This morning I got up and rode the last few miles of Wyoming to the Colorado border. Welcome to colorful Colorado. Unlike Wyoming, which generally had fantastic shoulders (they got a bit skimpy when there was a passing lane, but, well, there was a passing lane), Colorado doesn’t seem to believe in shoulders, they disappeared immediately at the state border. Luckily today I was generally riding on very low traffic back state roads.

The morning ride took me across North Park. Apparently where Wyoming and Montana use the “hole” suffix, Colorado uses “park”, North Park is a high plain surrounded by mountains. As I went south I gradually gained elevation and the sagebrush started to become accompanied by green grasses and in some places wildflowers by the side of the road.

By lunch I was getting into the base of the Rabbit Ears Range which is the southern border of North Park; I was starting to enter forest and had trees again! I plopped myself under a tree to have lunch.

The weather forecast for today was scattered thunderstorms, and by lunch time the clouds were starting to look less white and fluffy. I had a shortish climb up and over a pass over the Rabbit Ears Range, and as I was climbing the sky started to grumble. It looked like the worst of it was further east over the taller mountains, but it did start to lightly rain on me before I got to the top. It was only a short shower and I sheltered for a few minutes before just riding through the tail end of it.

Back again over the Continental Divide, I am losing track of which ocean the water is flowing into, but the sign at the pass helpfully told me I am back in the Pacific watershed, feels like I’m home! The descent on the other side of the pass took me through miles of burned forest. Unlike in the Sierra where there is a variety of tree species and ages, and many trees are evolved to survive fire, in the Rockies the trees are all the same species and age and fire decimates the landscape. It’s natural and the way the forest has evolved.

At the bottom of the descent I arrived to the town of Granby, which sits on the Colorado River. If the sign hadn’t told me this should have been a major clue, the Colorado is one of the major rivers that drains into the Pacific. I left behind the Columbia watershed in Wyoming. Here the Colorado is a small river, presumably near to its headwaters. Tonight I’m staying at a campsite beside a reservoir that captures water from the Colorado, with a great view of the Rocky Mountains. Tomorrow I plan to do another side trip off of the TransAmerica and ride through Rocky Mountain National Park.