Cruisin' Colorado

After leaving Palo Duro Canyon and Texas, our route took us northwest for an overnight stop at Las Vegas, NM and then on to Colorado Springs for a reunion with our good friends Joe & Susan. A real treat for us was that our friends from Dayton, Kirk and Sue also were able to join us; Joe, Kirk, and I all worked together in our former lives, so it was a special time for us to be able to get together again. We found an RV spot at the Air Force Academy FamCamp, only minutes from where Joe and Susan have their beautiful home . It's a great campground located in the tall pines, but at an elevation of 6700' it can be a bit cool in April, and the temperature dropped well below freezing at night for the week that we stayed. Still, it was a great location at a fair price. The Air Force Academy is a huge facility in a beautiful area; long drives through pines with mountains rising to the west take you to the BX & Commissary area and cadet area. The cadet area is tucked away in a small valley and is a completely self-contained university. There's a large visitor center to explore, but the centerpiece of the Academy has to be the chapel. Open for tours during the day, it's an amazingly beautiful building, designed in a way to reflect the concept of flight and soaring aircraft in side and out. The interior, with its stained-glass panels and soaring ceiling, is simply incredible. It's hard to believe that it was built in the early 60's; the modern styling makes it look like it was finished just recently. Truly one of the most beautiful buildings we've ever seen. All of the buildings in the cadet area were impressive; during my 38 years of dealing with Academy graduates, I now understand why most of them were arrogant.....four years at a place like this will certainly make you feel like you're special.
Besides the wonderful meals and great company, Joe and Susan had a full slate of tourist activities prepared for us. We spent an afternoon exploring the Garden of the Gods, an interesting area of rock formations and parks. Although it was chilly and the ladies preferred staying in the car, we managed to get everyone together for this group picture. From the visitor center, Pike's Peak filled the horizon, begging to be climbed. So off we went, but although we men were perfectly willing to don cold weather gear and hike the mountain to the top, we deferred to our wives and took the Pikes' Peak Cog Railway instead. At least, that's how I remember it......Boarding the train cars, we began an hour and 1/2 journey up the mountain past frozen streams, frozen trees, frozen....well, you get the picture. The train is pretty amazing; at times the grade is as much as 25%, but the train kept chugging along, finally reaching the top where everyone ran into the visitor center before frostbite could set in. After a quick warm-up, I decided to venter outside for some pictures. At first, I thought, "hmmm, not too bad" not realizing that the 40 MPH wind was BEHIND me. It wasn't until I turned around to hike the 1/4 mile back that the cold (20 degrees w/40 kt wind = 22 degrees below zero wind chill) hit me. I can't describe how long that hike back to the visitor center was or how frozen I was when I got there (I had no gloves or hat). If it hadn't been for the large hot chocolate and 1/2 dozen donuts I probably wouldn't have recovered. But we all had a good time and enjoyed the view through our frost-encrusted eyeballs.
A slightly less rigorous trip was to the Coors Brewery in Golden, where we had a great time learning how all of the various Coors beers are made. The tour was interesting and took us through the different areas of the brewery, showing how all of the ingredients come together, and ended at the holy grail of all beer tours - the tasting room! Unlike those stingy Budweiser tours, Coors allows each person to sample FOUR 12-ounce glasses of beer, and you can stay as long as you like. With plenty of non-drinkers on the tour to beg beers from, it can be a long and enjoyable day! On a serious note, it was an enjoyable afternoon and all of us were struck by how much better the beer tasted since it was made so recently....or maybe because it was free.
Our visit was over too soon - hanging around with old friends, reminiscing and sharing stories of our new interests (Joe's become a fly fishing maniac, Kirk's earned his pilot's license), and making new memories together. It was time for us to continue north to our summer volunteer job, but before we left, I caught this picture of Joe and Susan's resident fox, who visits their back yard daily. We'll update our journey and arrival back in Montana soon; stop back and visit!

