2 On the Road

Devil's Head Fire Lookout

2011-09-10T18:32:00.000-07:00

Devil's Head Fire Lookout is north of Woodland Park, CO in the Pike National Forest. It's on a forest service road that is mostly gravel. For the first few miles out of Woodland Park, it was a paved but narrow road. We were swerving around boulders by the side of the road. It's called Devil's Head because it looks like it has two horns sticking out the top of the mountain.

Then the road became gravel and wider.

It was washboarded in some places but overall a nice gravel road.

Then it narrowed and was curvier. We really had to watch for people going too fast around the curves.

Lots of boulders around. We went up and down mountains where the roads were really narrow and rough. Sometimes the bumps in the road were large rocks.

The start of the trail to get to Devil's Head. it's a 3 mile round trip with a 900'+ elevation gain.

The trail was well maintained with plenty of benches for resting.

Walking through the aspen trees.

Still lots of boulders around.

On of the rocky mountain peaks in the area.

The path was concrete and grated in this short segment.

What a view and we're not even to the top!

We called this "Thumb Rock".

A narrow place right before we get to the top of the trail.

First sight of the stairs leading up to the watch tower. Yep, 143 steps up. Pretty steep too.

The watchperson's cabin at the foot of the stairs. Electricity but no running water.

Sign at the base of the stairs.

The next few photos are the view from the watch tower. Supposedly you can see 100 miles in each direction.

Rain clouds moving in from the west.

Pikes Peak with its head in the clouds again.

I wonder if one of these comprise the "horns" of Devil's Head.

A few peaks inside the watch tower.

You know we're just a couple of overgrown kids.

Downtown Denver - Yeah I know you can't see the skyscrapers but we could. It's only 35 miles away.

Right at the top of the rocks were a couple of bushes covered in ladybugs. Yes, all that red is ladybugs.

We went back down the stairs and walked around.

Then we looked back up at the watch tower.

I thought the rock behind the tree looked like a pig's head.

Saw plenty of these varmints during our walk.

Saw this pile of rocks off in the distance....

A close up of the rock pile. Ok, who stacked those?

Seven Falls

2011-09-09T19:21:00.000-07:00

Seven Falls is located in Colorado Springs and is privately owned.

The view from the Nest observation platform that is accessed by an elevator located inside the mountain or up a 184 step stairway. We took the elevator up.

Double-click to enlarge this sign that shows the names of the seven falls. At night the falls are individualy lit in different colors.

Our next feat was to climb the stairs to the top of the falls.

This sign says it all.

Close up of Shorty Falls.

Bridal Vail Falls under Ramona Falls.

Looking back down the first flight of stairs. The stage at the bottom is for the Indian dance shows that are performed almost every day.

Ramona Falls.

Looking back down the second flight of stairs.

Once at the top we started walking the trail.

We hiked both of these but we did the top one first. Helen Hunt Jackson was an author and an activist for the Native Americans. She loved South Cheyenne Canyon and requested to be buried at the top. She was buried there in 1885 but her body has since been moved.

Another caution sign.

The trail going up to Inspiration Point was very steep in places and had a lot of steps. It's only a mile long (round trip) but has a 600' elevation gain.

Thank goodness we didn't see much litter.

Just one of the views we saw as we climbed.

Helen Hunt Jackson's grave site.

Plaque memoralizing another owner of Seven Falls.

The next few photos are a panoramic view from Inspiration Point.

Helen Hunt Jackson's grave as seen from Inspiration Point.

On the way back down the trail we came across this evidence of a squirrel's hard work.

The squirrel was hurriedly stripping the needles off this cluster of cones so he could haul them away.

We disturbed him so he turned his back on us hoping we would go away. LOL

When we didn't go away, he grabbed a cluster of cones and scampered away.

There he goes!

On the way to Midnight Falls, we saw this tree growing out of a rock.

Midnight Falls.

Garden of the Gods

2011-09-08T19:13:00.000-07:00

Garden of the Gods. These formations are actually old sedimentary beds that were deposited horizontally but were tilted vertically by the movement of tectonic plates.

Our first stop was at the Visitor's Center.

Map of the park.

We decided to walk the Central Garden Trail. It is a paved trail through the middle of the formations. This is South Gateway Rock.

