Une Envie de Sel

 We took off for the holiday weekend heading up the back way to Vail that goes through South Park and then over the pass to Breckenridge. On the way, we stopped to stretch our legs in the tiny town of Bailey, doubling back up a road that boasts some gold medal fly fishing waters...

 and some absolutely stunning bottomland.

 A sleepy Q still groggy from her car nap.

 You can see why this is big sky country!

 So beautiful.

 And so green.

 This is a particularly lush summer in Colorado, making everything just a bit more vivid than usual.

 Our dog Mathilda, who by all rights ought to be a working dog, was finally in her element in this farm country.

 I have never seen her happier.

 There are mountain goats in them thar hills...but we didn't see any on this particular day.

 This is the Old West, back in this neck of the woods, for sure.

 South Park, made famous by the infamous cartoon, is far more spectacular in person, the moreso for its unpopulated expanses of wilderness.

 So, so beautiful! Doesn't it just take your breath away? It takes mine.

 That has to be an Arab and foal, a sight that always makes my heart skip...even though my equestrian days are far behind me.

 Some stunning ranch country on the high, high plateaus.

Rising up to the pass, listening to Willie and Waylon and the boys, reminiscing to the strains of The Silver Tongued Devil.

...And this was just the prelude to our fabulous long weekend!!