We drove from Oro Valley, AZ to Fairplay, CO Tuesday July 9 and 821 miles later and 12 1/2 hours later, we checked into our cabin tucked into the woods. We left in 90 degrees at 4:15am and when we got here it was 62 out. Shock! The cabin is at 9,903 feet elevation and unfortunately Dave got altitude sickness immediately. I had bought the Boost oxygen cylinders in preparation for our altitude challenge but I think it was a bit too much for Dave. Some people are not affected by altitude (me) so I made sure he rested and got plenty of liquids in him. Today he's much better.
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| Downtown Buena Vista Park |
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| Overlooking Arkansas River |
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| Notice capsized kayak? Been there, done that! |
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| Just having fun playing in the rapids |
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| This group was together |
Yesterday we ventured out to do a couple of things: grocery shop in town (was a nice selection of fruits and veggies - we are now strictly whole food plant based eaters - think vegan), stop at the visitors center to get lituraure and things to see/do, bring home groceries and had lunch. About 1pm we drove over to Buena Vista where we dropped over 2000 feet to help Dave get better quicker. We had been in Buena Vista June 2018 and really enjoyed our stay and had hoped to come back and visit.
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| Bridge over river in downtown BV |
No, we did not do whitewater rafting like we did back then, just went to the Arkansas River in town and watched the fun. Not many rafters/kayers to see we think since most activity is morning to early afternoon but we did get to see some floating by. We remember our time on the river with our nephew and nieces Rob, Dee and Emily and Emily's 2 children Cody and Imana. Absolutely have no desire to do that again remembering our 2 capsizes while on the same river. Scary for us.
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| Found the tunnels |
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| Going to come back here to watch more paddlers |
After walking along the river trail for a bit we decided to go find the Railroad bridge that we saw years ago where we could watch rafters coming down. At this point of the river it's considered a rating of 5 meaning very obstructed, violent rapids which expose a great risk to paddler. Found a great lunch spot for another day to watch the paddlers coming down river.
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| Walked to the river - very peaceful! |
On the way back from Buena Vista we stopped at a place that had trout fishing along the road, so walked down to the South Fork of the South Platte River. Tomorrow we hope to go to Alma, the highest incorporated town of the country, and there are a couple of trails we want to check out. We are in the midst of many 14 teeners - mountains over 14000 feet tall. By going to Alma we will be among many of them. Stay tuned!
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