Americans love to recreate.  And this country has by far and away the best recreation facilities of anywhere we’ve visited.  Whether it’s protected land like national parks, monuments, forests, or simple ‘recreation areas’ like reservoirs, rivers, ATV and offroad vehicle land or open parkland or state parks or county parks or a much longer list America has it all and it is all over the place.  And Colorado has to be near the top of providing the most extensive and varied recreation facilities of any state.  The whole thing is wonderfully mindboggling.

We’ve been visiting a number of the state’s more famous ski resorts but these days ski resorts are actually year-round adventure playgrounds which just happen to have world class skiing in the winter.  We dropped into one of America’s – and dare I say, the world’s – most famous ski resorts at Vail.  Vail is a wonderland for the rich and famous and everyone else who wants to experience the absolute best in skiing, accommodation, shopping and restaurants.  Vail is the crème de la crème of ski experiences.

And unlike Aspen which seemed a bit restricted or Snowmass which was a bit inaccessible, Vail was wide open with free parking, a friendly tourist centre, great shops and a very cool relaxed – if very upmarket – atmosphere.  We knew the place was out of our league when travel T-shirts start at US$42 (A$63) and a pass to go up the gondola was US$59 (A$89) but that’s okay, we understand, we’re just passing through and taking in this beautiful and friendly scene.

We followed the fast-moving Eagle River to the historic mining town of Leadville (I know, exciting name) but to get there we had to pass over another 10,400 foot summit.  Leadville has a very cool mining history and has a substantially restored old historic district with cool shops and eateries. 

The town is also surrounded by magnificent mountains and we spent a very enjoyable couple of hours walking the streets, having lunch and checking the whole place out.  And the coolest thing about Leadville is that it is at an astonishing 10,145 feet (3,075 metres), making it the highest incorporated town in the US. 

We left Leadville via another road and had to pass over not one, but two passes exceeding 11,000 feet (3,333 metres).  This has become so common place the last couple of weeks we hardly even passed a comment between us and yet this is really high stuff. 

We hit the busy Interstate 70 (I70) because we were on a mission to get as close to Greeley as we could.  But the I70 was bumper-to-bumper due to weekend traffic and we ditched it as soon as we could, ending up at the Boulder County Fairgrounds where we spent the night. 

All this trouble because locals have another storied way to recreate and we wanted to be part of it.  The next day we had tickets to the Pro Rodeo event called the Greeley Stampede.  Yes, there’s a little bit of cowboy in all of us and we love the spectacle of a good rodeo. 

So we headed north to the rural town of Greeley, firmly positioned in the flatlands east of the Rocky Mountains.  The fairgrounds not far from the centre of town was a hive of activity with all the elements you would expect – ferris wheels, spinning and upside-down rides, rides for the kids, food stalls everywhere, country music playing over the loudspeakers and people of all ages having the time of their life.  It was great.

The Greeley Stampede actually runs for ten days and includes parades, concerts, street parties, the fair itself and, of course, the rodeo.  We attended the Saturday afternoon event and loved the spectacle of the cowboys and cowgirls riding bucking horses and bulls, steer roping, barrel racing, chuck wagon races and all the rest that comes with a good ole’ rodeo. 

It had seemed a little odd when we came off the eastern slopes of the Rockies we were suddenly confronted with vast flat open agricultural fields, grasslands and prairielands of the American mid-west.  The mountains seemed a distant past and yet right behind us. 

To get a closer look at this unexpected flatlands delight we drove a little north, now not far from the Wyoming border, and headed out to the Pawnee National Grasslands, a vast flat prairieland of natural grasses that have been preserved.  We camped out in the middle of these flatlands, loving the cool breezes and the wide-open spaces.

The next day there was very special but it had nothing to do with visiting new places (although we did and they were).  We drove into Fort Collins, home to the large Colorado State University (go the Rams!) to meet up with our niece Megan and her boyfriend Brian. 

Megan is in the final year of uni, hoping to later get into veterinarian school while Brian is a mad-keen mountain bike racer and works in the aerospace industry.  Together the make a perfect couple and we had a great catch up with them over burgers and beer.  Megan later took us on a walking tour of her beautiful campus and showed us her brand new apartment.  Well done, guys!

We then drove east of Denver to meet up with our great friends from Sydney, Dave and Kerrie.  These two are mega-travellers for sure and have been touring the US and Canada in a small RV.  As luck would have it, our paths crossed near Denver and we had a rollicking good night catch up with travel and family stories.  But this is not a unique event – we also caught up with Dave and Kerrie in South Africa in 2019 as part of our Follow the Sun journey.  It’s a small world!

Exhausted with all this socialising we had to shift our focus to what promised to be one of the real highlights of our trip this year – Rocky Mountain National Park.