More Postcards from the Colorado River: Following the Journey from the Source
Yesterday evening, I ended my postcards on the morning of April 16, when I visited Grand Lake, also known as the headwaters of the Colorado River. But I wanted to get closer to the source, so I drove as far as possible into Rocky Mountains National Park, and at the point where the road was closed due to the snow, I started walking to the Colorado River.
But I didn't get far. I walked in the shoes I used last summer to walk from France to Santiago de Compostela. They are called Vents for a reason, and that ventilation doesn't make my shoe watertight. Nor was much profile left, and at the first slight incline, I had to give up. But just a bit further downstream, I managed to walk to the river and take this photo. It starts my journey of following the Colorado River to the Mexican Border. It's difficult to say how wide the river is, the snow could be on ice or land, but it looks like I could still jump to the other side.
As a European, I've always been fascinated by American mailboxes and signboards. They add character to the landscape and are unique to each area. I passed by some delightful mailboxes and signboards on my journey, which made for great photo opportunities.
After stopping to look at the waterworks that bring some of the Colorado River's water to the east side of the continental divide, I continued my journey along the river.
Before the town of Kremmling, the river had already grown much bigger than the little stream I had seen in the morning.
And this is after Kremmling.
In Glenwood Springs, I stayed in a motel and started the next day with a short hike to the grave of Doc Holliday. The famous outlaw, poker player, drinker, and "dentist" has become a big tourist attraction in the town. Along the way, I passed by a decorated tree, and I would love to know its meaning if anyone knows.
That afternoon, I visited one of my favorite parks in the US, the Colorado National Monument. It's a hidden gem less popular than National Parks like Yellowstone or Yosemite, but I highly recommend adding it to your travel list if you're ever in West Colorado. I'll share some photos from the park in my next 'postcard post.'
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“ These are wish ribbons. Most were placed there by Annie Zancanella who lives just down the slope. In her two battles with cancer, she found solace in tying ribbons to the tree on which she played as a child. “I spent my childhood playing on the mountain and walking with my father on his evening stroll up there,” she told me. “Now that my family has all passed I still like to walk that trail daily and think of them and my happy childhood.”
She started putting ribbons on the tree, using them to represent her own wishes, dreams, and prayers in her fight against cancer. After participating in a successful, non-traditional treatment program at Northwestern University in Chicago, she traveled to cancer centers in the USA to share her success story with university hospital students. Collecting ribbons from young patients at those hospitals she brought them home and tied them to the tree”
I found this on Google.
Loving these postcards. Thank you for sharing. I'm looking through my pictures from a (non-digital) trip in 1999 and I then have too many digital pictures from 2006 & 2007 when I was last in that area. So beautiful. Signs, mailboxes, old cabins, outlaws, hikes, the Colorado river - what's not to like? I'm enjoying following your trip. I hope somebody knows about those ribbons.