We always liked observing wildlife surrounding us on trails. For birds, we did not make any special effort to identify species. Until we travelled to Galápagos Islands and then to Ecuador where we visited a couple of destinations to watch hummingbirds. In Kenya, focus on big game did not distract us from birdwatching. We saw many species thanks to great skills and knowledge of our driver/guide. We were then ready for birding in Australia and Florida. At first, we tried to find and document birds we could photograph. Without advanced equipment mostly larger and slower species. Identification from photos is easy. With ☞Merlin we added additional tool: recorded song spectrum analysis. Now we listen and then look around to find the birds once we know what to look for. We hear and often see smaller, swift birds as well. Added new section to our website: Birding.
We were quite lucky to complete eight Subaru road trips in 2021-2025, total 284 days, 36500 miles of driving. Covered far corners of North America (US and Canada) and a lot in between. This is on top of a dozen earlier road trips and many focused visits, some very long time ago (no reports on our website). Still more places we would like to see.
65ºN – Chatanika, AK
14ºN – Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala
155ºW – Northwestern Glacier, AK
55ºW – The Daily Catch, NF
Seven Subaru road trips
Piotr spent quite a bit of time designing, building and testing our Subaru minimalistic camper which made the road trips possible.
Hiking in San Juan Mountains was our main objective for the trip: trekking part of Colorado Trail. We added acclimatization hikes in Wolf Creek Pass area and out of Silverton. We also added a few hikes on slopes of Blanca Peak and Great Sand Dunes, in Mt Shavano area and a couple more out of Keystone.
It took us 31 days and 3000 miles of driving to complete the trip. Just driving across Midwest from Chicago and back, and spending most of the time in Colorado. We stopped at Great Sand Dunes National Park (our 40th), but skipped Mesa Verde National Park which we visited in 2003.
We spent 8 days hiking SOBO Segments 25-28 of the Colorado Trail from Silverton to Durango: 118 trail kilometers (total km walked closer to 145) and 3 km total elevation gain. Trail is well maintained with gentle slopes except a few short steeper stretches. We left our car parked in Silverton and took tourist train back after the hike. This part of Colorado Trail runs at elevations above 3300 masl (except last day and a half descent to Durango) with highest point at 3800 masl. We used several day-hikes to warm-up (dragging our feet through Great Sand Dunes) and slowly going to higher elevations (Island Lake at 3780 masl). It worked-out well. With additional adjustment to altitude on the first night (at 3700 masl), we had no big problems covering 9 miles a day (our normal pace). Altogether we also hiked 130 km with 5 km total elevation gain on ☞14 longer day-hikes, plus some more on short walks. We were tired at the end.
For Piotr, summer of 2025 was 62nd anniversary of first multi-day trek (with parents in Bieszczady, Poland). It is now getting harder to pull enough energy to carry extra load and walk extra miles.
We enjoyed beautiful and changing mountain scenery, friendly social interactions on the trails, learning about gold mining, visiting small towns, scenic train ride, soaking in hot springs, visiting friends in Keystone. We were very lucky with the weather – almost no rain which is unusual for this time of year, minimal impact (smoke) of wild-fires. No health or car mechanical problems.
Completed itinerary
Destination
Overnight
Jul
23
Wed
1
Driving Chicago-IA
Microtel Inn Colfax IA
24
Thu
2
Driving IA-KS
Annie Motel Oakley KS
25
Fri
3
Blanca Peak area
Lake Como Rd
26
Sat
4
Great Sand Dunes National Park
Great Sand Dunes CG
27
Sun
5
Great Sand Dunes National Park
Great Sand Dunes CG
28
Mon
6
Wolf Creek Pass area
Wolf Creek Ranch Lodge
29
Tue
7
Driving to Durango, Pagosa Springs
Adobe Inn
30
Wed
8
Driving to Silverton, Potato Lake
Columbine Roadhouse
31
Thu
9
Island and Ice Lakes, Silverton
Columbine Roadhouse
Aug
1
Fri
10
Silverton
Columbine Roadhouse
2
Sat
11
Highland Mary Lakes, Silverton
Columbine Roadhouse
3
Sun
12
Silverton
Columbine Roadhouse
4
Mon
13
Colorado Trail (25-28)
Camp 1
5
Tue
14
Colorado Trail (25-28)
Camp 2
6
Wed
15
Colorado Trail (25-28)
Camp 3
7
Thu
16
Colorado Trail (25-28)
Camp 4
8
Fri
17
Colorado Trail (25-28)
Camp 5
9
Sat
18
Colorado Trail (25-28)
Camp 6
10
Sun
19
Colorado Trail (25-28)
Camp 7
11
Mon
20
Colorado Trail (25-28)
Strater Hotel Durango
12
Tue
21
Durango-Silverton Railway, Million Dollar Hwy, Ouray
Great Sand DunesStar gazing at dunesMayflower Mine SilvertonIsland Lake SilvertonColorado Trail at Twin SistersColorado Trail Deer Creek OverlookColorado Trail Indian RidgeColorado Trail Taylor LakeStrater Hotel DurangoDurango-Silverton RailroadDinosaur track OurayWillow Lake Silverthorne
