Welcome to Part 2 of my vacation photo blog series. The first installment included an eclectic mix of hotel mirrors, Stormtroopers on a bathroom ceiling, and a Frankenhand. After three days in Boulder, Colorado, my wife and I took off on a Monday morning with a day of unbelievable scenery ahead of us. This was a day of driving without as many stories as the first few days, so I’ll keep the captions to a minimum.
We took off from Boulder, zooming through the Eisenhower Tunnel (not pictured, obviously) on our way to Independence Pass.
Independence Pass reaches an elevation of 12,095 feet across the Continental Divide. As you can imagine, the drive requires multiple switchbacks to reach that height.
From the scenic overlook at the Continental Divide, you can gaze upon several peaks that surpass 13,000 feet.
The road coming down from the Continental Divide gets narrow in some places, so we hit a traffic jam as some ginormous RV’s lumbered through from the other direction. Luckily, our view was a beautiful gathering of aspens.
After eating lunch in Basalt, Colorado, we discovered that Google Maps had re-routed our planned path because of a mudslide on Interstate 70. No complaints here because the new route took us through a part of Colorado we wouldn’t have seen otherwise.
Crazily, we didn’t see any wildlife on this trip. The closest we got was a herd of free range cattle on Douglas Pass in western Colorado. Go figure – we drove hundreds of miles and all we saw were animals that are plentiful in Iowa. We followed a family from Florida through most of Douglas Pass, until they pulled over to take some up close and personal shots of the cattle. I’m sure they were as excited to see the cattle as we would be if we saw gators in Florida.
Snake Plissken watches over this scenic view.
The formations gradually transformed as we worked our up Highway 139 in western Colorado.
I love driving through other parts of the country because you can easily convince yourself that you’re passing through an alien landscape.
The day ended with us crossing into Utah (our first time there) and landing at a motel in Vernal. Can we all agree that Utah’s welcome signs are so much more exciting than Iowa’s? Stay tuned for part three, where photos confirm that Utah’s landscape is just as stunning as everyone says it is.
[…] After a day of driving through western Colorado and stepping foot in Utah for the first time, my wife and I stopped for the night in Vernal. The following day brought clear and sunny skies, perfect weather for touring the northeast corner of the Beehive State. […]
coughingbison.com 
[…] After a day of driving through western Colorado and stepping foot in Utah for the first time, my wife and I stopped for the night in Vernal. The following day brought clear and sunny skies, perfect weather for touring the northeast corner of the Beehive State. […]