We walked between South Gateway Rock and the Sentinel Spires. Two guys were climbing the lighter-shaded Sentinel Spire and another guy was climbing Signature Rock behind them. You might see them if you double-click this photo.

Zoomed in on the guy climbing Signature Rock and you can just make out the guy on the top of the lighter spire.

The Three Graces.

Lots of people had engraved their names into the base of White Rock.

Balanced Rock. This park would have been more interesting if we hadn't been to see Bryce Canyon National Park.

Pikes Peak

2011-09-08T18:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, now we're off to drive up Pikes Peak. Oh no! I was hoping construction season was over.

We stopped at the toll booth. I had found a coupon for $2 off so we got a little discount.

They don't mess around here. I don't think anyone will go through those barricades.

We caught up with the dump truck pretty fast but at least the scenery was nice.

My very own bigfoot.

The road really started climbing.

Oh no! The clouds are moving in.

We stopped at the Halfway Picnic Grounds at 9,930' in elevation.

Ya just gotta double-click to enlarge this one so you can read it.

double-click this one so you can see the route of the road.

Hey, new pavement! I forgot to mention that we were meeting trucks on their way down the hills too. On hairpin curves like the one at the top of this hill they would blow their horns so you knew they were coming... and taking up half your lane.

A peek at the three reservoirs we passed on our way up.

Look at the clouds moving in.

Getting closer to the 14,115' summit.

Oh no! We ran out of pavement. Actually I thought we would be on gravel most of the way up the mountain.

Construction zone. The cars backed up behind us so far that one couldn't see the stop sign and must have figured people were stopping to look at something. They started passing but the construction truck driver hit his siren to get the vehicle to go back to the end of the line. LOL

They finally sent us on but there were still vehicles coming at us. I think there must have been some miscommunication. The spot where the preceeding vehicle is at was extremely slippery.

Rounding the curve to Glen Cove gift shop and parking area.

The pavement started again shortly after Glen Cove so we weren't off of it long. It continued up the mountain until just before the summit.

Just a scenery shot.

We didn't meet any more large dump trucks after Glen Cove. Here you can see the road going up the mountain.

A view of where we've been. See the road down below?

Heading into the switchbacks.

Neat rock formations on a hairpin curve.

Where we've been.

Really I am holding the camera level.

Yeap that fog is going to get us.

Signs at a pull-off.

The road is really steep here. Looks like we are headed off into space. I think the next turn is called Cog Cut. That's because we could see the cog railway tracks when we went around it.

Finally at the summit. This lovely plaque commemorated the writing of the poem America by Katherine Lee Bates. Better know to most people as the song, "America the Beautiful". She wrote some of it while looking at the scenery around Pikes Peak.

The fog moved in just as we got to the top so we didn't get to see any scenery. Here's the cog train coming to the summit.

it looks like the engines were mounted on the top of the train.

Heading back down. Another look at the road.

Colorado Springs off in the distance through the clouds.

At Glen Cove they were stopping every vehicle and checking the temperature of the brakes. They made people stop if their brakes were over 300°. He was greatly surprised when ours only read 113° and told us we did an excellent job.
We know to use lower gears instead of the brakes when descending grades like that. He stopped one vehicle while we watched. We didn't hear any temperatures below 200°.

While at Glen Cove we checked out the signs.

I just had to take a photo of this construction truck with a cone taped to the top. LOL

The mile markers were different for every mile.

We stopped at Crystal Reservoir where we saw Bigfoot. It's at 9,160' in elevation.

Walked a trail but it deadended where the pier had been removed. It looked like the water was really low.

The last (first) overlook at 8,220' in elevation.

Hwy 24 runs thruogh Ute Pass.

Lost Canyon Jeeping

2011-09-08T17:40:00.000-07:00

Part II of our Jeeping trip. Nolan's at the wheel for our trip to Lost Canyon.

Leaving Hwy 24 behind, we start to climb.

After the first couple of miles the road is level and gravel but very wash-boardy.

Then it narrows, turns and climbs.

We climb through lots of aspens then break out above the tree line. Here's the Jeep at the end of the road. The following pictures are a panoramic view going to the left.

Looking out over the Twin Lakes.

Then the town of Twin Lakes.

See the "bowl" on the mountain? There's still some snow outlining one side of it.

Of course the view was way better than it looks in the photos.

