Taisa's wedding in denver and trip west - may 2014











We did not want to miss Taisa's wedding in Denver as it was a great opportunity to see the family and we decided to accept Arvid's and Helen's invitation to see them in grand junction.

The trip was purely family and tourism, no mountain biking, serious hiking kayaking, rafting or whatever, that would be for a next trip organized a bit more leisurely (we only went for 8 days!)

This blog is only an excuse to include some pictures from the stunning landscapes one sees out west. The scale is enormous, rock formation, rivers, road desert, colors, everything is BIG.


Downtown Denver has some interesting wall paintings  related to the west






funny robot for a sushi restaurant

clifford still museum pub





strange advertisement (note spelling!)

Go west young man!

horsing and boxing





banjo player

Driving from Denver to Grand Junction is 400 km or 4 hours of easy relaxing driving on the wide US roads.  Coming out of Denver one starts climbing to finally reach the Eisenhower tunnel at 3400 m   

 Loveland pass at 4000 m
Glenwood springs
Breckenridge and Silverthorne where Rémi spent a year.
Good lunch in..... where they had a funny bike repairs station, quite a sharp design, and an idea to be copied may-be.



bike repairs station

on the way to grand junction along the colorado river

mesa when arriving in grand junction

the mesa again


walks in monument park, in arches national park


 
diamond shape shade

jacques helen and arvid

nature's balancing act

the girls towards the monument

shapes and colors!

the monument

the  monument

helen, bets and sue

typical landscape

colors and blue skies

only tough vegetation survives

rocks

erosion

erosion





There is a mica mine near grand junction, now abandonned but a good hiking trip


on the way to mica mine

towards the mine

mica formation

mica formation

mica formation

mica formation


A great trip with fantastic landscapes and the occasion to see the west as I always dreamed of seeing it.  There was some long drives, but that was compensated by the beauty of the land; it is also a real way to appreciate the hugeness of the country.