We took it easy this morning and I had my usual breakfast. I processed an image for the blog then started to work up a blog entry. I cleaned the Jeep windows then we left around 11:05 in the Jeep to head over Weston Pass from the east. Neither of us had ever been over it before, and J had wanted to go over it for a long time.

We took CR-22, and went by lots of Rocky Mountain Iris. We stopped to photograph a nice looking patch, and it started raining shortly after we stopped. I was able to get a nice image (left) before the rain started and the wind picked up. We waited in the Jeep to see if the rain and wind would stop, and J broke a tooth while eating an Oreo. She thought she probably broke it a couple of days earlier while eating sunflower seeds when she bit on a small stone, but the tooth cracked off while eating the Oreo.
We continued heading up the pass and the wind and rain stopped. We stopped to photograph more wildflowers, and had a blast. The overcast sky and very light breeze at that point was perfect for wildflower photography. I was particularly intrigued by the Wormleaf Stonecrop or Yellow Stonecrop (above right). I also photographed Purple Loco, aka Lambert's Loco or Colorado Loco, for the first time (far left). It's one of the most dangerously poisonous plants in the west, and causes locoism or loco disease among livestock which is characterized by weakness, lack of coordination, trembling, and partial paralysis.
A short rain shower went past while we were there, and I took the opportunity to eat some Clif Bars for lunch. There was also lots of Blue Columbine in the area (left). It's J's favorite flower and the State Flower of Colorado. My favorite image of the day is of Richardson's Geranium (above right).

We finally left and continued heading up over the pass. We reached the top of Weston Pass (11,920 ft, 3633m) at 3:25. The road down the west side was much rougher than the road up the east side. The east side could have been handled by any vehicle, but a high-clearance vehicle is required for the west side. It rained most of the way down the west side so we just looked at all of the wildflowers as we went by. We turned east on US-24 at 4:40.
We went to the True Value Hardware store in Buena Vista around 5:10 to pick up some things. It was a great store with lots of specialty hardware. We left around 5:55.

We went to Casa del Sol, a Mexican Restaurant in Buena Vista, for dinner. I ordered three chicken Enchilada Acapulco and J ordered a single cheese enchilada. I ate two of the chicken enchiladas and J had the third. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was nice! We left around 7:00.

We stopped at the Loaf 'N Jug in Buena Vista to fill up the Jeep at $2.629/gal using our 3¢/gal King Soopers discount.

We returned to the RV around 7:40 and it was 58°F (14°C) inside the RV! We had left the roof vents open and one of the vent fans running while we were gone to keep the RV cool — and it sure worked! I downloaded the images from today and finished the blog entry. Then I started to downselect the images from today in Capture One (C1) before going to bed.