We've traveled 2,500 miles across the U.S. and nothing has been more stunning than Colorado's Glenwood Canyon. Not Cape Cod. Not the Appalachians, the Rockies, nor anything in between.
There may be more awesome canyons and we'll probably see some of them in Utah next week. But the bicycle/hiking path - and Interstate 70 - through Glenwood is an incredible partnership of man and nature.
 A network of viaducts, bridges and tunnels form I-70. Along with a biking path these environmentally designed passages wind throughout the Glenwood Canyons, carved by the Colorado River.
This stretch of highway opened decades after most of the Interstate system was completed. It was a long time coming because architects and engineers spent years designing ways to preserve the canyon. The road hangs on the sheer canyon walls.
The pedestrian path runs sometimes on the side and sometimes below the highway - but always next to the Colorado River. It was closest I've ever come to recapturing the wonder of rafting down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon many decades ago. You feel it's a privilege just be here, a place where the gods might have gathered eons ago.
If it wasn't for the noise of I-70 traffic, this might have been better than rafting. On foot, you can take a long look at the high walls dotted with caves and jagged rocks.
In one spot, you see columns jutting out like castle after castle in a row as far as the eye can see. Not far away, tiers of rocks form an enormous stairway leading up the wall.
As you go deeper into the 12-mile canyon, you bend your neck back to see to see the tree-covered top. At your feet there are piles of rock and rubble from slides.
It's hard to believe the sleepy Colorado has carved so deeply into the mountain. The walls are made of hundreds of one-foot (or more) thick wafers of rock, each with it's own geological story to tell. Sometimes the wafers are twisted sideways from some enormous event millions of years ago, a hint that the river wasn't the only thing that created the canyon.
 Halfway through, you can climb to Hanging Lake, a pristine pond near the edge of a canyon wall. Far below, a dam creates another pond on the Colorado.
When the flood gates are open, the river rumbles and splashes and hisses swiftly downhill with it's green and white water hurtling over rocks in a series of small waterfalls.
At Shoshone Point, water from a 100-year-old power plant (the first on the Colorado) rushes down a steep 150-foot slide and enters the river in a white, frothy roar.
On this day kayaks, fishing boats and big rivers rafts shared the river below Shoshone.
On the other side of the river, Amtrak and freight roll by, just as they've been doing since the 1880s. The idea for the glass-domed sightseeing train was born here when a passenger was determined to find a way for riders to get a grand view of the canyon. The California Zephyr began using the domed cars in the late 1940s.
If you're driving, you can pull off into several canyon rest stops. The best are probably Hanging Lake and Grizzly. But wherever you stop, do yourself a favor and walk a mile or so beyond the rest area to get a real feel for the canyon.
You can also rent bikes to tour the canyon. Some Glenwood Springs bike shops will ferry you to the eastern side of the canyon where it's a downhill trip through the canyon back to Glenwood.
Glenwood is a definitely worth a visit, but try to go in the off season when the crowds are smaller. It is a very special place.
END OF THE TRAIL
More than a century ago, Doug Abbey's grandpa homesteaded 160 acres of dry land on the western slope of the Rockies. It wasn't worth much then, of course, but the family turned it into a little empire.
"At one time we had 12,000 acres and 43 hundred head of cattle," Doug said as he prepared to sell his house and most everything in it last week.
At first, Doug doesn't strike you as sentimental. But he's sorry he didn't spend more time with his mother before she died. So now, Doug and his wife, Betty, are moving to Mount Pleasant, Texas to be closer to Betty's aging mother - and it was Doug's idea.
Last week, they had an auction at the Abbey's ranch to get rid of the things the family accumulated. There were all kinds of odds and ends on the property just west of Eagle, Colorado.
 Douglas & Betty Abbey, whose family has been in Eagle, CO for generations are auctioning off most of their possessions in order to move to Mt. Pleasant, TX to be closer to Betty's aging mother.
There's the bus where Les Frimer stayed when he was down on his luck. Doug let him live on the land and Les - because he didn't take charity - gave Doug the bus.
"He stayed here several years. He died on this property," Betty said.
There's also a yellow school bus (minus the engine), bath tubs, chicken coops, farm machinery, a camper cap, a cement mixer, boxes and boxes of auto parts, more than a half-dozen vehicles, wooden fences, wood stoves, bicycles, a motor cycle, bedding, cabinets.
Doug said the family accumulated the items over the years. Betty says Doug did most of the accumulating.
"I've been after him to get rid of this stuff for years. He's a pack rat," she said. But, now, she realizes that things like old license plates, wood stoves and vintage magazines are worth money.
