Roadtripping, part 2: the West

It took us two days to get from Seattle to Colorado with an overnight stop in Sheridan, WY.
First stop: my grandmother in Greeley. Martha is turning 90 in September. One of my favorite people!


In all truth, I love going home. This time especially, I felt reconnected to Colorado. Here are the reasons:

My dad (here with my sister Connie's kids: Emily, Helen and William)

My sister and her husband. She is such a good friend to me. I miss her and we're usually very busy which makes it really hard to catch up as often as I would like. Hanging at her house is so relaxing and fun. We always watch movies and eat ice cream (this time, Clif made lucuma ice cream, so yummy!)

Clif and friend Dawn man the grill:

Connie, Dad and I (we miss Kendall!)



Fortuitously, we also caught up with our dear friend Emily who lives in Arvada. She is enjoying a prolific summer of gardening with boyfriend Kirk (as I like to call him, Captain, ha)



We also went down to Colorado Springs and caught up with Andy, one of CD's high school friends. It was really fun! He took us to Manitou Springs, a cute little town west of CS which hosts a slew of artists at the base of Pikes peak. We planned on driving up the peak in the morning, but the clouds were too low.

Another beautiful sight, Garden of the gods:

During our drive home we stopped and camped a couple of nights in Dinosaur National Monument. It was beautiful to see the canyons created by the Green and Yampa rivers and their confluence. The geology was so beyond our grasp that I have put Geology 101 on my top 5 classes to take next. We also saw a lot of fossils and petroglyphs- very cool!

Our next camping/hiking stop was supposed to be Great Basin National Park in northeastern Nevada, but apparently we arrived on a holiday Friday, so all campsites were taken! It was probably best since it rained most of the night and we got the chance to get cleaned up a bit in Ely, NV. The next day was great because I drove highway 50 all across Nevada. It is called the loneliest road in America and I concur. We saw very few towns and luckily we had plenty of food because there was not much there!

We arrived at Lassen Volcanic National Park late in the afternoon and scored a nice walk-in campsite. In the morning, we rose early and broke camp to climb Lassen peak.

It was short and steep, but the views from the top were worth the effort. It was a good idea to get an early start because there is no vegetation to use as shade when the midday heat starts.

CD with Shasta in the background:

Snowy at the top!

Roadtrip pictures