I took this photo of the trail on the way back down the mountain

Where the roads intersect there is a two room cabin whose roof is falling in.

the back of the cabin.

A view of Twin Lakes from the back of the cabin.

If you look real hard you can even see Leadville.

Just a look at some of the crooked aspen that line the road.

Halfway back down we stopped at this overlook.

Nolan taking a gander at the view.

Just loved the look of the twisted aspen between the others.

Jeeping Tincup Pass

2011-08-28T17:47:00.001-07:00

August 23rd we rented a Jeep and hit the back roads. We went south to Nathrop then west on CR 162. This photo was taken on CR 162.

The first stop was Agnes Vaille Falls. This is a short 1/2 mile hike on a trail that is partially in a creek bed.

The falls

Shortly after Cascade the road goes from paved to gravel.

Yeap, heavy traffic on a gravel road.

Shortly after the road turns to gravel, we turn off of it onto CR 292. Now this is a narrow, very rocky, 1 1/2 lane road.

Still on CR 292.

We stopped at the Iron City Cemetary to check out the old gravestones.

Just before St. Elmo, CO we got back on pavement. St. Elmo is supposedly the best preserved ghost town in CO.

The chipmunks here are used to being fed by tourists so they will climb all over you if you sit still.

From St. Elmo we get on CR 267 and head toward Tincup Pass.

Yeap, back on the rocky road. This is why we rented the Jeep.

The road is smoother in places.

Yea, a water crossing.

Here's where we stopped to eat our sandwiches.

A crazy motorcyclist was riding this road. You can just make out his headlight in this photo.

Just a high country scene.

The road is just a tad bit skinny here. We had just done a couple hairpin curves on the way to the summit.

On top of the Continental Divide.

The Jeep parked at the Divide.

View from the Divide.

On the way to the top of the pass I complained that the road wasn't challenging enough. Well it made up for it going down the other side.

Some places I just had to stop and figure out which was the better path.

Nolan was doing a good impression of a bobble-head doll through here.

Hey, a road sign. At least we knew we were on the right path.

Going down hill, we spent most of the time in 4-wheel low. Yes the Jeep is a manual. Haven't driven one in years but did just fine.

I just wished these photos showed how rough it really was!

We made it to Mirror Lake. The "road" goes around the right side of the lake.

But first we had to cross over this stream going into the lake.

Looking back the way we had come.

One we got to the far side of the lake, the road was gravel instead of rocky. A small ditch ran along the side and we even went into it once so a larger pickup could stay on the road.

Coming into the metropolis of Tincup.

A lot of these buildings were unoccupied.

Then we turned and headed "downtown".

I wished the windshield wasn't so dirty so you could see the store, the old gas pump and the line of ATV's.

This restaurant was on the other side of the road.

WOW!!! A super highway!!! Still gravel but real wide.

After we had gotten out of town a ways you couldn't see many houses but this must have been the post office.

Another spot of "heavy" traffic.

We even got in some cattle herding.

OMG! Pavement!!! What's this stuff? We were just entering Taylor Park. Nolan and I rode our bikes here from the south in 2006.

The road around the reservoir.

Then we get back on gravel to head up and over Cottonwood Pass. Now this is a heavily traveled road and it was doubly so because the next day there was a National bicycle championship ride over it.

Just some of the scenery. There were tents pitched all along the road, especially up by the summit. Actually we got lucky. We passed the summit around 2 p.m. and the pass was closed at 3 p.m. for the bike race.

Whitewater Rafting

2011-08-19T21:02:00.001-07:00

We wanted to do one of the intermediate rafting trips this summer. When we first got here, the water was too high and the trips weren't running. Usually by the middle of August the water is too low to run the river but, due to the large amount of snow that fell last winter, the trips are still being run. We went with Arkansas Valley Adventures because they were the closest outfitter to the rapids we wanted to run.

We went on one of their large buses to the launch site. The roads to the launch and take out sites were mostly one-laned, wash-boarded gravel roads. These buses barely fit.

We got into the river at the Numbers Launch Site and got out at Railroad Bridge.

This sign indicates that we went just over 6 miles.

The Numbers run is mostly class III to V. Due to the low water, it was much rockier than it would have been earlier in the season.

