Lazy Day Relaxing at Camp

We decided to spend the day close to camp today to enjoy the beautiful weather. We haven't needed a heater at night for a couple of days and it actually started warming up first thing this morning after sun up. The forecast called for eighty degrees today and tomorrow and it really felt eighty this afternoon.

We took a two hour hike through the hills on the roller coaster trail and got a couple of pictures along the way. Nothing more to report for today.

Hope all is well with our family and Friends.

Two cowboys rode past camp this morning on the trail. Since I dropped our camera a couple of weeks ago and I can't see what I am taking pictures of I inadvertently cut out the second cowboy! But the horse won by a nose....

Here we are on our hike.

A view up the gorge.

A view down the same gorge.

We came upon this mysterious Indian painting under one of the overhanging cliffs. Whats that? You say Indians don't use spray paint?

There's a lesson in this picture. If you buy a boat that's too big you need a crew with heavy equipment to help you at the boat launch.

Road Trip to the Dunes

We took a day trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park today. You wouldn't think a state like Colorado, with it's mountains and plains and so far from the ocean, would have sand dunes but we had to see for ourselves. We drove about two hours south through the prairie lands east of the Rockies, took a right at Walsenburg, then west into the Sangre de Christo Mountains and past Mt. Blanca and the Spanish Peaks. The scenery along this route was spectacular and we were in awe the entire ride. We saw antelope in the prairies and signs for elk in the San Luis valley, but no elk!

We stopped at the visitor center when we reached the park and watched a movie about the dunes and the establishment of the National Park in 1932. After our picnic lunch we hiked up an old primitive road towards the mountains and along the dunes. The scenery along here was so totally awesome that we couldn't resist taking picture after picture. We wound up with fifty pictures and had to thin them out later in the evening. Here are a few of them.....

Double click on the picture to zoom in and read about Mt. Blanca. This peak rises to 14,345 feet and is 235 feet higher than Pike's Peak!!

The Spanish Peaks. The views around this range were astounding.

We are entering the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Double click here to read some interesting facts about the dunes.

The Sangre de Christo Mountains with the beginning of the dunes to the left.

It's amazing how much sand has blown into this area. It seems so out of place between the mountains it is just incredible! These dunes are the tallest in North America and cover thirty square miles. (Sorry Sleeping Bear).

Views along the hiking road were breathtaking.

The dunes meets the mountains. The contrast was gorgeous.

A towering ponderosa pine added a great subject to the view.

Sand and water. The rivers surround the dune and wash grains downstream. Later the winds blow the sand back up and onto the dunes to make them even higher!

Me.

Nancy contemplating the vastness of it all!

Striking contrasts.

Sandscape.

I'll leave off with some critters again. We saw this herd of mule deer as we were leaving the park. I couldn't get them to look up so I got a picture of hindquarters.

Here's looking at you!

Tuesday in Pueblo

Today we had breakfast then went in to town to run some errands and shop for groceries. We picked up four inner tubes so I could get the bikes rolling again. I found tubes that have "slime" inside so that if they get punctured they automatically seal themselves! I don't know if I haven't been paying attention in Michigan, but I never saw these before. Apparently cactus is a big problem for mountain bikers in the west!

When we got back to camp I started working on the bike tires. Each of the four had at least thirty thorns still embedded in the treads, and I used a pair of needle nose pliers to pull and pry them all out.

We took another hike through the foothills along Lake Pueblo today and I got some more pictures. This area is so beautiful and every few hundred yards you get new views that are just awesome. Enjoy.....

In this picture you can see a bit of the trail we were walking on. The trail gets used by hikers, mountain bikers and horses.

One of the bays of Lake Pueblo. The trail follows the water and we hiked to the headwaters of this bay.

Some more of the trail to the left and the Rocky Mountains in the background.

Rock formations above the lake with more mountains behind. We can see Pike's Peak from this trail, but today it was covered in clouds.

Another vista. The word awesome kept coming to mind all the way through this hike!

We made a move today.

We woke today to see snow falling from the heavens! We were planning on moving south to a different campground today, and after seeing snow and the tree guys coming in to the camp to spray the trees with insecticides we decided to go sooner rather than later. We checked the weather forecasts for Pueblo and saw that they are forecasting 70 for Thursday and 80 for Friday! Pueblo here we come!!

We made the two hour ride and set up camp at Lake Pueblo State Park for this week. After everything was done we went up into the foothills for a hike. (The bikes are still out of commission until I can get new inner tubes).

Today in pictures...

This is the view from our dining room window this morning. Did I hear someone say yuck?

