After yet another late, late arrival to Louisville it’s a beautiful day. Time to look back on some of our Colorado adventures.

We stayed in a cabin at a campground near Pagosa Springs. It’s a beautiful area a long way from everywhere. About 7500 feet elevation, tons of rivers, lakes and pines. And a massive natural hot springs complex on the xxx River.

One of our adventures was an extreme all-terrain vehicle (ATV) ride into the mountains. Took us about four hours to ride up the mountain (topped out at 10,700 feet) and two hours to ride the same trail back. Gravity. It’s pretty amazing what the ATVs can push through – steep, rocky spots that you’d swear would crash you. We were on four-person vehicles, pictured below.

It *is* nice to get way off the beaten path with these vehicles, and it’s very popular in this part of the world. Everyone has an off-road vehicle of some sort. The views were spectacular, though the beetle kill of the pines above 9000 feet was sad to see. Still don’t know why the kill is at higher elevations (homework to do here), but in places it’s 80% of all trees.

It was a good day outdoors. All in, I enjoyed ATVing, but I don’t think it would become a lifestyle for me – more of a vacation outing.