Vail is a very pretty area, and this was our first time to enjoy it in the summer.
There are lots of bronze sculptures in Vail, and Pete posed graciously each time Kristina asked.
Les and Cherry are lots of fun. Once Pete started imitating this sculpture, they joined right in!
We ate dinner together at the Mountain Standard.
The restaurant had pig-themed decorations, like this porcine fruit bowl.
And the open kitchen had lots of activity that we enjoyed watching.
While staying with Les and Cherry the two of us had fun riding in the Vail area. This photo was taken at Dillon Reservoir.
We rode up Vail Pass from the Vail side. (At the beginning of our time in Colorado, we rode up the pass from Keystone, the other side.)
Pete is on the bike path as it crosses Gore Creek.
It was a great view from the bridge.
On our last full day at Les and Cherry's we rode through the charming town of Minturn.
We stopped twice at Sticky Fingers Cafe and Bakery.
Here's Pete with coffee in the morning. They had fresh baked cookies when we stopped for lunch in the afternoon, so we had dessert before lunch!
Sticky Fingers has a bear theme, including a cub toilet paper holder.
Across the street we spotted these beautiful Colorado columbine stained glass windows.
We’ve been seeing the Colorado columbine flowers growing wild. It's fun finding the state flower as we ride!
Kristina is near the top of Battle Mountain, the first peak we rode up after Minturn.
We rode out past an abandoned mining village.
In the distance is Notch Mountain, with snow still at the peak. This ride had especially great scenery and is part of the Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway.
This is the beautiful Red Cliff Bridge, a steel arc bridge built in 1940. It crosses the Eagle River.
Our last night at Les and Cherry's condo we grilled a bunch of vegetables and a couple of ribeyes.
We all agreed we liked our steak on the rare side. It was a fantastic visit!
Then we headed to Castle Rock, to visit Pete's cousins Kathy and Larry. Here's Larry grilling shish kabobs.
And Kathy made a bunch of Greek-themed salads. Cousins John and Chrissi joined us. It was a delicious meal.
Here’s a photo that shows all the flowers in Kathy and Larry’s backyard.
John and Chrissi live near Kathy and Larry, so we went to see their nice house and yard.
How quickly cousin Johnny went from happy to threatening!
This is John’s station-of-grillage. He sent us this photo showing his BBQ in action later that day.
The six of us went to downtown Castle Rock for some "soup".
Afterwards we strolled around, chatting and enjoying the pleasant weather.
Kathy and Chrissi are having fun being snarling cats. We are glad we got to spend an afternoon in Castle Rock with these cousins!
We headed to Denver to learn and practice bowspring yoga for a week. Here's Pete with our teacher John.
We met cousins John and Chrissi for dinner at The Kitchen restaurant in Denver.
Their son Alex is a waiter and bartender at The Kitchen, and we were happy to meet him. He made Pete the best Manhattan he's ever had.
Alex picked delicious appetizers for us to try: blackened snap peas, radishes with herb butter, and tasty gougeres.
Alex recommended the lamb kabob entree and Pete thought it was awesome.
From Denver we drove out to the Aspen area for a few days. We had skied a lot there, so we were eager to see it in summer. Pete is in front of our Airbnb - notice the bear holding the welcome sign; The sign could flip around to read go away.
The Airbnb had what we called a "service bear theme," such as this butler bear with fish tray.
Here's the Sherpa bear.
We saw other bear sculpture in the neighborhood too.
We are used to seeing warning signs for pedestrian crossing or deer crossing, but we especially enjoyed these warning signs.
We rode several times on the Rio Grande bike path, another wonderful rails-to-trails multi-use path.
We noticed wildlife fences designed to keep game off the highway. This is a gate that allows animals to get off the highway safely, but prevents animals from entering onto the highway.
We saw lots of wildflowers as we rode. These are Showy Milkweed, one of the many types of milkweed that Monarch butterflies eat.
One day we took the Rio Grande trail into Aspen. Nearby was the John Denver Sanctuary. Kristina belted out a few bars of Rocky Mountain High as we rode through.
The Rio Grande trail partly goes along the old railroad route, and we saw two old rail cars that looked like they were people’s homes.
This is the Emma school house that was built in 1912. Grades 1 through 8 were taught by one teacher in this single-room school until 1948.
Another day we rode the bike trail out to Glenwood Springs Canyon. It was overcast, but the granite cliffs in the canyon were even more spectacular viewed up close from the bike than when we drove through.
We remembered that during our visit last winter there was a rock slide that closed the highway through the canyon.
It was a great ride, and we were on bike paths almost the whole way. We saw quite a few other cyclists, including a couple from Kansas on a tandem.
It had rained most of the morning, which made the path was wet, so our legs and bike got really muddy.
For our final ride in the Aspen area we rode up to view the Maroon Bells peaks.
These two mountains are fourteeners, more than 4,267 meters (14,000 feet) tall. Made of mudstone, on a clear day they look maroon colored.