At the launch site, the boats were placed just behind this first sign and we were told how to behave on the river and assigned rafts. Then we carried our raft to the launch site that is at the end of this road. I was exhausted by the time we got to the river.

We put the raft on these logs which helped us slide the rafts down to the river.

The launch site.

This photo shows how rocky the river is.

We took this photo from a bridge over the river. Another raft is navigating the rocks.

The Railroad Bridge take-out where we pulled the rafts out of the water and carried them up the hill.

Peek A Boo Gulch ATV Ride

2011-07-18T17:11:00.001-07:00

The owner of the park we are working at this summer often organizes ATV rides into the mountains. He has a spare 2-up ATV and invited us to come along on this ride. Here we are lined up to hit the trail. There were 10 ATVs and 14 people on this trip.

I'm ready to go. This was the only Arctic Cat ATV. All the rest were Polaris.

Our first stop along the way.

Looking back our boss is right behind us.

We followed this river up the canyon and it got smaller and smaller as we went.

Just a scenery shot but you can see the trail on the right.

Another shot of the ATVs lined up at the first stop.

We saw these flowering bushes that looked just like the potentilla bushes we had around our condo. I asked one of the locals what it was called and she looked it up in a book . It called them Cinquefoil plants. Once we got home I looked it up and the latin name for Cinquefoil plants are potentilla diversifolia. So they are potentilla.

The trail split into three branches here.

I didn't learn what this building at the junction was supposed to be but it was posted No Trespassing.

In one small area we saw these plants. The gals with the books thought they were called Elk Grass.

Closeup of the Elk Grass flowers.
We came to a place with three switchbacks going up the hillside.

The people behind us on the trail.

On the top trail now.

Just a scenery shot but you can see the trail leading into the distance.

There were some nice falls in the creek along the road.

Lots of wildflowers. In the foreground are some columbines.

Looking behind us.

Where we were heading.

Water running down the hills to the west.
Getting closer to the end of the canyon. You can just see the trail off to the left.
Probably the largest water crossing.

Getting turned around at the end of the road.
Red Mountain at the end of the road.
Just looking around as we waited for everyone to get turned around.

More flower sniffin'

I really thought we were going to get rained on at this point.

On the way up the trail we had seen this abandoned house with two old vehicles. We stopped here for lunch and explored the area. There are actually four old cars. Some people went exploring further to the old mine.

Lunch break.

We had to cross the stream to get to the abandoned house. Yes it's quite a bit smaller than it is further down the trail.

Just scenery as we headed back.

Kroenke Lake Hike

2011-07-13T18:24:00.000-07:00

A 10-mile car drive took us up into the San Isabel National Forest to the Cottonwood Creek Trailhead. Five of the miles was on 1 to 1 1/2 lane gravel road. Lots of washboard and potholes. It's a good thing we only met one vehicle and that was at a place where we could pull over.

This sign was at the trailhead. Our plan was to attempt to get to Kroenke Lake but we were really unsure if we could do that length of hike at this elevation. The starting elevation was 9900' and the elevation gain for the full hike was 1600'. The reason we attempted this trail was because the guide said the difficulty was easy to moderate.

The first half of the trail had only a moderate elevation gain, was mostly level and ran alongside the creek for half it's distance. There were two bridges across the creek. Lots of water moving under them.

A look at the creek. Just a little white water.

After 1/2 mile we got to the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness Area.

The creek running alongside the trail.

One side stream made the trail impassable. We had to go to the left and jump it where it was only 2' wide.

Just a view of the trail.

Occasionally we could see the mountains. The hike was about half in the shade and half in the sun.

Of course we had to stop and do some flower sniffin'

We caught up with a group of boys crossing a side stream. The first part of the crossing was an "L" shape. One boy is at the start and the other is at the end. After crossing this, there is another crossing where a group of girls was coming toward us. They were taking too long so we found another way around.
Just another view of the trail.

Oh, another stream crossing. This time we went to the right and crossed on the logs.

Eventually we we got to the point where the snow was still sticking around.

Then the trail became a combined stream/trail. Actually this happened a lot but at this point we could step from rock to rock.

Just a pretty scene.

Oh I forgot to tell you that we decided we just had to get to the lake. This is the point where we are just coming in to the bowl where the lake sits. There were many times we thought about turning around but we just had to finish it since we were so close.

