Steamboat Springs - Ski, Hike, Explore - MyShadowProductions # 93

Hello everyone!

Sunday afternoon I took the Bustang Outrider bus from Denver’s Union Station to Steamboat Springs. The route is I-70 West to US 40 with some stops in Idaho Springs, Empire, Winter Park, Fraser, Tabernash, Granby, Hot Sulphur Springs and Kremmling. After Steamboat Springs it goes on to finish at Craig, CO.

It is a little over a 4 hour drive and the bus is very comfortable. The scenery changes quite a bit over the journey, wide valley vistas, sheer cliffs, switchback roads, briefly follows the Amtrak rails, some barren, high desert like areas, evergreens and snow, deer grazing (their colors of light tan blend in perfectly with the sagebrush) and the not too appealing small mountain towns mentioned above. Also goes through the Arapaho and Roosevelt and Routt National Forests.

The bus crosses two passes, The Berthoud Pass and Rabbit Ears Pass (covers several miles of road at near 10,000 ft and has both an East and a West summit). Oh, and my hotel is named after the pass, Rabbit Ears Motel (very nice, family owned hotel, well located in Downtown Steamboat Springs and steps away from the bus stop for a trip to the Steamboat Ski Area).

The bus arrived in Steamboat Springs a little before 7:30 pm and I decided to walk the approximately 1 mile to the hotel along the Yampa River Trail. Believe it or not, they have sunsets in Steamboat Springs too :)

Here is a short movie/video of the bus trip and walk to the hotel. Not the best of photos, oh well:

This morning, Monday, the sun was out and I made it to the Ski Area, got my rentals and was on the gondola around 9:30 am. Sometimes the early bird doesn’t get the “worm”, he gets hard snow (icy) conditions and what felt like no control, on a green run mind you. The long green run down from the gondola is named “Why Not”, sounded good to me but by the time I reached the bottom my knees and ankles were done. Never had this happen before. I talked to one of the lift guys and he said things would “soften up” around 11 am but the longer I waited it just felt like it was best to surrender and live to ski another day :)

I did get some photos on the “run of the day” just for the record:

After lunch the clouds are moving in and the weather report is calling for wind and snow tonight and tomorrow so it could get interesting. With that in mind I am going to explore for the rest of the day and see what tomorrow brings when the sun comes up.

I will head back to Denver on the bus at 7 am on Wednesday.

Oh, on the way here, there are some yellow signs with black lettering along US 40 about every 5 miles or so that advertise for a store called F. M. Light and Sons in Steamboat Springs. I think it is a store for rancher/cowboy clothes and supplies??

One of the signs said “Use your head when buying a hat”

Fair warning, I will hopefully have some interesting photos from this evening and tomorrow to share later.

Adios for now.

P. S.

I have been playing with making some longer movie/videos with the iPhotos albums and the “Memory Video” tool and then uploading them to YouTube. Normally these would be too large to upload on Blogger but by going through YouTube first I can then download on the blog. Plus the iPhotos “Memory Video has better music selections.

Try this test video and see what you think??

 https://youtu.be/kGLM_mIc0uI