October in Colorado never disappoints! After our time near Mesa Verde, we headed up to camp outside Salida, CO. This is one of our top three destinations in CO – we’ve camped in this area dozens of times over the years. The area is always quiet, well-spaced and in October it is pretty empty.
While in the area, we also took a trip down to Great Sand Dunes National Park. This is another we have never visited in Colorado – it was pretty but there isn’t a ton of variety. It makes for an excellent day trip!
We went for a hike up to Browns Creek Falls, another thing we have camped near dozens of times but never took the time to explore. It was fantastic!
While there is a lot of good riding in the area, the best in my opinion is the ride from Monarch Pass. I personally like to start at the pass, head up and then drop down Foose’s Creek on the Colorado Trail until hitting Highway 50. This is an excellent, rowdy shuttle ride. Andrea took a ride earlier in the day on South Mountain, doing a shuttle ride as well. This is also an excellent ride.
After our time in Salida, we took a quick detour in Denver to visit friends, then made our way down to Bentonville.
Our time in Bentonville started out pretty great with some fun rides. However, it quickly took a turn when Andrea had a weird crash and broke her shoulder blade. We just finished a fun jump line and were just starting to ride again to move to another area when her tire slipped out on she fell. At maybe 3-4mph, she managed to break her shoulder blade!
After the unfortunate broken bone, we headed back to Missouri where we could get some further treatment for Andrea’s injury. This gave us a full two months back at the end of the year, getting to spend both Thanksgiving and Christmas with family.
-Kyle