Last night in Ranger we saw the space station pass overhead. It was very bright – much brighter than Venus.
6/11/08 - Palo Duro Canyon State Park
6/12/08 - Palo Duro Canyon State Park
We woke up to the sight of deer and wild turkeys roaming around our camp site. We went on a 9 mile hike to the Lighthouse (note to Martha – we took plenty of water this time). Then we went on a horse ride through the canyon on Colonel and Annie. Colonel was very stubborn and refused to go at times. We had a steak dinner provided by the famous Big Texan Steak House in
6/13/08 - Amarillo, TX
We left Palo Duro Canyon State Park and were relieved when the Pathfinder managed to lug the Casita up the steep winding road out of the canyon. We drove 30 miles to Amarillo and checked into the Amarillo Ranch RV Park. We got all hooked up only to find that the electric hookup didn't work. We piggybacked onto an adjacent RV spot's power hookup while the electric repair man worked on ours. This is a nice place - it has an indoor swimming pool. We drove out to Lake Meredith National Recreation area and found that the lake was all but dry. We also went to the nearby Alibates Flint Quarry National Monument. This is where Indians for thousands of years mined flint deposits in the dolomite limestone to use in trade as raw materials for arrowheads and cutting tools. Almost no one visits this place and the ranger there must be as lonely as the Maytag repair man. The nearby Bates Canyon boat ramp on Lake Meredith leads only to woods.
6/14/08 - Near Raton, New Mexico
We departed Amarillo and drove west to New Mexico. We stopped at Capulin Volcano National Monument, unhooked the trailer, and drove to the top of the volcano. All of the hills in this area of New Mexico are old dormant volcanoes. This one last erupted about 50,000 years ago and is one of the best preserved cinder cone volcanoes in the U.S. We drove to Raton and checked into the NRA Whittington Center RV Park a few miles outside of town. This is part of a 52 square mile former coal mine which the National Rifle Association took over in the 1970's from Kaiser Steel. We drove around the back roads and looked at the mine ruins. The NRA has multiple ranges for firing various weapons and has shooting competitions several times a year. Right now the Old West Shootist Association is having a competition involving firing authentic rifles and pistols from the 1800's. They also dress the part using authentic period costumes.
6/15/08 - Blanca, Colorado
After a nice breakfast of migas, sausage and toast, we left the NRA Whittington Center RV Park and drove north to Trinidad, Colorado. They were having a Santa Fe Trails Festival downtown. We wandered around the festival waiting for Trinidad Brewing to open at 11AM per information we obtained from the tourist information center. We went to the brewpub at 11 AM but no one was there. We called them and were told that they would open at 4PM. So we left.
We drove to Blanca, Colorado via the beautiful North La Veta Pass (9,413 feet). The Pathfinder and Casita struggled at speeds up to 40 MPH, but we made it. We checked into the Blanca RV Park. This place is a dump compared to last night's spot, but it has full hookups for only $1o. We unhooked the trailer and drove to Great Sand Dunes National Park. This place is similar to Monahans Sand Hills Park in Texas, but it is much bigger with taller dunes and they have no vegetation growing on them. The dunes run up against tall mountains and a shallow snow melt river runs through it this time of year.
Note on the pictures - by clicking on a picture you will see a larger version of it.
6/16/08 - Colorado Springs, CO
We left Blanca and drove to Pueblo where we had lunch and sampled the beers at Shamrock Brewing Company. Then we continued on to Mountaindale RV Resort about 15 miles outside of Colorado Springs. This is a beautiful place nestled among pine trees in the mountains. When we were checking in a State Ranger was there providing rubber shotgun bullets to the owners so they could chase off a pesky bear. After we unhooked we drove into Colorado Springs and checked out three brewpubs.
6/17/08 - Colorado Springs, CO
We drove through Colorado Springs to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. This place has a bunch of millions of years old fossilized Sequoia trees. These trees were preserved because they were covered up by volcanic eruptions. The place also has fossilized leaves and insects in the shale rock. Of course we were forbidden from picking anything up, and there were rangers everywhere on the lookout. We had a picnic lunch there, then we drove to Cripple Creek. This is an old gold mining town which has been taken over by casinos and quaint shops. We had a couple of free drinks at one of the casinos and fed the slot machines a couple of dollars. Then we rode a narrow gage train up to some of the mining areas. We drove back to Mountaindale RV Park via a gorgeous 22 mile primitive dirt road from Cripple Creek to Canon City through Phantom Canyon.
6/18/08 - Golden, Colorado
We left Colorado Springs and drove to Golden, Colorado. We checked into the Clear Creek RV Park which is operated by the City of Golden. The park is right on a beautiful creek that is running fairly swift because of the snow melt off the nearby mountains. We were put into an electric only space for today, unhooked and got set up. Then, they told us there was a full hookup available so, we hooked up again and then moved and unhooked again. Finally, we went for a walk to town (downtown is just a few blocks away.) We went to the Golden State Brewery, a small laid back micro-brewery and sampled their beers. We walked back along the creek and there was a kayaking competition going on.
6/19/08 - Golden, Colorado
We drove up to Erie to visit my niece, Anne-Alex Packard and her husband, Kevin and their children Hallie and Maddie. Kevin creates musical soundtracks for TV shows. He demonstrated a composition he has been working on for a new show on the Food Network. He uses high tech keyboards, guitars, and software to create his music. He also played a song recorded by his daughter Hallie who is a budding singer at age 17. She has recorded an album with her sister, father and mother - go to http://cdbaby.com/cd/umbrellahunt to check it out.
We went to Avery Brewing, Mountain Sun Brewing, and Walnut Brewing in Boulder and sampled their beers.
6/20/08 - Golden, Colorado
In the morning we went on a tour of the Coors Brewery. It was one of those self-guided deals where you walk around listening to a recorded spiel on a headphone. At the hospitality room we were allowed three beers. Coors is the largest single site brewery in the world but they make fewer beers than your average brewpub. All of their beers were pretty tasteless. My niece Anne-Alex met us and we had lunch at Hops, a chain brewpub in Golden. After that we drove up to the Buffalo Bill Museum and gravesite on top of a peak overlooking Golden. The museum was very interesting and well worth the trip. My dad told me he saw Buffalo Bill's wild west show when he was a kid. Then we drove to Anne-Alex and Kevin's house in Erie and had a nice dinner of grilled tuna, exotic rice, and salad. Then we went to the Pumphouse Brewery in Longmont and had beer samplers and dessert.
6/21/08 - Golden, Colorado
Today was mainly devoted to checking out brewpubs in Denver. Carolyn went to the Golden Farmers Market and bought some fresh veggies and bread. As we left our RV Park we watched paragliders jumping off the nearby mountain. We sampled the beers at Breckenridge, Denver Chop House, Wynkoop, Great Divide, and Pints Pub. We went to the Denver Art Museum, but getting to it was difficult because a gay pride festival had downtown roads blocked off. We then met Anne-Alex and Kevin at Gordon Biersch in Broomfield and had dinner.
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