After spending a night in a nice little place called Torrey, Utah, we took on another long (and pretty boring) ride through the desert to cross into Colorado. As soon as we got there, the ride drastically improved: The Rocky Mountains hadn’t over-promised. We enjoyed the nice, long curves, but were always on our toes due to the weather: It was just…weird. It repeatedly changed from blue skies to pitch black, to windy and once to a proper downpour. Coming into Colorado Springs, the sky looked as if the big spaceship from Independence Day would emerge any second!
After spending two days in Colorado Springs dwelling in memories from high school times and having a hoot with our friend Willie, we sped north, stopping in Denver only to see with our own eyes the effects of that certain law that was passed last year: Yes, they really do sell weed in stores. All you want, nicely assorted, pre-rolled or in bags… Even for European standards, that was pretty, well, interesting to see.
A funny thing happened on the way to Wyoming the next day: About half way on a stretch of 120 miles between any type of civilization, we briefly crossed into Utah – and the pavement was gone. Not so cool, on road bikes, with no detour in sight.
Gone.
Once we did get into Wyoming, it actually was quite nice, though. Yellowstone and its less famous brother Grand Teton National Park both are as nice as people say. Probably nicer. Not quite the mind-blowing scenery as the Canyonlands for us, maybe because it was much more like back home. But still, a very, very nice place on this planet.
Yellowstone.
Leaving Yellowstone, we entered Montana, that last state before getting into Canada. Staying in an Airbnb Tipi our first night, our host told us that Montana was officially the most dangerous state of them all: Speed limits are very high, people drive like nuts, and until not long ago, drinking and driving was actually legal! Not sure if that last one is true, but hey, wouldn’t surprise me.
Our stay in Kalispell, Montana, was prolonged quite a bit by our first “accident”: Somewhere out in the nowhere in Montana, north of a town with the funny name of “Butte”, my back tire blew. Bum. Or rather Pfffffft. Luckily, some nice Montana-locals passed by, and were equipped with a temporary tire fixing tool. When wanting to pay them for using it for me, they answered “Naaaa man, this is Montana!!”. So far so good – and we made it to Kalispell, our stay for the night.
Turns out my back tire is rare. Very rare. So it had to be ordered from California, which took 2 days. Good thing we stayed with very cool Couchsurfers: A family with two very bright girls, who repeatedly beat me at table tennis. They made sure we had a good time, among other things showing us a simply astounding little lake that reminded us of back home:
Lake paradise.
Oh yeah – the island in the middle is for sale. Good thing we only saw that towards the end of our trip (and thus budget). I would have been tempted.
All in all, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana were very impressive. Lots of “empty” parts, but also miles and miles of mind-blowing nature, only interrupted by beautiful curves we were eager to lean in to. Especially Montana struck us as very idyllic. Put that a bit closer to “civilization” and we’re hooked!
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