A Journey North

Having enjoyed our stay in Chama, it was time to work our way north to Montana and a visit with our friends at the Lee Metcalf NWR. On our first day, we headed west from Chama, then turned north to Durango, Colorado (lots of tourists and traffic), to Cortez, then a few miles south for two nights at the Ute Mountain Casino and RV Park. I don't know about you, but for us, the words "casino" and RV Park" just naturally go together. Surprisingly, it was a very nice casino with a pretty good restaurant, and the RV park was above average, with shade, grass, and free WiFi. We wanted to explore the area, especially Mesa Verde National Park, and are glad we took the time. What an impressive place! Entering the park, we climbed to the top of a huge mesa into pinion pine (hence the name "green table"), following a paved loop road which took us to a number of scenic overlooks. The mesa contains 600 cliff dwellings, some, like the "cliff palace" are huge, while other, small dwelling are scattered almost under every overhang. Looking at the dwellings, it hard to imagine how the occupants journeyed to the river for water and to forage for food; most of the dwelling are high above the valley and look like they would require a large number of ladders to reach - here, sending the kids "out to play" must have been interesting! We spent most of the day here, and would like to return during a cooler, less crowded time to explore more of the park. Leaving the park & casino a few quarters lighter, we continued north into Moab, Utah where it was a warm 107 degrees. We arrived early in the afternoon, and had a chance to make a quick visit to Arches National Park. Southern Utah is a wonderland of colorful, magical shapes; here, the red sandstone contains over 2000 natural arches and many interesting formations, like "elephant head" pictured. It was blazing hot and the skies were hazy from the smoke of distant wildfires. After a circuit of the park, we took a drive up the Colorado River Canyon, and were amazed at how large the river is and how steep the canyon walls were that towered above. It's a very scenic area but July is not the time to visit; the next day we were off early, traveling through green valleys to Provo for a night's stay, then on to Hill AFB and the base family campground (Famcamp). Here I had the chance to show Brenda one of my old stomping grounds (it's a much nicer place to visit when you're not working) and we had the chance to stock up at the commissary, rest, and visit the Great Salt Lake. We visited Antelope Island State Park, the largest access area to the Lake, crossing a long causeway. The shore on each side was full of California gulls on one side and beautiful American Avocets on the other. On the island, Pronghorn Antelope were everywhere and the view across the lake to Ogden was pretty. While it's a one-of-a-kind place to visit, beware - the whole place smells like dead fish and the brine flies are everywhere. Not a place we'll return to. Leaving Hill AFB, we headed north on I-15 to Blackfoot, Idaho, then off on a lonely road through Atomic City (home of the first nuclear reactor) and finally a stop for the night in Arco. The next day the scenery became beautiful as we picked up the Salmon River Valley in Challis, then on to Salmon, and finally, North Fork. At North Fork, we spent three days at the most beautiful park we've been to. With only 8 RV spots, River's Fork Lodge is on the banks of the Salmon River and we were able to pull forward to a spot on the bank within 20 feet of the water. Our windshield view was filled with river, forest, and mountain, and in the evening we watched as Elk came out of the forest to feed. The owners went out of their way to make sure we were comfortable and even had the post office call them to tell us our mail was in! What a great place - we can't wait to return. At North Fork, the Salmon turns west from the highway and we were able to drive along the river for over 25 miles into the boundary of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area. The river flows through a broad valley where we saw nearly a hundred Elk grazing, into a narrow, rocky canyon where the water flows fast and there are large stretches of rapids. Along the way there are the ruins of old mines and cabins, and in the spring the river is crowded with fisherman as Steelhead, an ocean-going trout, make their return to spawning grounds. The smoky haze of wildfires kept us from getting clear photos, but hopefully you can see how rugged the area is. After three memorable days, we headed north over 7200' Lost Trail Pass (the motorhome performed flawlessly!) and into Montana. We'll keep you posted on our travels; come back and visit!