Imogene Pass

                      "This is your story, your life, your precious time.  

                  Savor it and indulge in sweet surrender.       

                  Trust the flow."  

                                                                                                             “V." 


Its almost 8:00PM and I'm beat.

We spent most of the day in our rented Jeep and saw the most incredible sights ever.  We drove from Ouray to Silverton over The Million Dollar Highway, ate a massive breakfast, including a man sized stack of pancakes that we all shared and then spent a good four hours on a very rugged dirt/rock/gravel road that went from Silverton over Imogene Pass at 13,000' and then back to Ouray.  The road was at times smooth dirt/gravel and quite easy to traverse...but at other times steep, narrow and strewn with bowling ball (and larger) sized rocks.  Surprisingly busy, we often had to back down a narrow stretch to find a way to let a string of Jeeps or Razors pass.  In many places the drop off was a sure death sentence which of course added to the thrills.  KC did a brilliant job of negotiating the terrain and brought us home safely.

After a late afternoon soak in the hot tub at the Box Canyon Lodge we ate the best Mexican food ever at Buen Tiempo in Ouray. Following dinner we took a short drive up the mountain and looked down as the city lights began to appear.  Around one turn we closed in on a Mule Deer doe and her two fawns.  As we slowed to photograph them, the doe allowed us to pass within feet of her while the fawns shot through the brush and disappeared in seconds.  I wondered what else was just out of sight.

I think we are all feeling the effects of altitude.  We have consumed mass quantities of water and are staying hydrated...but at 13,000' I was out of breath just walking a short distance.  Hats off to the folks who climb big mountains...not something I'll ever be interested in doing.

I'll fill in the details later, but for now here are a few pictures to capture the highlights....

With a big day of high altitude travel ahead of us, we stopped in Silverton for monster pancakes.  It was a historically significant carbohydrate load.  Biblical.

All those Xylophone lessons really paid off....

Lucy and Ethel are such good friends.

Inside the stickered and weather beaten old mailbox on Imogene Pass, Ethel noticed a rock that served as a high altitude paper weight.  Beneath the rock was a folded slip of paper with a handwritten note.  The note carried today's date and it read...

"This is your story, your life, your precious time.  Savor it and indulge in sweet surrender.  Trust the flow."  

The note was initialed,  “V."  

Dude.