The I-76 should be renamed the National Park Freeway.

We awoke at Christi's with both cats in bed with us. It was nice to have some felines around, because we miss Sherbert so terribly. Christi re-arranged her work schedule so she could come to Garden of the Gods with us, and we were glad for the company. The two girls gossiped the whole way down to the park, it was like they had been turned back into 7th graders, and their mouths were set on overdrive. Okay, I may be exaggerating, but only a little.

Christi is a pretty woman, but refuses to smile for pictures, which makes her look funny, cuz she is always smiling otherwise

Garden of the Gods is actually a private park. Some guy bought the land and specified that it be open to the public for free forever. It's got a lot of free standing granite structures towering above the green slopes of Colorado. Every rock was covered with climbers. I guess the proximity to Denver makes it a natural draw. We walked around on the paths, of which there are myriad. We were under a little pressure for time, since we wanted to be into Utah by nightfall, and since Christi had to be at work around 1. Due to the time constraints we didn't see the whole park, but we felt like we got a good portion of it.

This is Eagle Canyon on I-76

We headed back to Denver to drop off Christi, and then headed west to Utah. The drive west on I-76 is freakin awesome. We started at 5000 feet elevation in Denver, and continued up the freeway through the green green rocky mountains to 11,000 feet at the pass. The winding highway is placed right on the side of a steep mountain, and at times the westbound lanes seem to be directly over the eastbound lanes further down the slope. There's a 3 mile tunnel at the peak, and it's rather non-descript, but a feat of engineering nonetheless. On the way down from the continental divide the views keep getting more and more spectacular.

Just some random rest stop in Utah on I-76

On the I-76 the posted speed limit is 75mph and so that's how fast we went. The trucks on the freeway would only be going 55, so we would pass them like they were standing still. However, we kept coming upon gorgeous canyons that just cried out to have their pictures taken. So we would pass a truck, pull over and take pictures, and then get on the freeway and pass it again. The wonderful views were finally put to bed by the sun, and we were able to get some good miles under the wheels. We continued down the road to Panguitch, Utah and arrived at our hotel at about 1030pm local time. No one was at the front desk, so I waited for a couple minutes and called the hotel, which called the manager/owner, who came back from the local bar. I guess things work differently in the back country of Utah.

Black Dragon Gulch on I-76

That is all.