Author: Melanie de Wet

Phoenix (AZ) to Palm Spring (CA)

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I finally reached the point that I started giggling every time I walked outside. I can’t get over how hot Phoenix is. This is the first place in the U.S. that I have thought, I couldn’t live here. Of course, I’d probably say that about of the northern states if I was here in winter. Luckily I’m not. I’ve love all the other States up to now.

I woke up before my alarm this morning which was set for 05:30. Yikes, I know! I wanted to be on the road by 06:30 to avoid the traffic and the worst of the heat. This is where I start giggling again. It was 34 degrees at 06:30!

I finally hit the road at 06:45. I think I was procrastinating because I was finding it difficult to leave. I have no idea when next I’ll see my cousin and his family and that’s not a thought I wanted to entertain.

Due to the heat, I decided to stop about every hour for something to eat and some water. I didn’t want a repeat of Saturday’s ‘feeling sick’ spell. That’s the last thing I want on the bike. It worked well I thought.

At my first stop I started digging into the lunch pack that Liza packed for me. It so made my morning. The last time someone packed my lunch was 18 years ago. I lived with my (late) aunty Penny and family when I was at university and my aunt used to make me sandwiches to take to my classes. It made me happy thinking about her. Thank you for both my lunch pack and the wonderful memories Liza.

My next stop was about 100 miles west of Phoenix. You’ll get a feel for my ride today from this photo and the next one, which we taken in Palm Springs.

I arrived in Palm Springs at lunch time. This is where I start giggling again. It was 42 degrees! By the time I arrived at the ‘spa’ I’m staying at I was almost swimming in my riding jacket.

I was so happy when they were able to check me in early. After a nice cool shower I headed down to the pool area to grab some lunch. This is where I met Matt. He was also on his own so we decided to have lunch together. What a pleasure that was!

Matt’s an industrial engineer and was in Palm Springs for business and also spending time with a friend from LA. He’s from a town just outside of Vancouver, so basically another foreigner.

We had such a lovely lunch and at the end he said he wanted to pay the bill. He loved the sound of my adventure and wanted to be a part of it. I thought that was so sweet! Naturally, Matt has to be in my blog, so here he is.

My lovely, slightly boozy, lunch put me in such a good mood that I forgot about the heat. I sat outside watching everyone in the pool for a while and then headed up to my room.

It was only at around 20:00, when I wanted to pop out for some dinner, that I realised I couldn’t find me keys. Hmmm…this wasn’t good! After I’d searched my room a few times I headed down to reception. Fortunately someone had handed my keys in. Phew!

At this point I heard the music coming from the bar. There was a guy on a piano. It immediately made me smile. All I could think about was Pat O’Brien’s in New Orleans. I was there with 30 friends in April for my friend Amyn’s 50th birthday party. I couldn’t help but pop in for a drink. 2.5 hours later I’m still here. The bar lady, Daisy, keeps giving me tasters of the new cocktails. I think it’s going to be a long day tomorrow!

Phoenix (AZ)

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I had an early start on Friday. I saw that the temperature in Phoenix would be around 45 degrees, so I thought that I better get to my cousins as soon as possible. I stopped off in Sedona for breakfast, which is a really cute little town. I ended up meeting two couples from New Zealand who are also travelling around the U.S. The one couple is from Aukland and the other couple from Christchurch. The latter made me think of my family in Christchurch which made me very happy.

The temperature was in the late 20 degrees Celsius in Sedona so very pleasant. It was a little overcast so I didn’t get photos but trust me when I say it’s lovely!

An hour south of Sedona I started looking at my temperature gauge on my bike. The temperature had steadily climbed into the 40s. Phew, it was getting hot! By the time I was in Phoenix the temperate range was between 44-46.5 degrees. I could feel the heat from the engine burning my calves, so I opened my legs every once in a while to cool my legs down. This is what the heat did to my legs.

I don’t have a SatNav on Trinity so I had to pull off the road a few times to check if I was still on the right road. I did go wrong once so my punishment was an extra 20 minutes in the heat. This is the first time it was cooler to ride with my visor down than with it up (the air was actually burning my face with my visor up). I was travelling on highway 202 or Santan Highway to get to my cousins. I have renamed the road Satan’s Highway, as no human being should be on this road in this heat.

Needless to say I was extremely happy when I got to my cousins. I was drenched in sweat, which was not a pretty sight, but I certainly made the most of my cold shower after a few glasses of water.

