Not so long ago, in a discussion about our many moves, hubby and I discovered we had traveled in almost all of the fifty United States. Close examination revealed hubby lacked one state (Idaho). I lacked only three (Utah, Idaho, and Hawaii).

Not so remarkable when you consider we’re making our seventeenth move this month.

Since we’ll be leaving Colorado shortly, we decided to complete hubby’s list of fifty states and reduce mine down to one.

We made the four hour drive into Utah.

Utah is loaded with fabulous national parks. While there, we decided to check out the Arches National Park.

Wow, just wow. We really should have gone sooner.

Because our four-legged babies were with us, we couldn’t do hiking. Park regulations prohibit leaving pets in the car, and they aren’t allowed on the trails even on lease. Still we have fabulous views.

 

 

Our real adventure began when we decided to go back to our little hometown nestled in the Rio Grande Forest between the San Juan and San Cristobal Mountain ranges. FYI, there are zero major roads to get there.

Our GPS sent us back the way we came. We’d seen that route. We wanted a different route. A quick study of our Rand McNally maps gave us a route off Interstate 80 through Aspen via CO State Hwy 82.

What the map didn’t tell us was CO 82 is also known as The Top of the Rockies Byway, one of eleven America’s Byways® designated in Colorado. The scenery was beautiful. (You might want to add it to your bucket list.)

Our new route took us over Independence Pass. A pass that had only opened six days before. Thirty-two miles of mountainous terrain on a narrow two-lane road climbing to an elevation of 12,095-foot.

None of which we knew as we climbed higher and higher. Snow banks, some eight-foot tall, lined either side of the road. Temperatures dropped into the low thirties.

We were losing daylight by the time we reached the peak, making the ride back down white-knuckle to say the least.

The truly amazing thing is we did the trip All. In. ONE. DAY. Eight hundred miles.

Quite the bucket list adventure, wouldn’t you say?

Check back, we’re heading to Yellowstone and Idaho next. Who knows what bucket list adventure waits?