We ended a long drive to Denver today with a quick visit to Columbine High School - the site of the school shooting on April 20, 1999 in which 12 students and one teacher were gunned down and 24 others injured by two students of the school with unclear motives, who then went on to commit suicide. The incident stunned and outraged the country, and sparked debated on gun control laws and the availability of firearms in the US.

After parking their cars in this car park at 11:10am, the shooters planted bombs in the school's cafeteria - the building on the right in this shot. When the bombs failed to detonate, the shooters climbed the stairs on the left that lead to up to the school's library, and opened fire indiscriminately on anyone unlucky enough to be in the area. They then eventually headed inside via the school's main entrance, out of shot to the right.

Schools across the country are on summer recess at the moment, but the main entrance was unlocked so we headed in. Spot the little security camera on the ceiling in the centre shot above - it captured the shooters in the cafeteria during their rampage, right here where I'm standing.

The shooters proceeded to make their way throughout the building, firing at anybody they came across, before entering the library where dozens of students and teachers had concealed themselves. What ensued was a bloody massacre. Upon leaving the library, they entered the science area which is through the doors on the right of this shot and continued roaming the school, shooting aimlessly but injuring no further people. Close to an hour after the attack started, the shooters returned to the library and shot themselves in the head.

In 2007, this permanent memorial was opened in a meadow adjacent to school to honour and remember the 13 victims and 24 injured. Incidentally, for South Park fans out there, the show's co-creator Matt Stone lived in this area and attended Columbine High School. In Michael Moore's 2002 documentary on the Columbine shooting (and America's predilection for gun violence), Bowling for Columbine, Stone described the neighbourhood and the school itself as "Painfully, painfully normal".

Denver is the capital and largest city of the mountainous state of Colorado with a population close to 700,000, and growing - fast. The greater metropolitan area of nearly three million people is rapidly expanding, and the urban sprawl is taking its toll on the city's infrastructure. Traffic especially is terrible! Anyway, we spent our day here in the downtown area just following our nose, given an apparent lack of must-see tourist sites outside of a myriad of museums.

Denver sits exactly a mile above sea level, earning it the nickname "The Mile-High City". As we explore more of Colorado over the few days, we'll be getting a lot higher however.

While the downtown area is nice enough, it is absolutely full of absolute weirdos! It's a little hard to explain - I really needed to grab some photos but expect to do a lot of double-takes if you ever find yourself wandering through here.

Colorado is one of currently four US states to have completely legalised marijuana. Since it was legalised for recreational use last year, weed dispensaries have opened all over the state - more than a hundred in Denver alone. They sell a myriad of cannabis strains, as well as various marijuana infused products and related paraphernalia. While legal in state, recreational marijuana use is still illegal at the federal level, so anything purchased here cannot be taken or sent out of the state. As a rather blatant example of double standards however, all sales are still subject to federal taxation. While President Obama has said he has no intention of overriding or interfering with the legalisation of marijuana by individual states, future presidents could well take a different stand and quash all of this. As for us, while we didn't purchase any of the good stuff, we did grab some weed-infused brownies :)

For lunch we found a restaurant bar with over 100 beer taps, most of them pouring craft beer from all over the US (my favourite!). Unfortunately I was driving and so had to control myself.

After being weirded out by downtown, we ventured a little further afield through some much nicer parts of the city, including City Park here with good views over the city skyline. In the (hazy) background are the Rocky Mountains, which dominate the western half of Colorado and which we'll be checking out tomorrow!

Yesterday I mentioned we bought some marijuana-infused brownies at the weed dispensary in downtown Denver. Well after getting stuck into them last night, Kristina and I felt pretty rough this morning hahaha! I guess we're getting too old for that shit :) We were going to spend today doing a scenic drive through the Rocky Mountains, but frankly neither of us felt up to it so instead made a beeline to our next stop for the night. It wasn't without its scenic Rocky Mountain stops however.

This is the little ski resort town of Vail, one of Colorado's most popular spots in winter. The town was established and built as the base village to Vail Ski Resort, the third-largest ski mountain in North America. Vail is modeled on European ski towns, and as you can see has a very European aesthetic throughout - very cool!

While skiing and snowboarding are the thing to do in winter, during summer its mountain biking, rafting, hiking, and golf.

Our little pit stop for tonight is just a little further up the road in Beaver Creek, encompassing another major ski resort in the area. Kristina managed to snag this place for free through one of her travel contacts, so hey, why not!

The view this morning from our hotel room, buried in the Rocky Mountains. Nice!

We spent today driving through and exploring White River National Forest. At over two million acres in size, the forest is huge and encompasses Vail and Beaver Creek where we were yesterday, as well as Aspen and Glenwood Springs where we'll be today and tomorrow. As far as National Forests go throughout the country, White River is the most visited, not least of all because it contains 12 ski areas.

The roads throughout the forest are, in a word, phenomenal! Hilly, winding, scenic - my favourite! The only downer is getting stuck behind idiots who insist on driving well below the speed limit and hitting the brakes at the slightest hint of a bend in the road.

Spot the rock climbers. They seemed to be arguing about where to go next. My guess is down.

After a good few hours of hooning through the forest, we emerged in the ski resort of Aspen, a popular tourist destination adjacent to Aspen Mountain ski area. Aspen boasts the most expensive real estate prices in the United States, with a median listing price for homes or condos for sale at around $5 million. Having said that, the average cost of a one-bedroom rental is still less than we were paying for a studio in New York!

