Colorado still

Sorry for the long delay.  There has been a significant lack of wi-fi since we left Colorado and we were able to actually start camping some again.  Now we are in California staying with Dan and Shelly.  After getting in about 9pm I promptly utilized the bed and slept until the end of time.  Really.  I have no idea what day or time it is.  Dan is at home so I assume it is a weekend.  I'll know more after I save this post and get a time stamp haha.  So there has been a ton that has happened so I'll break up the posts by area rather than giving you one huge dump of photos that way you won't get bogged down.  So we left Colorado and went to Moab where the Arches monument is.  For the first time things didn't go as planned and there was ZERO campsites available.  I'll give more info on that in the UTAH posts.  From there we did Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon, Vegas, Hoover Dam, Death Valley, and now we are in CA.  So obviously plenty of pictures.  Here I will post the last of Colorado.  There was a stunning hike we did along the Colorado River that we quite literally just happened upon along highway 70.  It turns out the middle of CO has close emotional ties to Hawaii and interstate 70 is dedicated to Pearl Harbor.  I thought it was a little bit odd but no weirder than naming the dam after Hoover I suppose.  Probably we did about 3 miles in and out here.  We were not particularly prepared for a long hike in the snow and the trail wasn't a loop so however far in is the same out.  I haven't gotten used to that feeling still.  The river was rushing for the whole hike and often was so loud Dani and I couldn't hear each other.  Definitely a spectacle.  So here is that.

Just a stunning tree-bloom.  This was probably about 30 feet tall and just pink everywhere.

Pearl Harbor?...

In case you didn't know, the nerds are winning.

Yes, I climbed out on a frozen tree to sit above the middle of a freezing river.  Death can't stop a photo opportunity...

I'm consistently surprised to see how lush and green it can be even in he snow.  This thick moss was growing pretty much everywhere along the river.

Just climbing some rocks.  No big deal.

The colors existing in nature just shock me.  Inside a dead tree you find the most amazing orange.  Hopefully you can see how contrasting it really is.  I know a photo doesn't always capture it.

And again the with the color, these blue specks are all flowers.  They were growing everywhere despite the snow and cold.

So that was the last of Colorado.  It was wonderful seeing Jimmy and Katy, and so happy at that.  Rarely have I seen people fit their new world so completely.  Dakota has been mirroring our path pretty directly but further north, passing through Reno when we were in Vegas.  He'll be in northern California at Mount Shasta for a few weeks so we'll be meeting up with him again for a hike there.  Darla and Steve are fantastic.  Very neat getting to see family as an adult and experience them as people and not just relatives.

GO TO COLORADO.