More flower sniffin' Our first view of the lake.

The trail was kinda overgrown with small shrubs. We were exhausted and tired of climbing at this point.
The overflow off the lake was our last obstacle on the way to the lake. Yes that's a snow drift on the other side.
I had to think about that last step. On the way back I had to skip the middle stome because it wasn't flat. That took a lot of thinking before I made the leap. I didn't know how the group of shorter boys coming up the trail was going to get back across this. They were headed up to spend the night at the lake.
Nolan just had to play King of the Snow Pile once we got across the overflow.

The lake was beautiful.

Once we got back across the overflow, we noticed all the flowers. They were just everywhere.
On the way back down we got this photo of the other side of that mega stream crossing where the groups were crossing. We didn't cross the logs to the left, we went to the right.

This is where we crossed. I had to hold onto a branch to help steady me for the jump.

Navigating the "L" crossing.

The "L" Crossing without the boys in the photo. So we did the 8 mile hike - 4 miles up 1600' and 4 miles down 1600'. It was more than we should have attempted and we were exhausted at the end.

Monarch Pass

2011-06-28T09:43:00.001-07:00

At the top of Monarch Pass there is a tram that take you up to the top of the peak.

We met some full-timing friends there since we hadn't seen them in quite a while.

We rode this tram to the top.

Just some of the views from the top.

Highway 50 snaking down the mountains with the ski slopes to the left.
The top of the tramway.

There were lots of antennas at the top but none was a cell phone tower.

A small pond down the hill from us.

The heads of these flowers are shaped like clover but the rest of the plant doesn't look like clover. They're pretty though.

Hike from Snowy Peaks

2011-06-28T09:34:00.000-07:00

We walked north from the campground because we heard there was some public land there. First we climbed to the top of a hill then discovered we were on private land and we left.

We found the public land and wandered down to the river just as some rafts went by. They went through this 10' gap between the rocks.

To get to the river we had come through this slit in the rocks.

While we were watching the rafters, this little chipmunk was watching us.

The slot through the rocks was just a deer trail so there was a lot of brush to walk through.

The narrowest place.

Miscellaneous Snowy Peaks

2011-06-28T09:30:00.001-07:00

Every Sunday morning one of the workamper couples makes breakfast for the park residents. This couple is making pancakes and sausage.

We kept hoping the space between our Hitchhiker trailer and the other two would get occupied by another Hitchhiker but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. There are only two more rigs scheduled into that site by Labor Day and they are both class A motorhomes.

South Park City

2011-06-16T19:14:00.000-07:00

South Park City is a recreation of a mid- to late 19th century gold-mining town. It is located in Fairplay, CO. Seven of the more than 35 buildings are on their original sites; the remaining structures were moved from deserted mining camps and ghost towns in Park County.

This attraction is laid out in a "V" shape with boardwalks on each side of the "street". The self-guided tour brochure led us from building to building. The buildings are furnished with period articles and furniture.

The first building we went into was furnished as the church it became after being moved. It was originally a hotel.

This is the Summer Brewery where South Park Lager beer was produced. There was a large collection of arrowheads in the basement.

This building containged several dioramas depicting the different ways that miners dug for gold. The next photo describes the process depicted in this photo.

Rache's Place was once a bustling saloon and gambling house operated in Alma during the mining era.

There were several different shapes of gambling tables.

Of course it had a piano too.

The Summer Saloon was built of native sandstone in 1879.

The Garo Cabin is restored as a wash house and contains the equipment used by a pioneer woman to maintain the family's wardrobe and other fabric items like curtains and bedding.

What I hadn't seen before was this lace curtain stretcher. If not stretched, the curtain would dry unevenly and wouldn't look good. The stretcher is adjustable for different sized curtains.

This is quite the iron collection.

The Park City Court House was constructed in 1862 in the town of Buckskin Joe, which was then the county seat.

The residents came to this window to record births, deaths, gold-claims and other transactions.

Inside the clerk's office.

Look at these old books.

The Assay Office where miners brought their gold to be valued.

Assay equipment.

Double click this photo so it enlarges to make the sign readable.

This is a reconstruction of a hard rock mine.

Double click to enlarge.

There was a little building up on top the hill that was called the Warm House.

One building was dedicated to the role of the burro in mining camps.

