Day 16.

We actually got a lie in today! We weren't setting off until 9:30am so got a lie in until 8am, and on this trip, that is a luxury!!

We were going to Colorado today, it's never been somewhere I've been big on visiting, there were other places on this trip that I've really looked forward to more, this was more of fliss's domain than mine, but boy was Colorado going to change my mind!

As we drove from Santa Fe we passed through deserts and entered into the mountains. What amazing beautiful views! It was aerial views from above and down on the ground you have perfect views of the towering mountains right next to you. It was so picturesque, it's one of those things a camera will never be able to capture. These south western states are making my love for America and American culture that much more deep. When your actually driving through what you've seen in pictures and movies it makes you feel so humble and happy. It's just everything I had expected. And it was only going to get better!

We got to our idyllic camp site early afternoon which was a nice surprise as we usually get there late afternoon so we actually had time to do something! I was so excited! Becca had told us previously it's right near the river and that there is all types of water activities you can rent/do, and I LOVE water activities!! From our campsite you could hear the river and we were surrounded by huge red mountains and masses of trees, if you picture Colorado in your head, this was exactly that!

Not everyone was up for doing something, so fliss stayed back with Julia and Ollie to chill by the pool while I went in search for some water activities! We'd planned to rent canoes and go down the river. However we got there at 3pm and everywhere was saying it was too late to be renting canoes or equipment... HOWEVER! What we could do is rent rubber tubes, jump in the river and just float down the rapids... How amazing!! I was like 'YES!!' Naturally there were a few reservations in the group but my thought was, they wouldn't put it on if it's dangerous and your only here once, make the most of it!! When we got to the rental shop most people had come around and were hyped up about it! I literally couldn't wait! Now the only worrying thing was having to sign a waiver... But damn it, I didn't waiver in signing that waiver!! NEXT!? Once we were all done we headed out back to load up the van with the rubber tubes. What we didn't realise is the whole thing was self guided so you were on this rapid river.. On your own. Now I wasn't bother (looking back maybe I should of been!) I'm a confident swimmer I would of been fine! But Becca was nervous because of liability and in case anything happened to us more importantly. So we talked and talked, all the time I was just ready to go! The guys, bless them, ended up offering us a white water rafting boat and 3 kaiaks instead, which obviously, we jumped at!!! After waiting about an hour while they sorted it all out we finally jumped in their van and headed to the top of the river!

We yanked the raft off the back of the trailer and went straight into the river and I dived straight to the front seat, they gave us one last safety speech, blah blah blah, GET ME DRENCHED!!

The whole thing was so much fun! I was expecting it to be very full on with a lot of rapids but it was so nice to have periods of the river where we just let the river take us while we took in the amazing views! I decided to leave my camera on land incase I lost it, worst mistake I could have made! The views were just amazing, I was like having a front row seat to unspoilt views. We went past small beaches, woodland areas where we saw a deer! We even went past a few bars and cafés where we received whoops and cheers of encouragement, a beer would of been nicer but whatever! The best view was as we were floating down, we went past the base of a huge hill/mountain (almost) and it just towered over us with it's red rock and glowing sand, amazing! The river was mainly a class 2 with a class 3 towards to the end, well now I've done it once I'm thinking I'm this pro whose ready for class 5 but it was so much fun I can't wait to try higher classes! Look out Grand Canyon and Yosemite! Now, no one fell in but the class 3 definitely did the same job, there wasn't a dry person on the raft, brilliant!! Despite getting mounted on a large rock once and taking us a little while to actually get off, I thought we all did pretty well! Something I would recommend to anyone!

Becca looked relieved to see everyone come back unharmed with no broken bones! We were all soaked but we all clambered into the van anyway and set off back to camp. It's my groups turn to cook, it's really difficult cooking for 13 you know!!

When we got back we wanted to catch the views of the river before the sun set completely. It was about a 2 minute walk from our site and it was right there, the river we'd actually just been on but it looked completely different in the sun set. We took advantage of an empty chalet's terrace for the views of the river!

Ok. Now it was our time to cook. Lord help us, we were doing a full English because Becca hadn't had one. Now doing a full English for 4 is hard enough never mind for 13 and on a campsite!? Well it was just about disastrous. We had to cook eggs in a wok, the tomatoes were too much effort so they got those uncooked, we miss read how to cook American hash browns (they get them as shredded potato and you make your own, we didn't get that) so it ended up being a bowl of cooked potato! Then all of our bacon shredded because it stuck to the pan!! Honestly, if we didn't laugh we would of cried! Luckily, my fried mushrooms were the bomb! And everything else tasted good, it just looked susceptible! It's safe to say the group is starting to dread when it's 3's turn on the stove!!

We finished the night with a camp fire and some beers while Lewis played his guitar for us under the stars in our camp site. We'd been wanting to do one ever since we arrived but never had to the chance so we were doing it no matter if it was 11pm with a 6am wake up call because after all these views were too perfect not too!

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