My Big Fat Drive to Colorado and back.

[JTG]

If you look real close at that wide shot of the East Wall, there's a staircase going straight up the wall a little right of picture center. For all that effort, you only get maybe eight turns.

Yeah, I don’t do those straight up boot packs. Agreed, it’s too much effort for too few turns. For me the hike out something like the North Pole gate is a combo of being on top of a peak, taking in the scenery, and the skiing. With those boot packs you don’t summit anything, nor do you get that unique of a view.

Honestly, any hike, even backcountry skiing,….they are losing propositions if all you care about is number of turns.

Of course there is the untracked powder you may not find elsewhere….but powder is overrated, I hear.

 

[MarzNC]

Just got back from over three weeks driving across the country to Taos and then Colorado and back. Started and finished in Baltimore, where my girlfriend lives.
Took a southern route out, because my first stop was 48 hours in Franklin, N.C. to visit an old high school buddy. Blue Ridge country. Very pretty, but, phew, not only Trump country, but Matthew Cawthorn's district. Lots of old hippies, though. Good beer, too.
Did a little drive on the Blue Ridge highway, it was nice, but, a cloudy dreary day, so no pics. My buddy did turn me on to a very cool motorcycle museum I had never heard of, https://wheelsthroughtime.com/, which would appeal to any gear head. Mostly American stuff, but some went all the way back to the birth of motorcycles.

Thanks for the trip report!

Well, try to do the "southern" route instead of I70 or I80. Drive down thru the Shenandoah valley , which is pretty, and hook up to I40 right around Tennessee. I actually got turned on to that route here, in this forum, by somebody I dont see around too much anymore, forgot his handle. You get your choice of Nashville and or Memphis, both fun places to visit, and from Memphis you aren't too far from New Orleans. Then it gets meh until New Mexico, but it's a lot better than the dismal western Pa./Ohio/Illinois/Missouri route.
More time, but better sites.

I-40 is the most scenic east-west Interstate. I drove out that way to Pagosa Springs to ski Wolf Creek last December.

Turns out there is a Best Western past Oklahoma City in Elk City. My travel buddy and I opted to push on after dinner in OK City so that we could get in a full ski day on Dec. 11 because of the first big December snowstorm. I picked him up in Nashville early that morning. We drove 800 miles that day. There was a lot of wind as we passed by Amarillo the next day on the way to South Fork for the night.

Turns out there is a "food street" in OK City between the two university campuses. Had Lao food for the first time. Easier with two people so the passenger can look for a more interesting place to stop for dinner while someone else is driving.

 

[Harvey]

Needless to say, even on closing week, the street scene and conversations I heard in Aspen is a freak show.

Any highlights to share?

 

[Benny Profane]

White people talking about what great poets certain rappers are. And the art for sale. Holy jeebus. The most decadent paintings and sculptures I've ever seen in one town. Awful. All that money, and so little taste

 

[Benny Profane]

Oh, and my 28 dollar martini, with tip.

 

[Harvey]

Oh, and my 28 dollar martini, with tip.

Was it awesome?

I hope you ate all the free nuts.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

Oh, and my 28 dollar martini, with tip.

It looks like you drank $14 of it.

Do you see many earthships near Taos?

 

[Benny Profane]

Those are cool. But, I drive down one of the roads the last time I was driving by, and, let's just say there are very unwelcome messages on signs everywhere. Anti social types.

 

[Benny Profane]

Was it awesome?

I hope you ate all the free nuts.

The nuts were better. That place (the famous J bar - they make it a point over and over that Hunter Thompson hung out there) had nothing on 9 Maple in Saratoga Springs, the best bar in the world. And the martinis are cheaper.

 

[sig]

The nuts were better. That place (the famous J bar - they make it a point over and over that Hunter Thompson hung out there) had nothing on 9 Maple in Saratoga Springs, the best bar in the world. And the martinis are cheaper.

love 9 maple. good whiskey, live music and adults.