Welcome to Notes From The Road, a monthly recap of where we’ve been and what we’ve been up over the last 30 days.
If there ever was a time to tour the Colorado Rockies, it is the month of September. With the aspen trees turning magnificent shades of orange and yellow accompanied by the season’s first dusting of snow on the mountain tops, there’s no place I’d rather be this time of year. Luckily for us, both our work and social calendars had us on a circuitous loop around the Rockies for the last few weeks. From Steamboat Springs to Grand Lake to Buena Vista and over to Durango, we got to take in all the flavors and stages of fall before hunkering down and diving into projects on our property for the month of October.
Here’s a few highlights from the month of September…
Fall Tour
With all the places we needed to be this month we decided to leave our travel trailer on our property and instead live in the truck camper for much of September. The truck camper mode of travel allows us to be far more nimble, however the flip-side was finishing a job at night and having to set out in the dark to find a place to sleep for the night. Though waking up to a peaceful home in the forest always made up for it.
A quintessential fall morning in Rio Grande National Forest between Lake City & Creede 
This remote area of Colorado offered some remarkably dark skies, revealing the Milky Way in all its glory. 
BLM land near the Colorado River offered a peaceful morning after a long day’s work. 
We arrived here well after dark. Waking up to this view in Routt National Forest near the Flat Tops Wilderness Area was quite a treat. 
A chilly morning in San Isabel National Forest near Buena Vista. We drove out of the forest to find a fresh dusting of snow on all the surrounding mountain tops. 
Slumguillon Pass near Lake City proved to be the place to be with some of the best fall colors we’d seen in the state so far. 
This was probably our favorite morning of the month. Waking up in places like this is what never gets old about this lifestyle.
Weddings
Our work this month took us to Buena Vista, Beaver Creek, Steamboat Springs, Vail and back to Buena Vista. It probably goes without saying but September is hands-down my favorite month for photographing Colorado weddings.
Time with friends & family
A few weeks ago Mark’s family made the trip out from Iowa and rented a beautiful AirBnB in Grand Lake to celebrate his sister’s wedding. Not only did we photograph the wedding but also got some awesome quality time together while we are all in the same location.
Amidst all that September held for us, we were thrilled to have a window of time to make the trip down to Durango where we turned online friends to real-life friends. HD & David are fellow nomads who recently purchased a gorgeous piece of property in Durango. (You may recall our interview with HD which you can find here) We never pass on an opportunity to meet other road-lifers as it never fails that we have a lot in common. Bonus, we got to meet Jack & Margot as well, another full-time RVing couple that were visiting the area. Thanks to HD & David for hosting us for the night!
Truck build Update
For those of you wondering about the status of our truck modifications, custom boxes are currently being made for us by a fabricator in Grand Junction. While we wait, Mark continues to do preventative maintenance projects and upgrades to the truck to get it ready for our winter travels. We’ll share more as it all comes together!
Enjoy 15% off our book between now and October 3rd
If you’ve thought about purchasing our Baja travel memoir, now is the time! Head over to the Blurb bookstore between now and October 3rd and enjoy 15% off with the coupon code READER15.
FEATURED ON OVERLAND EXPO’S BLOG
I recently wrote a guest article for The Compass, Overland Expo’s blog, titled “My first Overland Expo: 6 reasons why I can’t wait to go back. You can read it here.
Thank you for voting on our Baja Camping Guide cover!
Thank you to everyone that weighed in on their favorite Baja Camping Guide cover. It was nearly a unanimous vote for cover #3!
The guide (available in both print and digital formats) will be released in October. Be sure to subscribe if you’d like to be notified as soon as it’s available!
IN CASE YOU MISSED ANY, THESE ARE THE POSTS THAT WE SHARED IN September:
- Help us choose the cover for our upcoming Baja Camping Guide!
- Full-time international vanlife with Hayley & Jake
- The time to be outside is now
What a month it’s been. We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to get out and enjoy all that fall has to offer because October is going to be a very full month of work as we prepare for our winter spent south of the border. Stay tuned as lots of exciting stuff lies head!
As always, thanks so much for reading.
Cheers!
Mark & Michele
Yay!! 🙂 I need to follow in the footsteps of your fall tour, looks amazing!
100%! The Rockies are so breathtaking this time of year. The million dollar highway was pretty busy when we did the drive on Tuesday. If you have a night or two to spare, you should totally go over to the Rio Grande National Forest around Creede and Lake City. It was spectacular over there. You really can’t go wrong any direction out of Durango though : )