Drive to Denver

Our next journey leg began on Tuesday when we left the campground near Black Hawk and headed south.  We repeated the drive down the east side of the Black Hills on 79 and across 18 through Hot Springs again.  West of Hot Springs the hills gave way to more prairie land and some down right nasty, dry terrain full of rocky ravines and almost no vegetation for a while.  As we got into Wyoming it turned into mile upon mile of high elevation prairie at an elevation averaging around 4500 feet.  We decided to stop for the night at an RV park near Glendo, WY.

We headed out Tuesday to more high elevation prairie.  The 100 miles from Glendo to Cheyenne on I-25 just kept climbing gradually until we reached 6400 feet, still prairie as far as you could see but now with mountains far to the west.  Cheyenne being the capital of Wyoming meant a visit to the Capital building was in order.  We parked the motor home at a truck stop, unhooked the car, and drove into town.  It was a very nice old building built in the 1880s and recently refurbished so it was immaculate.

As we headed south out of Cheyenne the elevation gradually went down until it leveled out around 5100 feet which was consistent then on to Denver.  Once into Colorado the Rockies were on our right all the way into Denver.  The drive was pretty flat and the road was horrible.  Colorado needs to invest in some road work here.  We arrived in Denver and made our way through traffic to the oasis called Cherry Creek State Park right in the middle of the metro area.  We’ll stay here until Sunday visiting with Angela and Jake and chilling.  Ann will fly back to Phoenix Sunday (12th).