Crystal Blue Persuasion, Yellow Submarine, and Lavender Mountain, and Why God Made RVs

On yet another fine fall day we found ourselves on the shores of Crystal Lake, a mere twenty minute scoot up Red Mountain from Lovely Ouray. I was persuaded to take photo-graphic advantage of Crystal's warm, calm, reflective mood; it won't be long till she's frozen over… frigid as a popsicle in a deepfreeze. I hope to be immersed in Utah's Red Rock country by then, taking thermal advantage of places where Old Man Winter's arrival is generally postponed till the holidays… the way it should be in a perfect world. But it isn't a "perfect world," is it? Nor is it always fair. And that, my dear friends, is why God made RVs—to wander comfortably around in the desert, looking for the Promised Land. Poor old Moses and his Israelites… living in makeshift tents, no port-a-potties or holding tanks, no solar power or generators; surly they hold a graveyard grudge.  


Just beyond Crystal Lake, Bobbie and I caught the Hayden trail, currently a virtual Yellow Submarine subway of Aspen, all the way up to Lavender Mountain—a deeply hued, out-of-place hodgepodge of gnarly, twisted, volcanic rock that erupts from the now blond-as-a-Mormon-baby alpine tundra. We stumbled upon this surreal "Blowout-like" environment only last year, and I could sit amongst this nothing-short-of-a-movieset for hours, staring at what could best be described as a colorfully fossilized regurgitation by Mother Earth, eons upon eons ago.   

Above and below: We stumble upon longtime friends Gary and Tammy West and their daughter, Tori (and her three dogs) on the trail and had a great time talking about the old days and catching up on gossip :))

Bobbie, catching the Yellow Submarine "down-mountain."

I'm not sure, exactly, when repeated fall photo posts become boring/spam. Maybe you tire of it, yawn and doze off like when you watched Uncle Bud's 1956 Colorado vacation slideshow for the umpteenth time, "Gosh, look at those old cars, Harry. What would you give to have one of 'em now…" 

I beg your indulgence. It's almost over :))

Peace Out,

Mark and Bobbie…Loading up Goldie, battening down the hatches, preparing for blastoff!