Burros carried the lumber up into the mountains so buildings could be erected.

The Wagon Barn housed various types of wagons including this hearse.

Also display is this camp trailer. Looks like an early RV.

It had a bed, a light fixture and seating that doubled as storage areas.

Of course it had heat too.

Read about this in the following photo. Very interesting how many people they could fit in one of these.

Double click to enlarge.

A large camp wagon.

There is a Porter Mogal #6 narrow gauge locomotive on site. This is the basic type used by the Denver South Park and Pacific Railroad.

Nolan had to get up and ring the bell over the engine.

There were a cars and this caboose attached to the locomotive. A caboose was a traveling home and office for the train crew.

The raised part in the front of the caboose is called the cupola. There was seating for 4 people in it.

The front half of the lower caboose.

The back half has the sleeping bunks and seating.

This small and cozy homestead shows the self-sufficiency of the early pioneer family.

The back door lead into the bedroom with an attached bathing room. I suppose having a door to the outside in the bedroom made it easy to access the outhouse.

Notice how the walls are covered in newspaper. Pioneers used the newspaper to help insulate their homes.

The Star Livery was where horses or rigs could be rented or horses boarded for the night.

The inside of the livery.

No sign told us what this lattice-work of leather strips was for. It looks like it is supposed to be thrown over a horse's back.

This was the stage barn where stage teams were curried and fed during stops overs.

Thi is the Stage Coach Inn where travelers had a night's rest and a hot meal during a brief respite from a long journey.

Inside of the Stage Coach Inn.

One of the rooms upstairs.

The sign at the foot of the bed.

This was quite a large room.

One building contained nothing but dioramas made by Hank Gentsch.

I think this guy needed some snow shoes.

Notice how they strapped the lumber to the burros.

The old one-room school house from Garo.

The school even had an outhouse. It was the only one I saw in South Park City.

Morgue and Carpenter shop.

Since the carpenter was the person that made the coffins, morgues of the 1800's were housed at the Carpenter's Shop.

Lots of old tools.

Dentist's Office

Waiting room.

This is the Ranger station. Usually headquartered in isolated areas, the early U.S. Forest Ranger was, of neccessity, a rugged, self-sufficient individual.

Doctor's Office.

Double-click to read.

Some of Dr. Baker's medical tools.

He even had an operating room.

This is a complete newspaper office typical of those found in early mining towns.

This two-story building contained a well-equiped general store on the first floor and an old Masonic Lodge Hall on the second.

The General Store was also the post office.

I saw this in the saloon earlier in the tour and didn't know what it was. Read the next photo.

The next building was the Bank of Alma. It contains many of it's original fixtures.

This guy was a teller for 10 years and the bank president for 13.

Next stop - J.A. Merriam Drug Store. The collection of drugs and remidies inside is reported to be one of the most complete collections of patent medicines in the U.S.

This is the only building that I noticed having a stamped tin ceiling.

Fire

2011-06-16T15:03:00.000-07:00

This is a forest fire burning just west of Colorado Highway 69 between Texas Creek and Westcliff. We could see the smoke from Salida and even Fairplay.

We could even see the flames. The roads going west off of Hwy 69 were closed. We did see on Chinook helicopter with a water bucket suspended from its bottom when we were approaching the fire. At this point, I hear the fire has consumed 3000 acres.

Bishop's Castle

2011-06-16T14:46:00.001-07:00

We visited Bishop's Castle on Hwy 165 in southern Colorado twelve years ago. One man is building this castle. You can find more info at www.bishopscastle.net. Anyway we wanted to see what had changed. He's putting a moat around the front side and erecting towers over it. There are new towers on the castle and a ladder leading to a bridge to one of them. As soon as I get the old photos I have saved on a portable hard drive, I will be able to better determine what is new.

The first photo was taken from the road. This one is closer up and needs combined with the next one to get a view of the whole castle.

Twelve years ago I climbed to the highest point but the tower is higher now. I climbed up to the base of the ball on top of the middle tower this time.

The upper floor has a see-through roof.

I did walk the iron balcony all the way around.

The castle is cool but the views driving there are spectacular.

There were several curves as depicted on the sign.

