Going to make this fast. We left Moab area on I-70, great views even for an interstate. We stopped briefly in Glennwood Springs. There is a place called Hanging Lake, we considered hiking to it, but did not have the three hours to spare...another time..looked like a pretty place, but it is a rugged, rock hike up. At a town called Minturn we began to take 24 down to Leadville. Scenic ride through there. Leadville was a very interesting town. We went to the Healy House and to the Mining Museum...but, after all this time the altitude had not bothered us...headaches, weakness, heart palitations, sweats..both of us! We WERE going to spend the night here and see the "Baby Doe-one woman show"...too high or something in this place...so we just got in the car and started toward Buena Vista. We spent the night there...great regret...the worst place we stayed in. But, it is a rafters haven here...just not much to choose from...and the Alpin Inn had a room...NO AIR...we were already barely breathing!! We ate at the next door Coyotte Canteen which was pretty good...just felt rotten. The next day, early we left and ended up in the tiny town called Hartsel. A delight in disquise! We ate a hearty breakfast at the Hob Cafe & Saloon and felt like we were in real Colorado. Had a friendly talk with the owner...as we were the only ones in the cafe. Left there and stopped at the Florissant Fossil Beds...the National Park and the private beds just outside the park. I plopped down my $10 for an hour of digging delight...while my husband read a book. Now I also have several nice leaf fossils to add to my rock collection. We also popped into Cripple Creek...just down the road from the Fossil Beds. It is now, much to our suprise, a gambling town. I did surrender to the call of the slot machine...plunked in a quarter and got $7.50. But...that didn't last long! On re-entering the Colorado Springs area we drove through the free park called Garden of the Gods. It is worth the drive in to see it. Seven Falls area is very pretty too. Colorado Springs is not a very congested city and is easy to get around in...there are lots of bronze sculptures downtown that are western in nature. This is our last night...stayed at the Comfort Inn near the airport as they have a shuttle to get us to the airport. We had a great time...did 1550 miles, which is a lot, but we saw so many wonderful things. Thanks to all of you who passed such great info on to us.

This is useless to anyone with eyeballs. This is perfect for anyone with a machine that reads text aloud for them.
What were you thinking, pogopat?

Pogopat...STOP!!!

No more new threads! Your good intentions are being lost by your methodology.

To make a useful trip report:

1. State your destination in the title of your thread.

2. Use one thread only and post additional segements of the trip report to the original thread (with the name of your destination in the title.)

3. Use shorter paragraphs. One continuous block of text is very difficult to read.

Please...try it again. We know you mean well, but #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 is no way to keep your info together on the board. You don't have to retype it all...just cut and paste into a SINGLE THREAD.

Pogopat,

Don't listen to all these idiots criticizing you. It was no big deal to find all your posts. I just clicked on your name and they were all there in a list. I appreciate all the time you took posting your reports. Lots of people are looking for info on Colorado and you did them a great service.

We've spent a lot of time in Colorado and think you did a great job with your homework and decisions of what all to do. You really made good use of your time.

If you've ever seen the movie True Grit with John Wayne, Ridgway is where they filmed most of the movie, including the hanging scene in the town park. It still looks much the same today. The mountains to the east of there are where the scenes with all the great mountain and aspen scenery was filmed.

If you ever go back, I'd suggest the Durango/Silverton train, a Jeep ride over the mountains to Telluride and back, and driving or taking the tram up to the top of Pike's Peak.

I also appreciate the effort Pogopat has made writing these reports.

But Connie, those who made constructive criticism are not "idiots" The report IS hard to read with no paragraph breaks. And while most of us know we can click on the author's name, not everyone does.

If someone is going to take the effort to write such a detailed report, wouldn't you think they'd appreciate tips to insure people will actually READ them? I would.

Geesh, you guys are harsh!
Thanks for the reports Pogopat.
Sounds like you had a good time.
We too love Colorado and Utah.
(who wouldn't? lol)

Constructive criticism is one thing, but "What were you thinking, pogopat?" is a little rough.

Pogopat, thanks for taking the time to write a travel report. I'm glad you had a good time.

I'll tell you why I called them idiots....Pogopat had written a lengthy and very informative report which took a lot of time.

What she got was harsh criticism and put downs without ONE positive statement, not only on this post but on the others as well.

I'd had enough of it and thought she deserved someone sticking up for her.

I think pretty much everyone knows to forget about fehgeddaboudit, right? And tpatricco's advice was helpful, and not at all mean.

One other point to this constructive criticism - You may be able to click on popogat's name NOW and find all the other trip reports. But fast forward a year when popogat has a few hundred posts to her name and these trip reports are all spaced out over time due to different people replying to them. Makes it a lot harder to keep track of them all!

Thank you jlm_mi. I tried to give reasonable advice.

I do not consider myself an Idiot either.

The report, in one piece can be a great resource for future Fodorites. Not just today.

It's so sad when people make constructive comments trying to help posters to use this forum more effectively and they get brushed off and are told they should be ignored or are called idiots. I can't understand what some people have against efforts to improve.

By the way, I agree the suggestions can be made gracefully, and I think the majority of these were!

Sure it is fairly easy to find all the other reports from the same poster, but wouldn't it be BETTER if they were all on one post in chronological order? What do some of you have against "BETTER"?

I wouldn't be surprised if Pogopat never posted here again.
Sometimes I feel like this is a nasty chat room.
It's not like everyone who posts here does this, let it go.
I'm very interested in CO, saw the first post that said there were others and just looked for them. Geez - it's not rocket science.

Thanks for the trip report Pogopat.

We're headed to Colorado/New Mexico in Sept. and trip reports from the region are scarce.

We'll try to post one when we get back and, if our Utah trip report is any indication it will be longer than some will like.

I myself love to read trip reports and the longer the better.

Was that easy enough for you all to read?...I hope I remembered all the "rules".

Pogopat,

Great Trip Report! I loved reading it.

Utahtea

Pogopat,

Thanks for the reports, I've enjoyed reading them. I'm glad you enjoyed my part of Colorado

Beanman

Thanks so much for the great report! I had no problem reading it and will refer back to it many times before our Sept trip to Colorado. We are really looking forward to our stay in Ouray - sounds like a gorgeous town. Thanks again.