A birds eye view of our camp from atop of the bluff behind the campground. That is Lake Pueblo in the background. It was created by damming the Arkansas River just south of the town of Pueblo.

Another view of camp with the marina behind. There are a lot of good size boats here, and the park serves as a playground for the residents of Pueblo and Colorado Springs in the summer time.

We did some hiking and climbed the hills. The views here are gorgeous!!

Lots of prickly cactus here too. Does this mean we can't ride our bikes on the trails?

This looks like a blank canvas for Mt. Rushmore.

Nancy on top of the world!!

Relaxing Around Camp

We had a slow day today. We started off with a hearty breakfast then took some laundry to the camp's utility room. We loaded a couple washing machines then went for a bike ride. We rode down the bike trail, past the marina and beyond. We saw a couple of other riders up ahead of us but turned around before we caught up to them. On the way back I got ahead and after a while turned around and no Nancy! I rode back and when I got back to her she was walking her bike. I asked if her chain came off and she said her tire went flat. I looked at the tire and noticed a couple of thorns stuck into it. We walked the bikes back to the laundry room and while Nancy moved clothes from the washer to dryers I checked the bike tires and found thorns in all tires and all the way around. I pulled them out and they were about a quarter inch long, very rigid and very sharp. All four tires were soon flat!! We walked the bikes back to camp and then walked back on the trail to see if we could find the source of our troubles, but to no avail. We did see the other two riders that were ahead of us and one of them was walking his bike back to their truck, probably with a flat tire!

Later we sat around camp and enjoyed the sunshine. The temperature was in the high fifties and no wind. We enjoyed lazing around in the warmth.

Flats all around!

A lazy day at Chattfield Lake.

Another Mockingbird? These things are all over the place, but quite camera shy.

From Vail to Evergreen

We drove up to Vail this morning to pick up the final draft of our blueprints and to see David. Vail has been getting snow for the past three days, but today was sunny and clear. We spent a couple of hours there then drove over to the town of Evergreen on the way back to Littleton. Evergreen is a beautiful mountain town west of Denver about 30 miles into the Rockies. The drive was gourgeous and we walked around town and through a couple of shops.

Here are some pictures from today.

This mule deer was bedded in the pines behind our camper this morning. When Nancy walked out later there were four deer that ran off. Look at the size of those ears!

We walked around the town of Evergreen in the afternoon.

The sidewalk was a wooden boardwalk that spanned the mainstreet block. There were shops and cafes along it's length.

How do you spell that??

Beautiful downtown Evergreen in the Rocky Mountains.

Rocky Mountain Sightseeing

Today we spent most of the day driving north along the foothills to do some sightseeing north and west of Denver. First we drove north on the freeway (470), to Boulder.  This was a really nice college town right at the bottom of the mountain. It was a very scenic drive to get there and the town was quite nice as well. The University of Colorado was a huge campus with old but very nice brick buildings. The college ran along the east side of the highway and the west side was stores and other businesses. There is a pedestrian mall in the middle of the downtown area and it looked quite fashionable!

From Boulder we drove back south to Golden Gate Canyon State park about fifteen miles up into the front range. This was a very rugged and picturesque area and looked like it would be a great hunting destination for mule deer, elk and other big game. The visitor center had several cougars mounted and on display. They were also residents of the area.

From there it was down to Golden, Colorado, (yeah, the Coors brewery). We couldn't resist the free tour and at the end you get free beer! Golden was a really neat old style western town. Small enough so there wasn't a lot of traffic, but big enough so there was a lot to see and do. Golden was almost voted to be the state capitol many years ago, but Denver won out.

After spending several hours between the brewery and town of Golden we headed to Morrison and toured Red Rocks Amphitheatre and park. This is a music concert venue extraordinaire! The surrounding park looked just like the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

Here are some pictures from the day....

This was a vista south of Boulder, Colorado. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures in town!

Here we are at the Coors Brewery. This is the largest brewery in the world and was originally started in 1873!

We were surprised at all the brands owned by Coors (Of course it is now MillerCoors.)

Huge copper kettles in the brewery. These were used to start the brewing process.

Everyone's favorite part of the tour. This was the sampling room. They had quite a few flavors on tap including Blue Moon, Colorado Native, Keystone, Coors and Coors light, and other specialty brands.

Beautiful downtown Golden. Howdy, folks!

Walking the donkey down mainstreet.

Looking down to the stage at Red Rocks Theatre. Suburbs of Denver and downtown in the background.

Looking up from the stage.

The hills were beautiful up here.

We saw quite a few mule deer at the park.