The slightly traumatic arrival into Phoenix was quickly eased by the setting sun. I have never seen a more amazing sunset. The photo below does not do the skyline justice but will give you a feel for it.

Nico, my cousin’s eldest son, is starting his studies at Arizona State University this week, so the weekend has partly been dedicated to getting Nico settled in. He had a party at their home on Friday night and then we took him to move into his residence on Saturday. Two things stood out for me about these events. Firstly, a bunch of 19 year olds having a party and there was no alcohol seemed completely out of place. I hadn’t appreciated that you can’t drink in the U.S. until you’re 21. Secondly, the heat really caught up with me on Saturday. I was not feeling great for nearly half the day. Dehydration is really scary!

I took the photo below just before we took Nico off to ASU. I love this photo!

Below are a few more photos that I took that morning. One of the photos was the ‘meat lovers’ for two people that Izaan and I decided to share. This plate could feed me for days. We barely put a dent in it. I don’t think I will ever get used to some of the portions in the U.S.

The evening’s activity was brilliant! We went to play Topgolf. It’s basically a driving range but has these circles that you want to hit your balls into as it gives you points. This place is huge! It reminds me of going bowling. It has the same type of social feel. It was so much fun! It also made me realise I need to take up golf (actually doing it and not just talking about it).

We had an early start this morning. I didn’t get to speak to my mom yesterday so that was my top priority. Following a quick stop at ASU to drop some things off with Nico, we headed north for the mountains. My cousins thought I’d enjoy the break from the city and the heat. They were right.

The landscape was so different along our route. The first section was rolling mountains covered by cacti. It’s the first time I’ve seen this many cacti. You can’t really see the cacti in the photo below but they must be around 3m tall. It’s so impressive to see.

Another 20 minutes drive north and the cacti disappeared to give way to low lying shrubs and then conifers. All in all it was a lovely drive!

The one thing I realised again this weekend is that when you love the company you’re in, it doesn’t matter where you are or what you’re doing, you’re just so happy that you are there. I’m so happy to have had the company of my family twice during my U.S. trip. It’s been such a blessing! I’m going to really miss you guys.

Flagstaff (AZ)

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I arrived in Flagstaff on Wednesday night after leaving the group of Australia Harley riders at the Grand Canyon. I had booked a room for the following night through AirBnB but needed a place to stay that night, so I dropped into Starbucks for a coffee to use their wifi.

I booked into a place called the Econo Lodge, which turned out to be just off Route 66. How awesome is that (see below)! The motel doesn’t look like much from the outside but the rooms were lovely (spacious, clean and modern).

I wasn’t particularly hungry that evening so I had a little room party for one. I bough a bag of popcorn and a beer and sat listening to the Hot Country playlist on Spotify. I love this playlist! It was such a chilled out evening.

The next morning, after taking Trinity to get washed and fixing my dream catcher, I headed into downtown Flagstaff for a little wander. What a cute city. Here are some photos of downtown.

My next stop was the Lowell Observatory. The observatory has been around since the early 1900’s and has been at the forefront of astrological discoveries, including the discovery of Pluto in March 1930. Below is the telescope that was used to discover Pluto as well as capture about 75% of the night sky.

I was fortunate that my AirBnB host for the evening, Dan, lives on the edge of town on the hill. This meant that I got to see the sunset and then had an amazing view of the sky just before I headed off to bed. I could see the Milky Way from my balcony. It was amazing!

Sadly I don’t have any photos I can share with you but imagine seeing thousands of twinkling stars with ‘clouds’ of stars scattered across the evening sky and you would have been standing right next to me. It was perfect!

Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon (AZ)

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I was very happy to wake up and it wasn’t raining!

Given my detour to Blanding the night before I had a 75 mile ride to get to Monument Valley. In addition to this, I had hoped to stay in or near the south rim of the Grand Canyon but there was no accommodation available so I decided to head to Flagstaff, which is 75 miles south of the Grand Canyon. This meant that I had an extra 150 miles to ride that day.

The ride from Blanding down to Monument Valley is beautiful! As you get closer to Monument Valley the red soil and rock features become more apparent. I could feel the excitement welling up inside me. This is what I was getting excited about.

My first disappointment of my trip was however about to happen. In summary, the lady at the gate and I had a disagreement about how much money I gave her. I know I gave her $20 as I didn’t have any $10 notes on me but she insisted I gave her $10. I was not pleased to part with $10 under the circumstances. The incident put a huge dampener on my experience of Monument Valley.

