Visiting Colorado

Today we flew to Denver, then drove west to Eagle.  It was great to be back in the mountains. We were both amazed at the amount of color this year - we do not recall seeing this much or this intense amount of colorful golden aspen trees on other autumn trips.  What a beautiful drive and let me assure you that these pictures do not do it justice. 

Many hillsides had small blotches of color as you can see in the bottom left picture.

The bottom right show a more wide angle view of a colorful hillside.

Tomorrow we will head out through Glenwood Canyon and on to Glenwood Springs for lunch and grocery shopping before heading to our Aspen condo.

JD Tribute Concert

This concert was as good as expected, and in some ways even better!  It opened with an entirely new orchestral arrangement which is the Late Winter to Early Spring from the Season Suite. It was all instrumental and was accompanied by some new video which set the tone for the entire concert.  Most of the songs had a video of John singing, with four sung by Mack Bailey. 

The set list included some new songs not performed in prior Tribute concerts like "Druthers'" and "Feather Bed".  The final encore was Rocky Mountain High which, being n Colorado, was very well received.

After the concert we talked to Mack's wife Rachel for a while then headed out to the Meet and Greet to chat with Mack and Chris Nole.  

Mary spotted John's son, Zak, in the crowd so we chatted with him for a bit. 

All in all, a great evening!  Heading home tomorrow with a few weeks before our next trip. 

Rocky Mountain National Park

How nice it is to be back in the mountains!!  Our day started with a beautiful drive through the foothills to Estes Park.  We could even see the foothills as we headed out as you can see in the picture on the left.  US-36 is a very nice 2 lane road with wonderful scenery.

As we entered Rocky Mountain National Park, what came on the radio but Rocky Mountain High!  How appropriate!!   It's been way too long.  We drove as far as the Alpine Visitor Center, then drove back to Denver to get ready for tonight's concert.  Along the way we took quite a few pictures.   Here are four of them. 

Top Left is looking toward the park from Estes Park.

Top right shows snow on the mountains.

The bottom two show some of the high range.

As we were driving out of the park, we were surprised to see a fox just off the road! Since you can only stop at turnouts, by the time I stopped and walked back to the spot, he was heading down the hill.  But by then he was far down the hill. If you click on picture on the right, look for the white spot in the center.   The only other wildlife we saw were a few chipmunks. 8-)

After visiting the park we had a nice outdoor lunch in Estes Park.  That was until we had an unexpected visitor jump up on our table! No need for zoom on this picture since he was only 18" away!!  

I'm doing a separate post for tonight's concert.   More to come!!

Quick Travel Turnaround

Mary and I are in Longmont, Co tonight.  Yes, it's rue that we just got home last Friday, and today we flew to Denver to attend a Mack Bailey and Chirs Nole  performing John Denver Rocky mountain celebration concert tomorrow evening.  No pictures today (I would have posted on of the Rockies, but the haze was too thick to take a picture), just a travel day consisting of a flight and drive to our hotel.

We plan to visit Rocky Mountain National Park tomorrow before heading to Denver for the concert. Lots of pictures tomorrow!!