August 24, 1997, Hells Hole area, CO: With a name like that, you'd think the hike must be viciously hard or grotesquely ugly. It's neither, and there aren't hundreds of people here, either. Just an hour by I-70 to Denver, too.

August 25, 1997, near Denver, CO: After a year of searching, I finally find a good spot to watch planes land near the new Denver International Airport. It's so undeveloped that you can hear the disturbed air swooshing around after the aircraft pass over. This is also the site of the most aggressive flies I've ever met: they swarmed into my car and wouldn't leave even after rolling the windows down and driving 70mph. Someday, by the way, this area I've staked out will all be houses and buildings. Everyone will complain about the airplane noise, too.

August 26, 1997, Cottonwood Pass (near Buena Vista), CO: This Californian finds out that you don't absolutely, positively have to have a 4WD truck to drive on in the mountains on dirt roads.

August 27, 1997, Rosy Lane campground (near Gunnison), CO: I'm camping in a beautiful Forest Service campground with my parents. But we find that a big trend in RV'ing drives us batty: too many people amble up into the spendor of nature in the mountains, only to turn on their generators all evening to watch TV. (Satellite dishes in some cases, even.) It's like having several cars and motorcycles idling next to you and never leaving. Solution: move to a campground with electricity so people don't have to run their generators.

August 28, 1997, near Tincup, CO: Tincup is the ultimate remote tiny Colorado cabin town. The entrance to town warns you: "This is God's country, please don't drive through it like hell." Number of mountain condos in Tincup: zero.

August 29, 1997, near Crested Butte, CO: Once upon a time there was a sleepy set of mountains north of Gunnison, remarkable for their beauty and good ranching. Now it's a gamut of tourist business and skiabilia working for your hard earned dollars. It's still beautiful, though everyone else knows it too which results in condos a'plenty up the mountainside here.

August 30, 1997, near Olathe, CO: Now on the final stretch home, I sight a field of the revered, world renowned Olathe summer corn. This is corn which makes corn addicts here. Cheaper than a drug addiction, but harder to feed during the winter when it's frozen corn only.

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