Colorado

We left Limon about 7:30, after having a nice breakfast at the hotel, and topping off the gas tank at the station across the way.  Our trip to the Grand Junction area was supposed to be around a 5 hour drive.  We knew we could lollygaddle a bit, as it was going to be an easy day.

We timed our arrival into the Denver area pretty well, we didn't experience very much traffic and we were through the city and to the northwest of it pretty quickly.  We hadn't gone too far out of the city when we came upon some signs to the Saint Cabrini Shrine, just ahead up the road near the Hwy 40 exit.  I said to Adrienne "who the hell is Saint Cabrini?".  She just sighed.  "We should go see it and you'll find out about her."  Okay.  The shrine was up at the top of a mountain, just a few miles off of the interstate.

I found out that Saint Cabrini was born in 1850 and died in 1917.  She was the last of 11 children, born in Italy.  She had a tremendous fear of water, after nearly drowning while a young girl.  She also had a fierce devotion to God and to helping others.  She founded a missionary for women and began a lifelong quest of spreading the word of the Lord and helping people all over the world.  She came to America and while in the Denver area, she discovered a real need to help young children who were orphaned because of the deaths of their fathers/parents from local gold mining.  And so her summer home for girls was born, and built on the hill where this shrine is located.

It's a peaceful area, with cattle grazing on the hills above, a beautiful waterfall cascading down through a lovely grotto.  The water is said to be one that is healing - whoever drinks from it will experience healing from whatever physical ailments they might have.  Of course I leaned in and had a few swallows......

She died suddenly in 1917, while in Chicago.  She was made a saint in the mid-1900's and her good works continue to this day.

Onward towards our final destination - Fruita and the Colorado National Monument.  Also, our RV Park where we had reserved a cabin (wanted to try these out - they are a little log cabin with a couple of beds, a small fridge, microwave, lights and A/C and Heating).

We drove through some beautiful areas of the Rockies - the elevation climbed to over 10,000 feet - the mountainsides were filled with a combination of pine trees and aspens.  The aspens were turning to gold and red and the mountains were simply gorgeous!  We also drove through a number of ski resort areas, including the famous Vail.  All really pretty.

We ate lunch at a rest stop by this river.

After lunch, we kept heading west.  Around mid-afternoon we arrived at the Colorado National Monument in Fruita, which is about 15 minutes past Grand Junction.  Our campsite was just down the road about a mile from the entrance to the park.  We opted to go straight to the park.  We spent about an hour and a half there, driving up through the canyon area and into this magical and stunning valley of monuments made of our beautiful earth.  Some of these rock formations were formed over a billion years ago.  The views were stunning, everywhere we turned.  The pictures here just cannot do it justice.