Days 27-29: The 44th State

The fall colors are blowing up in Estes Park, Colorado.

Estes Park is a town northwest of Denver surrounded by Rocky Mountain National Park. I'm writing you now from a Starbucks on a river with yellow aspens and crimson-leaved trees on its banks.

Here's how I decided to come to Estes Park.

Walking out of a yoga class in Jackson Hole a week ago, one woman said to another, "See you next week!"

"Actually, I won't be here," said her friend. "I'm going to Estes Park next weekend."

"Oh, I love it there!"

"Me too!"

So, assuming the yoga ladies would have good taste, I came. And they did. But before I jump to Colorado, let's linger in WYOMING.

If you breeze through Wyoming on I-80, heading between California and the northern Midwest, you will believe that Wyoming is a barren wasteland of dead brown golden hills, punctuated only by Burger Kings and industrial sites.

Not so!

Promise me that the next time you go through Wyoming, you will do your best to get off I-80 and take a two lane highway.

South of Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park, there are some lesser known (but lovely) national forests. The area between Jackson and Pinedale has rushing rivers and abundant cheap campsites. Wide open spaces!

What appears ugly and barren from the interstate seems vast and colorful on a highway. It is so ungoverned. There is an undercurrent of fear (especially in a 16 year old motorhome) because breaking down in an area with no cell reception or services would be a major bummer. But the fear turns the beauty sublime.

The landscape here is more like a palette than a collection of distinct objects like mountains, trees, etc. As I drove, my mind was racing to name and remember all the colors so I could remember them the next time I have a room to paint! Moody stormcloud purple-gray. Parched sagebrush. Faded yellow grass. Washed-out sky blue.

In Saratoga, Wyoming, I saw the first road requiring river-fording that I've seen north of the Rio Grande:

Houses on the North Platte River in Saratoga.

A cattle ranch on the scenic Highway 130 through Medicine-Bow National Forest.

More details on Colorado to come. But first, I had to give Wyoming its due.