Museum of Colorado Prisons

2011-06-16T14:08:00.000-07:00

We visited the Museum of Colorado Prisons in Cañon City, CO. Behind this sign is the walls of the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility which houses approximately 800 medium security male prisoners. The Museum was the first prison museum located adjacent to an active prison.

The museum building was once the Colorado Women's Correctional Institution and was built in 1935. Female prisoners were housed here from other states, as Colorado was one of the first states to have an all-female prison. When we paid our admission fee we were given an self-guided tour pamphlet from which I am quoting throughout this post.

The old gas chamber was in a small display building on the grounds.

The Women's Correctional Institution became known as Cell House 4.

Photo of the old grey mare.

This decoration was made by prisoners for one of the wardens.

Prisoners are involved in lots of activities including talapia farming, dairy farming and there is a wild horse program in addition to the ones listed in this photo.

Notice the see-through TV in the shelf.

These hooks were not made to support much weight so they could not be used by the prisoners to hang themselves.

Ropes made by prisoners in escape attempts.

This plaque was in a display case with many motorcycle models.

Over Independence Pass to Aspen and back

2011-06-03T16:21:00.001-07:00

This trip started with us going northbound on Hwy 24. This view shows the Arkansas River, the train tracks on the east side of the river and the highway on the west side.

Then we turned west on CO Hwy 82.

Heading up the road we could see part of the road we had just traveled.

Independence Pass is the highest paved pass in CO. It passes by Mt. Elbert, the highest peak in CO. This road was just opened for the season right before Memorial Day.

The restrooms were still locked up.

We followed a path in the snow up to a higher area but quickly went back to the parking lot because of the cold blowing wind.

On the way back down we heard some other visitors commenting about skiers. Yeap, some adventurous souls had climbed to the top of the peak to the north of us and were skiing down. They're just a speck in this photo.

They were much more visible as they neared the road.

Past the peak, not all the road signs were cleared of snow.

On the west side of the pass we found this large bank of snow propped up by the rock behind it. Nolan's posing so you can see how high it is.

From that spot we could see how the road goes down the mountain and turns to follow the slope of the next one. On the way back from Aspen, we noticed that someone had parked right at the turn and climbed the peak to the north. I'm sure they were going to ski down.

The road continued to follow the mountains as far as we could see.
Looking back we could see the road we had just traveled.

As we traveled toward Aspen, we traveled out of the snow zone. As you can see, some of the road became quite narrow and we were lucky we didn't meet any big vehicles on it. Any vehicle over 35' is prohibited from traveling this highway but even a dually pickup is wide for areas like this.

There were a couple places where the aspens grew alongside the road.

There were lots of nice houses and old, historic homes in Aspen but Nolan liked this one along the river east of Aspen.

We dodged bikers in quite a few places. You had to be careful going around the curves.

One of the many causualties of snow removal.

Back through one of the one-lane areas.

We stopped in one area and walked over a bridge to view the river.

One of many areas that had seen avalanches. There was an area just to the right of this where we could see ski tracks. More adventurous people had climbed up to ski down.

The river went over some falls here.

This is a horrible photo of an historic site sign along the road but I have to put it on here since I climbed into the snow to get the photo.

Some of the historic buildings of Independence.

We're back to the final climb up to the pass.

The guard rails all along the road were in bad shape.

Back down the east slope.

I had to laugh at some of the shapes the snow had melted into. Nolan said this was a face looking up at the sky.

Another area where the snow had collapsed.

You could tell where the snow had avalanched and taken out trees. They stuck out of the snowbanks alongside the road.

Snowy Peaks

2011-06-03T16:02:00.000-07:00

When we look out our dining room window, we are looking toward this mountain but there is a tree blocking park of the view. This photo shows the north park of the RV park and the storage area.

Nolan has befriended the owner's cat named Cat.

We took a walk one day and ended up at the RV park next door. They had a access point to the trail along the railroad tracks. We walked north ont the tracks to where they crossed the Arkansas River.

Deer are abundant around here.

The park owner has a 1929 Model T Fire truck that he pulls out ever weekend and gives people rides.

Buena Vista, CO

2011-06-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

East Main Street - the downtown area of Buena Vista - is a bustling place.

The only grocery store in town. It's small and pricy. We figure we will be running to the Walmart in Salida every couple weeks or so.

Buena Vista's library. We put down a refundable deposit to check out books and movies. Summer visitors like us aren't allowed all the privliges like interlibrary loan.