I did however stay at the visitor centre long enough to have a cup of coffee on one of the terraces and take in the view. Part of the view is shown below and there is also a video clip on my Facebook page.

While enjoying the view I heard a South African accent next to me. The accent belonges to Mitch, a South African who lives in Melbourne and is out with a group of Harley riders for two weeks. They had been to Sturges and are on their way back to Las Vegas to finish their trip. As it turned out they were also heading to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Mitch invited me to join them, so I did.

I am very happy that I was able to share the following moment with Mitch in the Grand Canyon National Park, particularly as he is scared of heights and I convinced him that he would regret not climbing down to this viewpoint with me. Mitch was glad he did it. I’m certainly glad he did it. How could you miss this moment. It was perfect!

This is my favourite photo of my trip so far. Thanks for sharing it with me Mitch! I will not forget that I owe you a beer.

Santa Fe (NM) to Blandings (CO)

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I left Santa Fe on Monday with a heavy heart. It’s always difficult leaving something you love.

My stay in Santa Fe was extended by a day as it turned out that a friend of mine, Claude, was in town with her partner and family celebrating her gran, Bee’s, 100th birthday. They were having a party on Sunday evening so she asked me to join them. That was worth changing any plan for.

What a special occasion. Bee’s words to her family were, ‘the only thing in life that matters is love’. I couldn’t agree more. Bee’s love for her family, and their love for her, is so apparent. It was a true privilege to share in this celebration with such a wonderful family and their friends. Happy birthday again Bee. I hope you have a wonderful year!

As I needed to make up some ground I decided to stay in Cortez instead of Durango. One of the sights I really didn’t want to miss was the Mesa Verde National Park. The ride should have taken around 5 hours, but due to me taking the wrong turn and having to do an extra 60 miles, it took around 6 hours.

It is not often I would say this but what a great mistake it ended up being. My wrong turn meant that I ended up driving through Carson National Forest along Highway 64. I cannot tell you how much I love the landscape along the Colorado/New Mexico border. I actually found myself slowing down on the ride between Tierra Amarilla and Chama because I wanted to savour every second of the journey. It was simply stunning!

I arrived in Mesa Verde around 4pm but between the weather taking a turn; me running low on fuel; and all the guided tours for the day being sold out I decided to call it a night and head to Cortex. The upside was that I had time to go out for dinner, so I spoiled myself to a Ribeye steak. Woohoo!

I booked two tours in Mesa Verde for Tuesday morning. The first was for the Cliff Palace tour and the second the Balcony House tour.

The park guide book calls the Park enchanting. I could not think of a better word. It goes without saying that I found the park inspiring. Looking at the well preserved remains of people’s homes built into the ground as early as 900 AD and then in the cliffs from 1100 AD is difficult to describe.

I found the level of skill in the construction fascinating. There were clear signs of storm water drainage and the Kiva’s were ingenious! These rooms are circular in shape and built into the ground, which would have had a roof over them. In the middle of the room there was a fireplace and the chimney was directly above that. On the southern side of the Kiva were the air inlets which was screened from the fireplace by a deflection wall to allow fresh air to be circulated through the room while the fire heated the room.

I have included a photo of a Kiva below as well as some photos of Cliff Palace and Balcony House. I hope you enjoy them. There are a lot more photos on my Mel & Trinity Facebook account if you are interested to see them.

So that you get a feel for the landscape in which these cliff dwellings are built, please see the photo below.

Archeologists estimate that the Ancient Pueblo people built the cliff dwelling in the mid to late 1100’s and that the dwellings were abandoned at around 1280. They are not sure why but they think it may have been due to a 25 year flood and thus the fact there wasn’t enough food to sustain the potentially 5,000 strong community living across Mesa Verde.

The amazing thing is that the Ancient Pueblo people would farm the land on top of the Mesa’s, thus having to scale to cliff walls to work the land each day. They farmed maze (much smaller than by today’s standard), beans and squash which formed their primarily food source. There are signed that they built little retention walls in the cliffs to hold water back to help feed the crops, and there own water supply came from within the caves (water seeps through the sandstone and gets trapped when it hits shale i.e. the cave floors).

I absolutely loved this Park and I would encourage anyone to see it given the chance.

The only accommodation that I could find near where I wanted to be that night was a campsite near Monument Valley. This was therefore my intended destination following a visit to Four Corners Monument. This is where four of the U.S. State borders meet, namely Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

I arrived at the monument to find a queue of people waiting to take a photo of themselves at the monument.

