Showing posts with label Colorado. Show all posts

Day 13: Canon City, CO to Amarillo, TX
We were definitely in warmer weather today. In fact, from the time we left Canon City, CO, this morning, we were constantly beset by would-be hitchhikers. We finally realized that every time we opened a door or window to chase one of the little fellows out, three or four of his buddies would come in. We battled the pesky rascals all day. Mostly, we and the flies just logged miles on our way back east today. We're hoping to leave the flies out here somewhere. We did stop at Capulin Volcano National Monument as we cut across the corner of New Mexico and found a couple of letterboxes including one at this vintage movie theater in Dalhart, Texas.
We came across another wind farm today outside Amarillo. In fact, this one is so large, it's called the Wildorado Wind Ranch-- 16,000 acres with 71 wind turbines, generating enough power to meet the needs of 50,000 homes. As you may have guessed, we are fascinated by these huge windmills, especially Ken.
As the sun set over Amarillo, TX, we checked in to our hotel, ready to rest up for another day on the road tomorrow. We're hoping to be traveling alone when we head across Texas toward Georgia.
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Day 12: Castle Rock, CO, to Canyon City, CO
We started the day determined that we would not push ourselves so hard as we have for the last 10 days or so. We slowed things down, didn't leave the hotel until 10 a.m. and started moseying through the Colorado backroads. It was another gorgeous day. We drove out to Mueller State Park, missed the turn for Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, and we didn't care. We followed the road we found ourselves on through some twists and turns... and aspen gold...and eventually made our way to the town of Cripple Creek.
One of the richest gold claims in American history was filed in Cripple Creek in 1890. At the height of its boom, Cripple Creek was a city of 16,000, an important financial center with three stock exchanges. Today it is a gambling mecca for senior citizens.
Nearby, the Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mining Company is still operational.
We left Cripple Creek, headed to its twin mining town of Victor, and made our way to Phantom Canyon Road. This gravel/dirt road follows the old railroad grade that was once the Florence & Cripple Creek Railroad. Through the floor of the canyon, the narrow road was quaint and fascinating.
Along the edge of the canyon rim, it triggered nail biting and white knuckles.
The road even goes through the original (1890-1910) railroad tunnels.
As we left the Phantom Canyon Road behind, Ken finally found some horses near the roadway. He had brought some apples on the trip, remnants of treats he doles out to three horses who live on the trail he hikes for three miles daily at home. These two fellows were glad to share in the bounty.
We actually made it into our hotel for the night by 5 p.m. We're spending the night in Canyon City, Colorado. Tomorrow we'll head east on the way home. Not sure how far we'll get... but we're going where the flow takes us. No stress!
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Day 11: Loveland, CO, to Castle Rock, CO
We started the day today in the scenic Rocky Mountain National Park in northern Colorado. We were eager to drive the famous Trail Ridge Road, often called the highway to the sky. Built in 1931, the road ascends to 12,183 feet. The views are magnificent, and, as you can see here, there are no guardrails to mar the view. This was a little bit disconcerting if you thought too much about it or if you looked out the passenger window when riding on the cliff side of the road and saw the sheer descent next to the road's edge. We visited the park's Alpine Visitor Center perched more than two miles above sea level. No utility or phone lines connect it to the outside world. Electricity is supplied by a diesel generator and water comes from snowmelt. The latticework of massive logs bolted to the roof hold it in place during hurricane-force winter storms.We took a brief hike at Milner Pass, where fresh snow was on the ground. At an elevation of 10,758, we didn't complete the entire one-mile trail, which included a significant amount of climbing.We've seen lots of aspens on the trip and finally today saw some moving toward their beautiful fall yellow. After leaving the park, we visited the mountain village of Grand Lake. Our primary mission in Grand Lake was letterboxing. We succeeded in finding a series of six letterboxes. Along the way, we encountered this very unusual wildflower growing near the lake's edge. We've tried to identify it and haven't had any luck yet. The letterboxes we found today were all by the same "planter" and had some beautiful hand-carved stamps. We ended the day in Castle Rock, CO, exhausted and determined to slow things down tomorrow. We're adjusting our schedule and moving some events from "things to do tomorrow" to "what to do on our next trip to Colorado."
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Day 10: Evanston, WY, to Loveland, CO
We have been fascinated by what we call "private exits" off the interstate highways in Wyoming. This particular exit led to a ranch, as do others. Some lead only to a Wyoming DOT facility. There are so few cities in this state, which is more than twice the size of Tennessee but has barely half a million in population.Our primary mission today was to get across Wyoming and into eastern Colorado for our drive through Rocky Mountain National Park tomorrow. Mostly we just logged miles on I-80. In the afternoon we decided to try the Snowy Range Scenic Byway.
Although we didn't see too much snow in September, we did see an interesting variety of terrain.
Mirror Lake at 9600 ft elevation was a little too ripply to show its best reflective qualities today.
At Libby Flats we learned about "tree islands." In this transition area between subalpine and alpine meadow, summers are short and cool with a good chance of freezing temperatures occurring even in July. The alpine climate prevents tree growth by reducing the length of the growing season and by snow-blasting in winter.
The scattered trees--mostly spruce and fir-- are much smaller than trees at lower elevations, even though they may be the same age. At the timberline, you can see "tree islands." Blowing ice and snow damage the needles and new twigs on the windward side of the trunks, leaving branches to form only on the leeward side of the tree.

At the base of these "flag trees" is a mass of branches, which is more dense because it is protected during the winter by snow cover. During the mid-winter, only the "flags" are visible above the snow.

As the photos indicate, we had another beautiful blue-sky day. Temps ranged from the mid-50's to 70 and above. Tomorrow we'll check out the Trail Ridge Road scenic byway through Rocky Mountain National Park.
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