Tuesday 03/25/15

Tuesday 03/25 - Back to Colorado we go. We took a very scenic roadway back to rt 70. Rt 128 takes you along the Colorado River about 40 miles to the town of Cisco and rt 6 to interstate 70 E. The views are more of the same that we saw in Arches National Park. I included videos of our car drive thru Arches and Glenwood Canyons.  The temps were in the mid 50s to low 60s until we reached Vail when the temps dropped to the mid 30s. I found out that the area had about 5 inches of wet snow overnight. Maybe the skiing will get better for the people that are still around. We are now in Denver deciding what to do next. However, this will be my FINAL BLOG. It was fun. See ya next year.

Monday 03/23/15

Monday 03/23 - Today it was all about Arches. This National Park is about 5 miles outside of Moab. In the morning, it was 57 degrees. I think this was the first morning that the temp wasn't below freezing. In the afternoon it rose to 75 degrees. The park is all about arches and sandstone creations. One you enter the park, it is best to drive to the end of the park and visit Devils Garden. It is about a 40 minute drive. Once there, you can hike anyone of 3 different trails to see many of the sandstone arches. After this area, you can start to back track and visit the other 2 main areas,  the Delicate Arch area and then The Windows section. Most of the park can be reached by car and then an easy hike. We visited the park for about 5 hours. It was a very tiring day. Tomorrow we head back to Colorado

Sunday 03/22/15

Sunday 03/22 - Today it was all about Canyonlands in Utah. We left Glenwood Springs around 10am and went directly to the National Park. The park is about 200 miles west of the Springs along rt 70 in Utah. The first part of the trip, up to Grand Junction, is very scenic with its canyon walls and mountains. After Grand Junction it becomes very flat. Once in Utah, you take rt 191 south to the National Park. The park is divided into 3 parts. The Island in the Sky, The Maze and The Needles. The Island in the Sky is the mose accessible and is easily covered by car. The other 2 sections, are a lot harder to gain access to. We covered The Island in the Sky in about 3 hours. The other 2 areas we will leave for another visit. Leaving the park, we then went to our hotel in the town of Moab.  Tomorrow we will travel to Arches National Park

Saturday 03/22/15

Saturday 03/21 - We left for Glenwood Springs this morning. It is a easy drive of about 100 miles from Dillon through the Canyons of Glenwood Springs and along the Colorado River. The walls of the canyon are very close to the roadway and some areas it is scary. We arrived at the Glenwood Springs Spa and paid the daily pass rate of $19 and enjoyed the pool along with several hundred other people. The HOT pool has a temperature of  a constant 104 degrees and the COOL pool has a temperature of 91-94 degrees. Going from the Hot pool to the Cool pool, you can certainly feel the difference. I quickly returned to the hot pool. It is much better fighting the crowds here instead of on the slopes. We stayed at the pool for about 3 hours and then went back to our hotel and took a long shower to get all of the sulfur off of us. We are now getting ready to go to the Brew Pub next door for dinner.

Friday 03/20/15 - First Day of Spring

Friday 03/20 - I have seen pictures of the snow falling in NJ. You are so lucky. WE only have total sunshine, temps in the mid 50s and NO SNOW. We have spent the day getting ready to go to Glenwood Springs and Moab Utah. There is no snow in the next 7 day forecast for the mountains. Not sure how long the spring skiing will last. As I walked the bike path this afternoon, I see the only mound of snow quickly melting, the area around the amphitheater almost completely free of snow and the walkway to the lake free of snow. I see shrubs coming up out of the ground. What I am seeing shouldn't be happening for another month. While it is beautiful, we came out here for skiing. Oh well, there is always next year.

Thursday 03/19/15

Thursday 03/19 - We got RAIN and very wet snow last night. Many of the locals are saying that they haven't seen rain in March in a long time. The headline in the Summit Daily was - The Heat is on the Summit, Record-breaking temps have Colorado snowpack melting like the Wicked Witch of the West. We tried going to Keystone but after a few runs we gave up. Between the bad light, ice balls from the grooming process and the ice , the conditions were very dangerous. Even thought the crowds didn't materialize until 10:30 it wasn't worth it. Not sure whether I will be going skiing tomorrow. Our plans for the weekend, are to go to Glenwood Springs to enjoy the hot 102 degrees hot springs.

Wednesday 03/18/15

Wednesday 03/18 - Not sure what kind of weather we will get today, but with clouds moving in this morning, we may get RAIN today. Early morning temps were around 32 degrees and afternoon temps were around 45. Because of the clouds, the light on the trails causes many people, including us , to have a BIG problem skiing. We thought things would be better at Copper Mtn, but we were wrong. The light was BAD, the snow was hard as ICE and there were too many people skiing out of control. After 2 or 3 runs we quickly called it a day and skied to Central village and had hot chocolate and mini donuts. We spent the rest of the morning watching people walk by. By noon time, the snow changed from ice to slush and it wasn't fun watching people come down the trails. Too many were falling. We returned home and had a good lunch and did some laundry. Around 5pm, it started to drizzle and turned cold and damp. Hopefully this will turn to snow later tonight.