Wide open valleys, snow-capped mountains, and city riding

 Today had a little bit of everything. We started out in Buena Vista, CO, with partly cloudy skies that allowed the sun to bounce off the glittering snow-capped Sawatch Range mountains that contain several peaks over 14,000'

We headed north on US Route 285 which winds through South Park, a high altitude basin that covers more than 1000 square miles. This is wide-open ranch country at about 9,000' elevation and as we watched the clouds roll in we thought about the hardy and adventurous ranchers who settled in this area.

I started off the day wearing all my warm clothes, liners, and rain gear due to the cool temperatures in the mid 50's to low 60's plus the threat of rain. We stopped along Route 285 for Mike to pull on his rain pants just as the first raindrops started to fall. The rest of the day we rode in and out of rain as we crossed Kenosha Pass at 10,000' elevation, leaving South Park and riding through the Pike National Forest through the Front Range of the Rockies into the Denver area.

We started off the day with very little traffic, and ended up riding in 6-lane traffic into metropolitan Denver to stay with our son in Lakewood, CO. We're here for the next 3 days when we continue our motorcycle trip to Deadwood, SD.