Hi Friends.
Last week was officially Week 14! I say this all the time, but it’s insane how fast time has gone while living in the van. It feels like each week is unpredictable with where we are going to explore, what we’re going to see and who we are going to meet. Meeting people on the road is by far one of my favorite things. Almost everywhere we stop, people come by to either talk about the van and/or say hi to Pepper Jack. Talking to more locals has been really great for helping us figure out where we may want to settle, or at the very least, where the good food places are in town. We’ve never been steered wrong.
Our first week in Colorado had its challenges, mainly relying due to the wildfire smoke. But luckily on our journey west to Grand Junction was a lot less smoky. We started off week 2 in Colorado by going heading out from Grand Lake and making our way to Grand Junction. The drive from Grand Lake was absolutely beautiful. We drove through Independence Pass, which we’ve heard about but didn’t realize it was on our route. The drive was twisty through the mountains with sharp curves and big drop-offs, but being surrounded by mountains was incredible to see. On the other side was Aspen. I can understand why it’s a huge destination for skiing and vacationing, but to me it just felt super crowded. We talked to a woman there who has two or three jobs and is currently living in the town, but is thinking about leaving to head somewhere else. She said it’s getting too expensive, and too many people are moving in from places like Texas, pushing locals out.
After Aspen, we drove to Fruita, Colorado – which is on the west side of Grand Junction. We decided to stay in a hotel for a few nights there, mainly because it was so incredibly hot, and we wanted a little reprieve from the sun. Luckily, Travis was still able to get a good mountain bike ride in early in the day, before it started getting bad. Grand Junction was on our list for a while to check out as a potential place for us to live, but unfortunately it just wasn’t what we were expecting. I do think we’d enjoy it more in a different season, but the city itself just wasn’t for us. We were going to spend a third night in Grand Junction, but this time at a Harvest Host winery. We were all set up, had a wine tasting, and were going to be ready to hang there for the day/night. But even in the shade, the heat was just too much for us. We decided to dip out and head to the mountains. As we drove, the temperature dropped over 15 degrees and became so much more manageable. This is how we discovered the town of Ouray.
Ouray is a beautiful small mountain town that calls itself the “Switzerland of America”. It’s easy to see why. It’s so quaint, nestled in the San Juan Mountains, and there’s so much to do nearby including hiking, mountain biking, and climbing. We only stayed for one night as we wanted to start making our way to Durango, but we definitely will be back for longer vacation at some point in the future. Leaving Ouray was a beautiful, but scary, drive on the Million Dollar Highway. It was steep, had sharp turns, and I don’t remember there being a lot of guard rails. Travis is a saint and always takes on the drives through these mountainous areas, where I’m very much scared to drive them. We ended our week by going to Durango and the surrounding areas, which blew away my expectations. More on that next week.
Thanks for reading.
Leece
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