A recent hailstorm in Fort Collins, Colorado wreaked havoc as seen in this unbelievable photo of a baseball-sized hailstone crashing into the sunroof of a car. The shattered tempered glass was kept in place by the laminate and the sunroof now looks like a giant drip.
2,250 feet down, at the base of the Painted Wall – the tallest cliff in Colorado – the Gunnison River thunders through Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. You can actually hear the river roaring from the canyon rim. Several trails and overlooks along the rim offer stunning views of dramatic drops and the distant river. There are no maintained or marked trails into the inner canyon. Routes are difficult to follow, and only individuals in excellent physical condition should attempt these hikes. Photo by Nancy Danna (www.sharetheexperience.org).
So far today it has: rained (at night), slushed, snowed, been 50degrees and sunny, hailed, and now it is snowing again.
We have full sun with only a few fluffy little clouds and heavy snow happening here in Durango. I love our Quantum weather.
#but the water has finally arrived
As a boulder county resident DON’T JOKE LIKE THAT
My firend, my dude, as a fellow coloradoan, I say this with the utmost respect and gravity:
Boulder’s fucked this year.
Between the burnscar and hot srping we’re expecting, not only is flooding and landslides likely, but the minimal snowpack puts you guys at greater wildfire risk this year. Niwot and eastwards will probably be OK, but Boulder prope and Lyons are fucked. Have your bug-out-bag ready.
If it makes you feel better the Animas Basin is at 55% of snowpack and I think I smell woodsmoke right now, so we can all burn toghether this year!
Aw, this is really sweet! I’m sorry it’s funerals that brought you back but I’m glad my blog can help the rest of the time. Some colorado things, focusing on the durango-to-denver drive i have tomorrow:
The tourists in pagosa springs are even worse than deer when it comes to standing in the middle of the road.
Knowing when you pass from Archuleta to Mineral County becuase 160 suddenly gets like, 500% worse.
WOLF. CREEK. FUCKING. PASS.
Being tempted to stop at Hidden Falls every time and remembering you’ve got a long-ass drive and probably can’t.
Feeling your ears pop half ways up.
Having your nose start running at the top from the pressure difference.
The downhill side always has shitty conditions. even in july.
The 4×4 full of tourists that have never heard of downshifting in front of you, reeking of failing brakes.
The local pickup with no regard for the speed limit or safe following distance riding your ass the entire time.
It’s better than Red Cloud tho.
Red Cloud isn’t a road it’s lovecraftian madness redndered in asphalt.
The shell station in Del Norte with the clean bathrooms and Cherisse, who brings her kid in sometimes and he draws great pictures of tigers.
The San Luis valley comes in two settings:
1. Blazingly clear and bright and aching with the temptation to floor it on the flat area with no cops (this is a lie, the sheriff is waiting for your ass just outside of Saguache).
2. pea-soup thick ground-hugging daytime fog where you can barely see 30 feet of highway at once but directly above you is clear blue sky and for some reason there’s like 20 eagles hanging out on the fence by the highway. There’s no roadkill. Yet. The sheriff isn’t in Saguache. Nobody is in Saguache. Nobody ever was.
The Sinclair station in Poncha springs that’s right next to this idyllic river and there’s a farm with chickens and a pony and it’s calm and scenic with grazing hens and running water and thank god that place exists becuase for some reason the drive into poncha makes you carsick but nothing else does
The tiny ancient subaru with BC plates backing up traffic becuase they haven’t figured out the speed limit in MPH not KMH and refuse to use the pullouts. I don’t know how. The nearest airport is four hours from now and everyone’s flipping them off. How have they not figured that out yet.
Listening to the LOTR soundtrack on the way to fairplay and arguing about who would have driven the fellowship if they had a car.
Legolas, Gandalf and Aragon are all tall enough to reach the pedals but Samwise is the only one responsible enough to have gotten his lisence. maybe gimli but after nearly getting sideswiped by that one pickup from Wolf Creek for the 11th time he’d probably lose it and go all helms deep on his ass.
Pulling over in South Park to take pictures of the unfairly picturesque scenery.
It’s December but someone in Fairplay has a stand selling peaches. they’re like reverse fair-folk foodstuffs. You HAVE to buy them or you can’t leave Fairplay. They’re appallingly good and your finace gets juice on the windshild from biting into one too hard.
Passing through Bailey and waking up your fiance by shrieking “BOROMIR! HOW THE FUCK DID WE FORGET BOROMIR?”
Going from about 10,000 feet to 5000 in 20 miles and about as many minutes as you descend into Denver and oh god they’re even worse drivers here which is not helping the sudden re-compression migraine you develop.
See the pickup that’s been driving like an asshole finally get pulled over. Cackle madly.
WHY IS THE EXIT TO 470 IN THAT ORDER. WHY.
Get off on wrong exit. Again. Swap drivers becuase the one thing finace doesn’t do is steep downgrades and the one thing you don’t do is city driving, because great relationships have complementary skill sets. Kiss. Also high-five.
While parked on I-70 into denver, remark on all the corporate brands you’ve missed whilst living in Fuckass McNowhere, mostly Costco.
Arrive at in-laws house, hug everyone, offer up the Fairplay peaches and ramble about how boromir has a minivan with the fellowship in those cutsey stick figure decals before you are told to put the knife down, you don’t need to help with dinner and go pass out on the couch
470 gets me every fucking time. Every time. I always end up in the mall when I’m coming back from the mountains, even when I specifically try not to.
Also, Bailey is lovely. Spent a lot of time going through there as a kid because it was on the way to my favorite Girl Scout Camp. And the Lost Creek Wilderness is A+++ for backpacking.
Baily IS lovely and it’s a shame I rarely linger there. Last winter the post office let us use thier microwave for snacks and fawned all over Charlie for a good 20 minutes.
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