons of Mennonite travelers during our Trans-Americas Journey and we are extremely impressed with their peripatetic nature. Though, we admit, it puzzles us. If anyone can explain why Mennonites seem second only to Australians in the “We live to travel” sweepstakes, please fill us in.

We drove over 4 passes (and under 1 at the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70) this day, but the highest was 12,095 foot Independence Pass, the 2nd highest paved road in Colorado.

We drove over four passes (and under a fifth pass via the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70) during our journey out of Eldora and down to Gunnison. The highest pass, 12,095' Independence Pass, is the 2nd highest paved road in Colorado.

Safely over Independence Pass we arrived in Aspen where the clear skies were holding steady so we took the opportunity to finally get to the Maroon Bells, an area of strangely maroon colored rocks and peaks just outside Aspen. All previous attempts to drive into the formations, which are part of the White River National Forest, had been thwarted by cloudy grey weather but our patience paid off on this visit with bright sun and an impressive accumulation of snow on the striated peaks.

Outside of Aspen, Colorado are the picturesque Pyramid Peak & Maroon Bells. The road in offers a glimpse of Pyramid Peak with the last of the fall colors.

A short and scenic drive outside Aspen took us to Pyramid Peak and the Maroon Bells in the last of the fall colors.

A reflection of the Maroon Bells in Maroon Lake.

The Maroon Bells reflected in Maroon Lake.

We started the day in blustery 20 degree weather in Eldora but a few hours later and a few thousand feet lower the temperatures were balmy enough to put our lunch of leftover garlic mashed potatoes and chili on the dash board and let the sun warm it up as we drove. It looks silly but it’s highly effective.

The Maroon Bells with a bit of Pyramid Peak on the left.

The Maroon Bells with a bit of Pyramid Peak visible on the left.

After a short hike and a quick lunch under the Maroon Bells it was off to our final pass of the day–and it was a doozie. Part of the West Elk Loop (that also takes in some amazing wine and food regions in Colorado), Kebler Pass is a relatively gentle incline along a very well maintained dirt road. What’s remarkable is the sheer number of aspen trees on the hillsides. Though they were, unfortunately, past peak color they still made a spectacular sight virtually as far as the eye could see.

Kebler pass, a dirt-road shortcut to Crested Butte, hashuge aspen groves. These trees on the lower slopes still have some color.

Going over Kebler Pass, a dirt-road shortcut between Hwy 133 and Crested Butte, we saw the largest groves of aspens we've ever seen.

Kebler Pass deposited us in the charming town of Crested Butte where the high prices inspired us to carry on to Gunnison where we checked into one of the most outstanding examples of a strip motel brought lovingly back to life. The Long Holiday Motel has a quirky vintage sign and claims that rooms have been “recently renovated”–a phrase so intrinsicly vague and overused in the motel business that it’s come to mean nothing at all. Or worse. When we hear “recently renovated” our minds automatically translate that to “you won’t want to take your shoes off.”

However, the motel manager was offering us an unbeatable price so we took a look at a room, expecting something just shy of a Roach Motel. Imagine our delight when we were met with a truly recently renovated room, sparkling clean and smartly upgraded with wood flooring and a roomy shower and a new mattress with fresh pillows and crisp, unstained sheets. Equally surprising was the meal we had that night at The Gunnisak in downtown Gunnison where a chef with real creativity and ambition fills locals up with well prepared classics like chicken fried steak, burgers (on homemade buns), homemade soup and enormous fresh baked cookies that are famous for miles around.

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It was April Fools Day, but this was no joke

We were making our way up the Cosatlegre from the Las Alamandas Resort to our next destination, Hotelito Desoncido. After turning off the highway we weren’t sure if we were on the correct road so we decided to pull off the road to consult the map. We came around a corner and there was a side road on the left to pull off onto. I had seen the taxi in my rear view mirror approaching fast, but I figured he would see my brake lights and turn signal. One of the conundrums of Mexican driving is that a turn signal can mean “pass me” (handy when stuck behind a slow moving truck), or “Look out, I’m turning.”

As you may note, these are two conflicting interpretations.

Since we were on a corner in a no-passing zone we figured the taxi would slow down. Wrong. We started our left hand turn onto the side road but the taxi was already trying to pass, horn blaring and brakes screeching. Luckily, by the time he hit us as we were almost off the road he had slowed considerably.

End result? Not as bad as it could have been. Everyone was fine and the truck is fully operable except for the rear door that doesn’t really close well anymore. And now we have, as they say, our first Mexican tattoo.

Some of the damage done.

Luckily we invested in decent insurance. The only problem was that we had to wait for four hours on the side of the road for our adjuste from GNP insurance to come from Puerto Vallarta. Along with the police, the taxi driver, and most of a nearby village we sat on a dusty road in the heat waiting. In the end, after some negotiating, we had a choice to make: let them impound our truck, hang around this tiny village for a few weeks and wait for a local judge to assign blame (though the taxi driver was clearly wrong) OR suck up our $500 deductible, get the truck fixed at our leisure, at the repair shop of our choosing (even back in the states if we want). Guess which option we chose…

This is the genius (aka Mexican taxi driver) who thought it was wise to pass on a corner (no passing zone) while my turn indicator was on.

This is the genius (aka Mexican taxi driver) who thought it was wise to try to pass us on a corner over a solid no-passing dividing line while our turn indicator was on.

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