It'a been a long time since I've been to USA. Previous trips were either to the east coast New York and Florida, or the west coast San Francisco and Las Vegas. I've never been to the middle of the country. This particular trip will make up for it as I will be travelling with Snowpea to 8 states covering quite a lot of mileage. I hope I can pin a lot of them on Pinmapple before we shut down.
Today we start off with my first leg of the trip from Colorado to South Dakota. The direct route is only about 100 miles and would take about 1.5 hours to drive. That would be no fun and I decided to do a detour to a few places.
Boulder
The first detour was Boulder, a town located on the foot of the Rocky Mountains. This Rocky Mountain is part of the famous and beautiful Rocky Mountain range in Canada. More on that in a minute.
This was only quick drive through and I went to its most famous landmark, the Flatirons. The Flatirons are the striking, slanted, reddish-brown sandstone formations that make up a portion of Boulder’s foothills on the west side of town. Source. I could see the Flatirons from very far away as we were driving towards Boulder. And once we arrived at the car park, it looked so majestic in front of me. I think everyone who comes here will have taken many photos of this spectacular view, which to be honest, photographs doesn't do it justice. You really have t see it with your own eyes.
There are a couple of 2 to 3 mile short walks around the Flatiron but I just walked a very short section along the path before turning back for my next stop.
Morning coffee
Next we continue our journey up towards the mountains, passing by a little town called Nederland at 2509m ASL with a population of just over 1400. If you think the name of the town sounds like the Netherlands, then you're spot on.
Back in the late 19th century, there was a mine nearby at an even higher altitude. The ore was bought here to be milled. Later on, the mining company was sold to a Dutch company called Mining Company Nederland. When the town was incorporated in 1874, the people chose to call it Nederland. Source
We stopped here for morning coffee at very unusual cafe located inside a hundred year old train carriage. I posted about it here.
Chapel on the rock
Whilst not being religious in anyway, I do love to visit nice and unusual churches. St. Catherine of Siena Chapel, also known as St. Catherine Chapel on the Rock was definitely one worth visiting. The chapel was built in 1935 after a group campers saw a shooting star. When they went to look for it, they found the rock. The Rock immediately evoked a reminder of Our Lord’s words to Peter “On this rock I will build my Church.” Source. This is quite a small chapel, but important enough for Pope John Paul II to pay a visit and bless it in 1993.
St Catherine is located on one of the main roads up to Rocky Mountain National Park. No matter from which side you stand at the outside, you get spectacular view. It was particularly enchanting as it had been snowing quite recently, adding to the ambience. The other thing about the snow was that in the morning we were at Boulder, which was around 5400ft ASL. Within 3 hours we had driven less than 50 miles, ascended 3000ft, and moved from a sunny to snowy environment. What a big difference a few hours can make!!
Rocky Mountain National Park
By early afternoon I had arrived at my last stop of the day in Colorado, the Rocky Mountain National Park. We drove along a 16 mile loop road admiring the scenery on the way. Before I started my trip, I didn't expect to see any snow in late April, so this was a massive surprise for me. Especially since in UK, we don't get that much snow as we're a very flat country. Our highest point in the country is only 4400ft, just half of the height I'm standing now. Pretty crazy!
The views here was just breathtaking. What a great way to start my trip in America.
