In the time between the end of my summer internship and the start of school, I was able to visit my family in Arizona. After a fun trip to Lake Powell and then Fossil Creek, we took off for a camping trip. Though we were only gone for five days, we enjoyed Telluride, Moab, and Monument Valley. I took some pictures on my phone to share.
Though Flagstaff has been receiving lots of rain lately and is looking very green, I was not prepared for all the beautiful greenery I was greeted with as we entered Colorado. It was raining, but through the fog and clouds you could see expansive green meadows and huge mountains dotted with all different types of trees. It was nearing dark and we hadn’t yet arrived in Telluride (due to an unnecessarily long doctors appointment) so we stopped off on the side of the road right along the Dolores river. Here are a few pictures.
We took a few rides on the gondola into Telluride – which has its own beautiful scenery. Though most things in Telluride were very expensive, I was surprised that the gondola was conveniently free. I attended the farmer’s market, but found it both smaller and more expensive than ones I go to at home. I also went into a few shops which seemed to be all outdoors clothes or strange gift items. I don’t mountain bike, so the best thing for me to do in the summer in Telluride is hike.
The most beautiful hike was up to Bear Creek Falls. This is a two mile (so they say) trail that is fairly steep but completely worth it. The scenery along the way was almost as beautiful as the waterfall itself. The water was extremely cold; someone did the ALS ice bucket challenge when we were up there.
One more thing of note was a drive up to the Alta lakes. I didn’t enjoy the drive as the path was very thin, steep, and required lots of scary passing…but the lake was another symbol of Telluride’s beauty.
It rained on and off in Telluride while we were there, but the weather was very pleasant. In contrast, Moab was both dry and hot. The main event here was kayaking down the Colorado river. We rented some blow up kayaks to do this. We did a few very small rapids, but for the most part the water was moving slowly. The river is very muddy and looks brown, in contrast to the Colorado through the Black Canyon. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of kayaking but here is our campsite.
Lastly, we headed to Monument Valley where my grandparents live. It was their 57th anniversary…a week after my parents’ 29th anniversary. Monument Valley is a beautiful and amazing place. We didn’t have much time to rock climb (which is my favorite thing to do here) but it was nice to visit and get cleaned off after the dirty kayaking!
Looks like a good vacation spot.