We are back, before we leave again!

Well we got back last night from our week long trip to the western part of the state and we thought it would be good to post some photos of the trip. It was a good time all in all, we ended up changing where we were going mid trip, which allowed us to visit some places we hadn't originally thought about. It was a good move though, especially since spontaneity is one of the best parts of traveling...
Read (and see) the rest...
So we started off skiing with a friend at Vail and had a great time there. From Vail we were going to drive down to Telluride and then ski Telluride, Crested Butte, and Monarch (a couple of days at each) and come back home. Instead, the morning we were going to head to Telluride we realized it wasn't far to drive to Arches National Park and Mesa Verde, which we had both wanted to see. So we changed course. In the end it changed the nature of the trip froma ski trip with some driving, we decided to go on a road trip with some skiing (a move we both liked). Here are some photos of the little escapade.

(Our drive on the way to Arches. We ended up taking a back road to get there which follows the Colorado River through this great little canyon. It was about 70 degrees in the canyon but you can see the snow capped mountains in the background)

(Don't know why but we got on a self-taken photo kick during this trip. Here is us in front of the Delicate arch... man do we look pretty or what?)

(The cliche photo from under Delicate Arch)

(Sunset on our first night. We ended up camping next to the river in the canyon, simply beautiful).

(Next up was Mesa Verde. These structures are over 800 years old and (obviously) built into the side of cliffs, quite cool. For those of you who don't know the little yellow figure in the lower left is Bird, a frequent tag along in Meg's travels. He ends up showing up rather often in photos, Meg actually has an entire album of "Bird in front of ____."

(Self-taken at Mesa Verde)

(Second night camping. It was just a field in the National Forest, but very isolated and quite fun. Also the massive thing on the fire is a stump that Meg found by a river, dragged back to camp, and then burned... I had nothing to do with this one.)

(The top of Telluride. Bird is in this picture somewhere, any gusses?)

(Self-taken at Telluride (didn't I say we had a fascination with self-taken photos?). It had an amazing view from the top).

(Sunset on our third night camping, in a National Recreation Area next to a lake. What was interesting about this trip is that we left the high mountains for the desert only to return to the mountains. But as we returned to the mountains the conditions still felt very desert-like, lots of sand, little vegetation etc... This place was a great example. We are at 7,500 feet and it was all sagebrush and shrubs. Its just such a different climate from where we have been for the last several months.)

(The town of Crested Butte. You can see the mountain from the town, as it rises out of the valley floor. Also if look at the mountain in the photo you can see that there isn't alot of snow, some but not an excessive amount.)

(A great example of the lack of snow at Crested Butte. If you notice this snow is a nice shade of brownish-grey, a far cry from the typical white snow that normally occurs.)

After our stay at Crested Butte, we headed off for one more ski area, Monarch, on our way back home. We only spent a bit of time there because it was in the upper 50s and the snow became a heavy slush by 1:00.

All in all it was a great trip. Now we have to pack to travel to Iowa, then Michigan, then Texas and finally we'll set foot down in Asia... scary!