We continued in the direction of Rocky Mountain NP. We finally ended up in Winter Park, a few miles from the park entrance. The first parts of Colorado (coming from Utah) were quite boring, but while gettinghigher the surroundings got more beautiful. We roughly followed the Colorado River, passing Vail.

  Mountain driving is terrifying!  I have driven in the Smokey Mountains several times and have had no problems, but the Rocky Mountains are completely different.  In fact, I never ever want to drive through them again.  So, I just want to send out a few words of caution about it:

     If you are afraid of heights you will not like driving through the Rockies.

     If you are the passanger of a really bad driver please insist on driving yourself.

     Make sure you have your vehicle checked out before climing the Rockies in case of break failure.

     Do not ride your breaks - simply go slow enough so you do not have to use them often.

  That is all for now.  I just wanted to share the sheer terror I felt climbing up to 10,000 feet.