Supposedly the Maroon Bells are the most photographed mountains in Colorado.
The Maroon Creek valley where we took these photos was beautiful too.
Towards the end of the ride we went by the iconic Aspen church.
We spent a morning visiting the Powers Arts Center.
The Center is in a beautiful setting: a former cow pasture that is part of a 400 acre working ranch on the edge of the Roaring Fork Valley.
Designed by the Japanese architect Hiroshi Nanamori, the building is LEED-certified with both geothermal and solar power.
The red sandstone structure faces Mt. Sopris. The Powers Art Center is the only museum in the world built to show the work of Jasper Johns. (Unfortunately they don't allow photography inside.)
We were sad to leave scenic Colorado, but it was time to head to Idaho.
We drove through northern Utah, admiring the Flaming Gorge.
We spent two nights at Home Hotel in Lava Hot Springs, ID where they pump the hot springs water into baths in the rooms. We soaked a lot!
From Lava Hot Springs we rode through historic Chesterville, a Mormon town founded in 1881. The town was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Today only a handful of people remain, dry farming or ranching.
Along one of the gravel roads we almost ran over a pair of western kingbird fledglings sitting in the road. We stopped and watched for a while as the mother bird tried to get them to move.
Then we went to Hailey, Idaho. We had been in Sun Valley last winter for skiing, so we knew this area a bit.
We had cross country skied near here, and it was a treat to compare the difference in the seasons.
We are training for a 50 day self-supported cycling trip in Japan that will start in August; We planned and rode a four day self-supported trip in Idaho. It was cold when we started from Hailey, so we were glad for our layers.
We took a break at Java in Ketchum, and enjoyed their delicious coffee.
The Rails to Trails bike path ended after Ketchum and we started riding on Hwy 75, the Sawtooth Scenic Byway.
We stopped for lunch at Galena Lodge. The word galena means high quality silver and lead ore, and Galena was a mining town briefly in the 1880s. Today the Galena Lodge is publicly owned, and operates as a mountain bike resort in summer and a cross country ski resort in winter.
We rode over Galena Summit, at a maximum height of 2,650 meters. The views of the Sawtooth Mountain Range and the conifer trees were wonderful.
We rode along the Salmon River.
We saw a small herd of pronghorn antelope and a pair of Sandhill cranes. Both types of animals are common here, so we weren't surprised to see this painting by David Casey at the Stanley Baking Company the next morning.
Stanley often gets snow, even in the summer. Luckily they received only a dusting the night before we arrived. We stayed at the charming Sawtooth Hotel.
The lodge had a friendly vibe, and lots of cool wooden sculptures.
There were great views of the Sawtooth Mountains.
On the second day we rode on the Salmon River Scenic Byway and followed the Salmon River all day.
We rode by Sunbeam Hot Springs, and could feel the heat of the steam as we passed.
The Salmon River is the longest salmon migration route, and ends with the Chinook salmon spawning in Redfish Lake (we didn't go to the lake).
The photo shows an old dam on the Salmon River, which was partially dismantled 100 years ago to let the salmon swim upstream. Currently there aren't any dams on the Salmon River, but there are dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers that hinder salmon migration.
As we were ending our day we spotted an osprey atop its nest.
We stayed at the Challis Hot Springs Hotel. The hotel was built in 1890, and has been nicely renovated and landscaped. Their logo includes a great blue heron, and we saw several flying in this area.
We wasted no time getting into their hot water pools. Later that evening a thunder storm blew through.
This original building had a sod roof to keep it cool.
We could have soaked some more in Challis, but we had our longest day of riding ahead of us, so we left the charming hotel early the next morning. We rode through this small canyon that had been carved by water eons ago.
Our third day of riding was on the Peaks to Craters Scenic Byway.
All day we rode along the Lost River Mountain Range. It's named lost river because the river disappears when it reaches the plains (it seeps into the aquifer).
This is Mt. Borah, the highest mountain in Idaho at a height of 3,859 meters.
In 1983 a major earthquake raised Mt. Borah by 6 inches and dropped the surrounding valley by 9 feet! Earthquakes like this one are what lifted Mt Borah to its impressive height.
After spending the night in Arco we had breakfast at Pickle's Place, a diner favorite of the locals.
We spotted this awesome John Deere tractor as we were riding out of Arco. Kristina was only briefly tempted to give up the tandem and drive the tractor!
Our fourth day's ride took us past Craters of the Moon National Monument.
The lunar scenery was formed only 2,200 years ago, when magma flowed up through the earth's crust.
The lava is everywhere and in a variety of textures and shapes.
We checked out John Grade's Spur sculpture. It's made of deadwood cedar from Alaska.
Walking through Spur was like being inside a lava tube, because Grade had digitally scanned an actual lava tube and used this to design his sculpture.
What a fun adventure and great four day ride through some of Idaho's prettiest scenery! We rode 480 kilometers with 3,400 meters of climbing.
Next we are heading to Oregon.