In front of me in the queue were two Americans from Buffalo, Nick and Cassidy, who of course I started speaking with (I know, I can’t help myself). Anyway, they had this funky little attachment for their iPhones which allows you to take different types of photos with your camera. It’s called an Olloclip. I’ve included the link to their website in case you want to check it out.

http://www.olloclip.com/home-video/

The attachment allows you to take different types of photos from wide-angles to fisheye. The photo below was taken with the fisheye lens (I think) from Nick’s (well technically his girlfriends) phone using the attachment. They sent me the photo later during the day by text. How cool is that! What you cannot see is that the area captured by this photo is probably 5m x 5m. Not something any normal camera could pick up from a selfie.

From here on my day got really interesting!

From Four Corners I had about a 2 hour ride to get to where I was staying at Monument Valley. There were just two issues. There was a storm brewing, and the camp site I was staying in was accessed by dirt road.

Given that I did not know how long the perceived ‘storm’ would last I started heading to Monument Valley. About an hour into my journey I knew I was in serious trouble. The wind had picked up dramatically, so much so that it was throwing me around the road and blew away one of my flip flops that was under my hiking bag on my bike (Ang this storm did you a favour).

I discovered the above when I stopped at a gas station to find out if there was any accommodation nearby but there wasn’t. The nearest town, Bluff, was 9 miles away so I thought I’d see if I could find a place to stay there. About half way there I saw three lightening strikes in front of me in what felt like 30 seconds. It became very apparent that there was no way I could head in that direction (west) so I made the decision to head north and try and outrun the storm. That was my theory anyway.

Let’s just say I made a lot of promises to God on the 36 mile journey to Blanding which is where I was hoping to find accommodation for the night. It did not help when I arrived in Blanding to find that there was not any accommodation available in town or anywhere remotely nearby. For the first time on my trip a bit of panic was settling in. The motel I was standing in allowed me to use their wifi so that I could look for accommodation and then in walked Ed, Steve and Felix very clearly on motorbikes.

After a short conversation with Ed, who had started talking to me, I basically said that I would help pay for their room if I could sleep on the floor. I had my camping gear so I was happy to do that. I just wanted a roof over my head.

It turns out that Ed and Felix are brothers and they were sharing a room. They ended up sharing a bed so that I could have the other bed in the room to myself (well with Sam of course). The guys were amazing! Not only would they not take any money for the room, they also would not let me buy them dinner as they said I was their guest.

I didn’t feel like a very good guest having imposed myself on them but I certainly appreciated their kindness and generosity. They were my knights in shining armour (as it turns out fellow BMW riders).

Gentlemen – thank you! I don’t know why I would have done without you.

Below is a photo of me and my three heroes.

Santa Fe (NM)

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Beauty is most certainly in the eye of the beholder.

What makes something beautiful is not what you see with your eyes but what you feel in your heart when you look at it. The same can be said of people. Santa Fe has stolen my heart!

As luck would have it, the best deal that I could find for accommodation in central Santa Fe was the Hilton Hotel, which I found through Hotwire. This certainly set the tone for my stay.

I arrived in Santa Fe at 2.30pm yesterday which gave me enough time to settle in; have a shower; and hit the town for a walking tour.

Sam stayed behind to enjoy the amazing bed.

There is something so peaceful about Santa Fe and I felt it from the moment I arrived.

The historic area around the plaza is not very big so it is easy to see all the sights in a few hours. Planning policy restricts the height of buildings to four floors and on-street advertising is strictly controlled. This allows you to enjoy the beauty of the old buildings without being bombarded with advertising. It is simply wonderful!

I have included a few photos of some of the main sights. It will give you a flavour of the sights but I will add more photos on my Facebook page.

The town centre is of rich with art, sculptures and local traders selling their goods. I really took to the sculptures and if you have ever visited my home you would know I love baskets. Mine are of course African baskets but they are so similar I couldn’t help but smile. Here are a few examples of the above.

It was a little early when I finished sight seeing to have dinner so I popped into Starbucks for a coffee and to use the Internet. This is where I met Dominic, a guy around my age from Philadelphia. I ended up joining him for dinner but as he spoke I realised that my and Dominic’s realities are so far removed. I appreciate that I have only been in the U.S. for 6.5 weeks but my experience of the people has been wonderful. The way Dominic described his home it’s a war zone. Listening to him speak I realised once again that we create our own realities. If you see the world, and the people in it, as bad then that will be your experience of it but if you see the best in people then that is what you normally get from them.

I love the way that I see the world!

