Summer 2021, Day 16

The actual post will appear tomorrow. Today’s hotel wifi sucks and cell service isn’t much better here.

“Tomorrow” has arrived! Here’s the route of yesterday’s drive:

Before starting the relatively short drive, I went out for a walk that got cut short due to the altitude and humidity combined with the morning heat. Along the way, I spied these two unfamiliar trees which internet friends have since identified as a Catalpa and a Kentucky Coffee Bean Tree.

I’d originally thought of heading to Rangely via Douglas Pass, but read online that the road was in poor repair, steep, and often full of truck traffic. Somehow, that just didn’t interest me (although I’ll always wonder what I missed). Instead, I followed US 6 East until I had to hop onto I-70, then got off to travel on backroads to Steamboat Springs. While on I-70, I pulled out onto a slight bypass that offered ample space to park and take photos.

The backroads drive was an easy one with few vehicles and surprisingly populated by rest areas (although to be fair, they were ancient pit toilets). Here’s the view from one of those stops, and notice the huge difference from the I-70 photos from less than an hour previous – I drove in this new countryside almost the entire way to Steamboat Springs.

Once in Steamboat, I headed for Mountain Tap Brewery, then to my hotel, a Hampton Inn by Hilton. DO NOT GO TO THIS HOTEL IF YOU’RE IN STEAMBOAT SPRINGS! What a disaster it was. I won’t even bother going into the details; at least I got a decent night’s sleep and (eventually) some breakfast. I’ll be looking for a consumer complaints channel into Hilton Corporate.