Fort Collins to Blackhawk.

We awoke to yet more glorious weather.  Fort Collins in Colorado is a nice place. Its growing rapidly so the folks who live it it are a little concerned it may loose some of the good elements it currently enjoys.

An 8am start and buzzing as we were Rocky Mountain bound.

"Spay & Neuter Liberals". " Impeach Obama". Theres a bit of this in USA.

Before long we were into it. A majestic canyon to ride through.

The road opened up to beautiful vistas of higher mountains and valleys. Reminiscent of the South Island of New Zealand.

We arrived at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. time for a "coffee" A-hem. A dark beverage a bit like coffee anyway. We definitely lowered the tone with our presence.

Suitably rest roomed and beveraged we took road no 34 (Rocky's National Park) all the way to Grand Lake with Murray, Gary and Barbara. The road snakes to about 12,000 feet. Roughly the same height as Mount Cook.
Great weather too. Bugger, someones got to do it.

Gary Mark and Murray. We knocked the bastard off.

A hamburger for lunch at Grand Lake Village  (another touristy type of area). Pleasant sitting in the sun though.  While there Murray became our own Crocodile Dundee. A family SUV had become host to a squirrel type of mammal. They couldn't get it out and had been trying for an hour.

Murray just reached in. Grabbed it by the tail and let it go. The feat earned him great praise and us a shouted round of cold drinks by the grateful victim.

We travelled through Ritzy Ski Resort type of towns and onto Berthound pass with many switch backs.

Cripes. Corners galore

Corners! more corners!

Then Mark saw a large Moose right beside us. An over the shoulder no look shot from Gerry as we flew past it and it made a dash across the road.  Eat your heart out David Attenborough.

Taken by Barbara on bike behind us 

It was a fair size and fortunate the others are sensible riders. Following more closely could have been an issue.

We arrived at our digs for the night a short time later. Blackhawk is a Casino town. A good side effect of the gambling curse is that you can obtain reasonably priced but nice accommodation and food. We took advantage of this today!

The youngest member of our tour, Alan (Gremlin on kiwibiker forum)  turned 28 today.

This was celebrated with a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday" and a candle in a buffet desert at our casino.

Tomorrow is huge. Up and gone early we ascend the highest road in USA.  14,000 feet I believe. Visit Aspen and generally have another ripper "Rocky Mountain High" day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwARpaKHx_w