"I've called this trash for years, maybe I'll have change my idea of trash," Betty said.
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Doug's ready to part with the goods, but the land is in his blood.
"What I'll miss the most is my willow trees and my irrigation ditch," he said.
That's not surprising. An irrigation ditch is a prized possession here.
"When you have land here, the water makes or breaks you," said Andrea Vesque, of nearby Brush, who came to the auction looking for antiques and bargains.
She had her eye on a glistening black and silver stove, but she guessed it would be out of her price range.
Andrea has known the Abbeys for decades.
"My son-in-law's mother was raised here (on the ranch)," she said. "It will be strange driving by and knowing they're not here."
Andrea and her daughter, Cathy, remember when Eagle was a much smaller and more isolated town. That was before I-70 was completed in 1992. The drive east was over the mountains. The drive west was through narrow, winding Glenwood Canyon.
In winter, both passages could be closed.
"We didn't have any hospitals. It used to seem like it took forever to go to Avon (the next town over)," Andrea said. Trips to Denver or Grand Junction were once-or-twice-a-year events.
Cathy left 15 years ago and she was shocked to see how much the town had grown when she returned recently. But it still has a small town atmosphere, she said.
"The one thing that hasn't changed is: this is still a great place to raise kids," Andrea said.
Doug Abbey still recalls watching his kids, grandkids and great-grandkids playing in the irrigation ditch.
"I got - gosh I don't know how many - grand kids," he said. Then he began counting. "One, two, three, four, five. Eight! I got eight. And five great-grandkids and one great-great," he said.
He'll miss the animals, too. The dogs and the goats and the chickens. But he won't miss shoveling the snow or tending the animals in winter, breaking open the ice so they can drink.
And he'll miss just being on the land where he's lived for decades. Betty got a rare glimpse of that when she complained about moving everything out of their home for the auction.
"I told him the house feels so empty," she said. "He said: How do you think I feel about my workshop?"
At least there's a coffee shop near their new place in Texas. Doug spends most mornings at the Eagle coffee shop with the guys, Betty said.
"You know how that started. I tried to switch him to decaf, so he started going out for coffee," Betty said.
Doug isn't worried about how much money he gets from the auction. He's made millions selling off parcels of the family land over the years. Somehow, it hasn't gone to his head.
Doug and Betty, just regular folks moving on with their lives.
VAIL, GLENWOOD SPRINGS
Heading west from Vail Pass, you emerge into Vail, one of the nation's legendary ski resorts. Vail Village is a Disneyland of restaurants, shops, ski slopes and condominiums.
 A steep and rigorous trail leads hikers up to Hanging Lake, located east of Glenwood Springs, CO. Once on top you can view veil-like waterfalls that feed the crystal clear blue lake.
The mountains get smaller after you leave Vail and in one quick turn they begin to morph into canyons getting more and more pronounced until you reach Glenwood Canyon.
The western side of the canyon opens onto Glenwood Springs. Glenwood's hot sulfur springs attract hordes of visitors every year. You can soak all day in the 90-degree pool that sits between the old village and the new motels that are right off the interstate exit.
 Visitors can enjoy two Hot Springs Pools, located in Glenwood Springs, Col. Heated by the natural Yampah hot springs - the large pool is 405 feet long and heated to 90 degrees. A smaller pool is 100 feet long and heated to 104 degrees.
We intended to make a short stop at the pool but wound up staying for hours. It's intoxicating. And it's huge. It takes forever to walk (or swim) from end to end of 135-yard main pool. Here, they call it one of the longest hot springs pools in the world. I don't doubt it.
There's a smaller pool with even warmer water. Step in and you may never want to leave. There are seats built into the side of the pool letting you just sit back and reeeeeelax till you're drowsy.
We went on a cold wet day with rain spitting down. It was wonderful.
At the western end of town, there's an aerial tram up the side of the Iron Mountain that ferries visitors to Glenwood Caverns, a magical journey though narrow caves and a room filled with a fantasy of stalactites and stalagmites of all shapes sizes and colors.
 The Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park (Glenwood Springs, CO) contains stalactites, stalamites along with other mineral formations creating a unique underground world formed by water ages ago.
The caverns are more than 2,000 feet above the valley but they were carved by the Colorado River ages ago, before the river created Glenwood Canyon.
For the adventuresome, there's a tour that takes you crawling through some of the smallest parts of the caves.
Glenwood Springs doesn't get the publicity of it's more famous neighbors like Vail and Aspen, but it's a great place to stay.
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