A short drive outside of Aspen is the stunning Maroon Lake, overlooked by the Maroon Bells mountain peaks in the background there. This view of the Maroon Bells over Maroon Lake is one of the most famous scenes in Colorado, and is reputed to be the "most-photographed spot in Colorado".

Unlike other mountains in the Rockies that are composed of granite and limestone, the Bells and these other surrounding peaks are composed of metamorphic sedimentary mudstone that has hardened into rock over millions of years, and results in this distinctive maroon colour. And that was that for another awesome day on the road :)

Another day, another random camp site :) This one has an awesome view over Glenwood Canyon outside the town of Glenwood Springs, which was our focus for the day.

We ditched the car in town and each grabbed a pair of wheels with which to explore the canyon. Other options included kayaking and rafting, but after a month and a half with no bike, my legs are pretty itchy hehe.

The amazing Glenwood Canyon is a rugged and scenic 12 mile (20km) canyon on the Colorado River (one of the principal rivers of the Southwestern United States, and one which we'll being seeing more of later in the trip). The cycle path here follows the river through the canyon, and runs alongside (and in some parts, beneath) the I-70 Interstate Highway, and the train tracks on the other side of the river.

The canyon walls climb as high as 1,300 feet (400m) above the river, which has slowly but surely cut its way down through the layers of sedimentary rock over time, resulting in this absolutely stunning area.

Suffice it to say, I've ridden less interesting paths and trails in my life :)

Nice day for a bit of this!

After traversing the full length of the canyon we turned around and headed back again, and now we both have sore assholes (I didn't bring my cycle shorts with the spongey butt). After dinner we spent the rest of the evening at a new hot springs that recently opened right on the Colorado River. Nice!

Another day of driving through Rocky Mountain awesomeness, in the middle of nowhere, Colorado. Our destination for the day was also in the middle of nowhere, such that the route recommended by both Google Maps and our own GPS involved a 27 mile (44km) unpaved road to get there from the direction we were coming. It started out as this bloody awful thing with sharp rocks and potholes everywhere, so I figured we'd either end up with a couple of flat tires and/or coming out the other end with stone chips all over our (brand new) car. But it was either this or a three-hour detour, so on we went, with the cruise control set to a meager 20mph.

As it turns out, that crap only lasted a few miles before giving way to this thing of beauty with barely a rock in sight. The next 24 miles were spent flying around these corners rally-style amid some pretty impressive scenery. Now the car is caked in mud, but I'll take that over stone chips.

And this was our remote destination - the little town of Crested Butte, home to just 1,500. Crested Butte wasn't on our original itinerary when I first planned out this trip (some 18 months ago now), but Kristina's aunt used to own a home here and absolutely loves this place, so we figured we should see what all the hype is about :) First impressions certainly didn't disappoint.

This is the main drag through town, and is lined with these beautifully preserved Victorian-era buildings dating back to the town's coal mining roots, colourfully painted up and refitted with various shops and businesses. The shot on the right is the local dentist for example hehe.

Aside from the usual summer activities on offer in these parts, Crested Butte also lays claim to have created the sport of mountain biking. The story goes that prior to the town's roads being paved in 1983, the locals got tired of trashing their cars in the ruts just driving to the post office (I know how they felt). Folk eventually figured out that a good alternative, short of reverting back to horses, was to use bikes. During the following years, Crested Butte hooked up with a faster crowd of cyclists from California, who had developed a peculiar machine with big tires, wide handlebars and plenty of gears. They called this thing the "mountain bike". One thing led to another and the sport of mountain biking was born, and for that, this mountain bike fanatic gives thanks :)

A couple miles north and overlooking the town is Crested Butte Mountain. The shot on the right is the awesome view of the 12,000 foot (3,700m) mountain from our hotel room for the night after the sky cleared this evening, in the even smaller town of Mount Crested Butte. In winter this is reputed as being one of the best (if not the best) ski resorts in Colorado. The ski lifts still run during summer however, and first thing tomorrow we'll be heading there, to wave to Kristina's aunt from the top!

We were up at the crack of dawn this morning for a ride up the side of Crested Butte Mountain here, feeling fit and ready for the short but steep hike to the very tip top of it up there from where the ski lift dumps you off.

Well the feeling fit part didn't last long hehe, not helped by the altitude, but the views were simply stunning!

We weren't the only critters up here.

The final part of the 1.5 mile (2.5km) hike involved clambering up this rock scramble, by which point Kristina's face made beetroot look white hahaha, but she made me fix that while post-processing this photo ;)

Anyway, after an hour of sucking in what little oxygen we could, we made it. This is looking back over Crested Butte, and somewhere in the distance there is that awesome dirt road we drove in on yesterday.

The view looking west over Crested Butte centre-left, and the town of Mount Crested Butte centre-right where we stayed last night (partially hidden in shadow).

And the view looking south with Crested Butte to the right. Not bad huh!

After a quick selfie (standard) we started the decent, with a newfound appreciation for folk who have conquered Mount Everest hehe.

A few hours of driving later we left the Colorado scenery behind and crossed into Utah, and almost immediately found scenes such as this. Plenty more of this good stuff in the coming days :)