Yesterday we finished up with everything in Fort Collins and headed for the Denver Airport to drop off mom-in-law. From there, we stopped in downtown Denver, where Erin had lunch with some environmental folks. After lunch, we headed for Veil and Minturn, where a friend from Alaska is living. We had a great pizza dinner in “downtown” Minturn, and then the real adventure began. We pulled out of Minturn after dark and decided to head over Cottonwood Pass as a “shortcut” to Aspen so that we might find some good camping. Without a real map, we did not find the road we were looking for, but instead wandered 22 miles down muddy, snowy roads into the middle of nowhere. The Element handled everything pretty good, but was definitely struggling with the mud. At some point we realized the road was getting smaller and covered with more snow, and decided to turn around. It was about 10pm by the time we rolled into Glenwood Springs and decided to splurge on a dive hotel for the night.