golegrand

time to say good bye. we're leaving boulder today, last sushi-party in broomfield tonight, and tomorrow we'll head up early to the airport and land back at sea level in the evening in fort myers, fl, for two beach weeks on siesta key. we're dying for salty air!… and warm temperatures too. our winter here has been as tough as it gets, with an extremely changing (and challenging!) february month made of snow, cold, clouds, sun, milder temps and high winds too (with gusts to 89 mph/143 km/h on one night last week) – people say it's normally not so cold or breezy as it was this year and the other seasons there are all so beautiful and easy (well… except when it comes to the flood as for last september). we're not only about to take leave from a gorgeous mountain region,  the #1 sports town in america, but also from america's foodiest town, so here some words about…food! colorado is surely more on food quality than most of the others states in america (in my m...

yesterday we went south on the i-25. the ride took us first through the (huge!) denver metropolitan area and then through stunning landscapes in the plains along the rockies – here it comes to mind how they must have been suffering in the old days during the conquest of the west! our destination was the garden of the gods, near colorado springs, where we could enjoy a nice walk in the sun around red rock walls raising on the mountain slope. the photos speak for themselves (i think).

welcome to the real cold… if january saw many nice sunny days (and mild for some of them), things took a turn for the worse after the pineapple express story … first, boulder got tons of snow. deep snow, deep clouds, three days in a row. we chose one of these days for denver downtown, however, we shortened our first visit to the capital of colorado because exploring the city was anything but fun with the cold and the snow, so we gave up and decided to come back another time after a short walk on the 16th street mall, and an obligatory visit to the bronco's fan shop (denver broncos were playing against the seahawks of seattle in the super bowl final on the next day and everybody in colorado was mad about that). the day after was, hooray!, a beautiful sunshiny day – although still icy cold. we went for a ride through the all snowy white plain to the mountains. the nature spectacle was breathtaking and stunning, with gorgeous pictures and panoramas of majestic mounts and red rocks ...

boulder people call themselves outdoor enthusiasts and  fresh-air fanatics . the town, home of trail and road runners, mountain bikers, cyclists, rock climbers, skiers and hikers has been recently rated the  #1 sports town in america . this week-end has been gorgeous: blue sky and highs of 60° f/15° c, a no-jacket-hut-scarf-glove dream weather, outdoors was calling and so we went for a couple of nice hikes in the mountains around the town. it was tremendous and sportive – partly walking on ice and still fighting with the elevated altitude to catch our breathe, a more intense exercise than in the italian alps or in the provence… we'll be as fit as a fiddle, when we'll be back at sea level! pictures here .

the week after the snow storm has been white and cold but sunny, and ended with windy days. we rented a car for the week-end and went on a day to gold hill , a former site of mining during the colorado gold rush back 1859 – we tried first to access the isolated mountain town with a population around 200 via the left hand canyon drive but we had to turn back after it was impossible to go up the iced lick skilled road with our small vw golf. so we went back to boulder and made the trip via the sunshine canyon drive, a beautiful scenic drive into the mountains. at  gold hill general store , we met hugh who was running the business and we enjoyed a good strong cappuccino with a delicious home-made apple pie. at the end, we couldn't resist to get some more awesome oat-chocolate cookies 'for later'. mountain air makes hungry… on the next day, after a great sushi-night at le grand's home in broomfield, we went for another mountain drive on the peak to peak scenic bywa...

the couple last days (beautiful sunny and warm, yes!) gave me some spare time to take a breath, so i made a little montage from roughly 700 pictures we shot during our last u.s. trip – here you go . loading may take a while. music by slash, with beautiful guitar riffs.

on the way back from moab, through the rockies with one stopover in glenwood springs, then up to the top of mount evans at 14,130 ft (4307 m) via the highest paved road in north america -- wow!

after five days of family happenings and hours of hanging around too, today has been a road trip of 370 miles west on i-70, starting up and down -- between around 5,000 and 11,000 ft through the rockies. once we passed some ski areas, the landscape suddenly turned to steppe-alike with lots of red-earth formations and wide spaces and temperatures increased quickly back in the 90th. where colorado river met our road, we passed the gleenwood canyon, went through a plateau and along the colorado river under thundershowers with tons of water raining down and low visibility. passing grand junction, weather died down, shortly after: utah -- big, wide, steppe landscape, nothing around except craggy formations known from school books and tv, hot temperatures, wonderful dry air to breathe and driving just straight ahead,feeling so small in the middle of mother's nature vastness. finally turned on south us-191 and reached moab, where the earth is red, our location for the next four days.

warm welcome in broomfield, colorado, last sunday -- hot temperatures, dry air, perfect climate! the region of broomfiel/denver is located at 5,280 feet (1,609 m) above sea level, some might feel a kind of out of oxygen, i just feel great. around us: the rocky mountains and wide spaces. first trip in the mountains yesterday: we climbed the alpine ridge trail in the rocky mountain national park to get at the top, which is 11,796 ft (3,595 m), the highest reached in my life... and yes, there i felt definitively out of oxygen!