Taos (NM)

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The ride from Denver to Taos took about 5 hours including stops. I arrived in Taos around 6pm and was contemplating hanging around town a bit before heading to the AirBnB where I was staying but the sensible side of me thought it would be better to get settled in and then decide what I wanted to do. That ended up being a good decision as the house was accessed by a dirt road for the last few hundred metres.

Luckily for me my host, Lucy, had her two grandchildren staying with her. She had just finished cooking dinner for them and invited me to join them. Result!

Given the access by dirt road I decided to stay in for the night and do some route planning. I’m glad I made that decision. It also gave me time to have a nice soak in Lucy’s massive bathtub. I never take baths so it was a real treat!

The plan for the morning was to pop into Taos for breakfast and then to head to Santa Fe. I headed to the plaza as I heard Lucy saying that the Farmers Market would be on. When I arrived I walked around for a while and then my need for coffee took over. This is how I met Stephen.

Anyone that works with me knows that my favourite place in the office is the kitchen. In my view it fulfils three fundamental needs, namely coffee; food; and conversation. I have a feeling Stephen and I have these needs in common.

Not only did Stephen point me in the direction of the nearest place to get coffee; he walked me to it; and then joined me for about 1.5 hours talking about all sorts of things including what I should see in the area. In the process I met his wife and daughter who were also wandering around the market. This clearly didn’t satisfy his hospitality though, as he then walked me around some of the stores and went in search of a map of the local area for me. When he couldn’t find what he was looking for he jumped into his car and pointed me to where I needed to go. How amazing!

My first stop was Taos Pueblo. A Native American settlement that dates back to the early 1600s. Here are some photos from my visit. There are a lot more on my Facebook page if you want to see more.

My second stop was the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. The bridge is nothing to look at but the gorge is gorgeous and takes you completely by surprise. What a great suggestion Stephen, thank you!

Denver (CO)

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My stay in Denver and surroundings was not what I had planned but it ended up being so much more meaningful to me.

My extended stay in Aspen meant that I had to loose a day somewhere in the coming week. My first thought was to head straight to Boulder and then visit the Rocky Mountain National Park from there instead of going a longer way around as I had planned. Over the course of two days three AirbnB’s in Boulder couldn’t accommodate me, although they’d shown as available, so I decided to take Mark and Jenny (the couple I met in Torrey) up on their offer to stay at their place about 20 min south of Boulder. It’s the best decision I have made all trip!

I cannot put in words how much the two days I spent with them means to me. More wonderful and kind people you cannot meet.

Mark ended up taking two days off work to take me to a baseball game (we then met Jenny in town for dinner in the evening); and then spent the next day helping me find and fit new tyres for Trinity; took me up Mt Evans and rode the 40 min journey through rush hour traffic with me to where I was staying on Thursday night to make sure I got there safely. It was very difficult for me to say goodbye.

Jenny and Mark you are in my heart forever!

Here are a few photos of my time with Jenny and Mark in Denver.

https://instagram.com/p/6F3PzSHXuk/https://instagram.com/p/6F3FmjHXuH/

My last night in Denver was spent with extended family. Strictly they are not family but my cousin’s wife’s cousin and her family. That’s extended family in South African (or at least my) books!

Thank you to the Van Der Walt family for your wonderful hospitality. Kees – your biltong made my day! It was the perfect snack on my 5 hour ride to New Mexico.

Gunnison to Aspen (CO)

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Last Friday (31 July) I crossed from Utah into Colorado. Colorado is equally as beautiful as Utah, which you know I loved, albeit very different landscape. It certainly is a lot wetter! It was raining when I arrived in Gunnison and it intermittently rained until I left Aspen on Tuesday.

The weather, it appears, was reflective of my emotions. It was a tough week for me and I needed a little ‘me’ time. I’ve spent my life preparing my heart to fall in love. I never prepared it for falling out of love. I have no idea how to do that! I’m trying to figure it out.

My apologies to everyone that I scared by going quiet for a few days but thank you for checking in on me. I appreciate your concern for my happiness and wellbeing!

It’s certainly not all been doom and gloom so let’s go back to my travels over the last week. I will however deal with my time in Denver in a separate post.

On Bill’s recommendation (who I stayed with in Grand Junction), I booked an extreme zip lining and river rafting day at the Royal Gorge. What an amazing experience!

The zip lining cause was in the morning and the 11 zip lines increased in length and speed as we moved through the course. The 10th line was over a 1,000 ft long and it’s claimed to reach up to 60 mph. It didn’t feel that fast to me but what a great ride. The final line ends at a 70 ft tower and involves a race between two participants. What fun! The grand finale was stepping off the tower. This is basically like a bungee jump. You free fall for around 30 ft and then the rope engages and drops you down to the floor. All I’ll say is ‘damn that was scary’ but I’m glad I did it.

The afternoon was dedicated to river rafting though the Royal Gorge, which varied from Class 2-4 rapids. It was loads of fun and absolutely beautiful crossing under the Royal Gorge suspension bridge. It was built in the 1920’s and was the longest suspension bridge in the world until recently. Sadly all my footage for the day is on my GoPro so I don’t have any photos to post.

As I was about to head off to Aspen a massive rainstorm hit the area and I decided to delay heading off by 1.5 hours. As a result I hit Independence Pass (Highway 82) at night, and in the rain and mist. My nerves were shot by the time I arrived at my accommodation in Aspen. I didn’t even unpack the bike that evening. I just got my room; had a bite to eat (very kindly provided by two fellow guests); had a long hot shower and climbed into bed.

It was wonderful to wake up the following morning to a bunch of friendly faces and breakfast that ‘M’ prepared for us (she helps run the lodge). The other guests included Paul and Mary from Kansas, who were so sweet, and two lovely guys whose names I cannot remember but I do know they were both classical musicians.

Following my slightly traumatic ride into town the night before, I extended my stay in Aspen by a night. I thus had time to walk around the town centre; get some washing done; and go up Aspen Mountain to do a short hike.

Aspen is beautiful as you will see from the below photos.

My day was of course made when I saw a South African flag flying in Aspen. We really do get everywhere!

On Tuesday the weather in Aspen was pretty good. I made sure that I saw the Maroon bells before I headed back over Independence Pass. This is what the Bells look like. They are stunning, as is Independence Pass when you rise it during the day. What a contrast from my arrival.

Arches National Park (UT) to Gunnison (CO)

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On Thursday I left Arches National Park and headed to Grand Junction, Colorado. This stop was not in my original plan but since Trinity had been warning me for days that she needed a service I had to find a BMW dealership asap. The nearest one was in Grand Junction (a Harley Davidson dealership that also deals with BMW and KTM) and they could take her in on Friday. Result!

I booked a room for the night via AirBnB and had the absolute pleasure of meeting Bill and Dawn. They are amazing couple in every respect! My evening with them has certainly been one of the highlights of my trip.  I cannot wait to see them in London when they get out here.

The morning at the Harley dealership ended up being very entertaining, albeit that I had to hang around for nearly 4 hours. With the 75th anniversary of the Sturges Motorcycle Ralley happening from 3-9 August, every Harley rider in the USA, and others from all over the world, are on the road at the moment. A number of them popped into the Grand Junction dealership. I met a number of them and managed to get a photo with two of the guys (see below).

Once Trinity was ready I hit the road. I didn’t think that I would make it all the way to Gunnison that afternoon but I was feeling up for it so I pushed through.

I took the long way around to Gunnison via Highway 141, as Mark and Jenny (the couple from Denver that I met in Torrey) told me that it is one of their favourite routes. I can understand why. It is beautiful. These two photos were taken along the route.

The drive from Montrose to Gunnison on Highway 50 is absolutely stunning, particularly so as you drive through the Gunnison National Forest. This is Black Mountain country which guards a stretch of water made up by three interlinking Reservoirs (basically one massive lake). I sadly did not get a photo of this as it was raining at the time but do yourself a favour and Google photos of the National Forest. This place is a must see!

I stayed in a hostel in Gunnison which was really quite pleasant. What surprised me slightly was the mix of people. There were around 12 guests at the hostel and they ranged from a 16 year old guy to a 67 year old retired ER surgeon. Everyone was incredibly friendly and we all sat around talking until about 11pm. I have however realised that I do like my own room (note to self).

The plan for the day was to head out to Crested Butte. This town is all about mountain biking (and hiking of course). Once a year they have an Art Festival and that happened to be this weekend, so it was nice walking around and looking at all the local art. My favourite was the black and white photography of all the amazing landscapes. I’ve always been a sucker for black and white photography! Below two photos of the town.

Dawn and Bill, I’m sure, will be happy to know that I made it to the restaurant they recommend called Secret Stash. The pizza was great (I’m actually nibbling on leftovers as I’m writing this). I found the two bars but since I was riding I couldn’t test them out. Next time!