This is the first picture of many showing the view from the ballfields at the end of Main Street.

Mt. Princeton.

There's a wonderful trail system in the hills to the east of town. More on them later.

Computer

2011-06-03T15:32:00.000-07:00

On May 20th our 2004 computer with the XP OS had a hard drive failure. Stupid me hadn't done a backup since June of last year and that was a drive backup that I'm having trouble getting files off of. Anyway, after consulting two people with more computer experience than I, we decided we would have to make a drive into CO Springs to go computer shopping.

We came home with another HP pavilion. Didn't plan it that way but it was the only one with the features we deemed most fitting for our livestyle.

Day of Sight-Seeing

2011-04-19T19:23:00.001-07:00

The two things we did today was visit Karchner Caverns State Park and Ramsey Canyon Preserve. We stayed at Benson so all we had to do was head south. No photos are allowed at Karchner Caverns. Two spelunkers found these Caverns in 1974 and explored them for 4 years before informing the land owners about what they had found. The land owners (the Karchners) and the finders agreed that they didn't want to see the caverns vandalized but they wanted to have them open to the public. It took 10 years but the State of Arizona finally purchased the land in 1988. The finders spent two years going around to other caves open to the public and asking what the cave developers would have done differently if they knew then what they know now. All that knowledge went into the construction of the public areas of the caverns. It took 9 years and 35 million dollars before the first part was open to the public in 1999. These caverns are wheelchair accessible. We still like Carlsbad Caverns better but everyone is different.

At Ramsey Canyon Preserve we walked through the Visitor Center and got a map of the trails. Hummingbirds are very active in this area and information on 14 varieties are posted.

The trail follows a stream called Ramsey Creek that is a key tributary to the San Pedro River. The presence of water makes for a tree-lined trail and abundant wild life. Most of the people we saw were watching the birds.

Right at the start of the trail is this area with benches in front of hummingbird feeders.

Nolan caught many different sizes of hummingbirds eating at the feeders.

From the late 1880's to the late 1920's the canyon was home to almost 100 settlers. This cabin is called Grand View.
The James Cabin was built in 1911. It is now enjoyed by lots of different wildlife.

We saw deer, squirrels, lizards and lots of different birds during our walk.

We had to stop for some flower sniffin'.

We crossed the creek four times on bridges.

A view of the mountains around the canyon.

Double click to enlarge for reading.

The pond that was built for the frogs.

This huge Arizona Sycamore is thought to be 250 years old.

Good bird photo, Nolan! Don't know what it is but it's pretty. We also heard some birds squacking and figured out that the blue jays flying through the trees was the reason.

One of the many lizards we saw. This one is probably the largest... maybe 8" long including the tail.

Bisbee, Arizona

2011-04-18T17:13:00.000-07:00

The historic mining town of Bisbee, AZ is built in a canyon. Roads (if you can call them that) and houses are built up the hillsides. This is a typical two-way street in the lower part of town.

Looking over the historic part of town.

The higher you climb, the skinnier the road. Yes this is still a two-lane road.

Notice the big "B" on the top of the hill. Elevation here is in the 4,000 to 4,000 range.

Really? We wouldn't have taken our truck on any of the roads. A dually pickup would have trouble in a lot of places.

Went up one road and came upon a sign saying "No Turn around" just as we neared the end. Good thing we have a small car.

Now there are lots of one-way streets and this is one of them. The wall on the left is really scarred up at the point you turn onto the road.

Queen Mine Tour

2011-04-18T16:12:00.001-07:00

Our vacation began by driving to Benson and staying at an RV park with an observatory. I'd have a picture of Saturn here if I could have gotten one! It was incredible! Before I go any further, I have to credit http://www.queencreekminetour.com/ with most of the folowing text. The second day we drove to Bisbee, one of the greatest copper camps the world has ever known. In almost 100 years of continuous production before the Bisbee mines closed in 1975, the local mines produced metals valued at $6.1 billion (at 1975 price) one of the largest production valuations of all the mining districts in the world.

The mine tour building has a gift shop with some wonderful stuff. This block of polished ammonites would look lovely in our trailer but Nolan wouldn't let me get it. I'm sure it isn't light but the price tag was the scary part.

The story of Bisbee mining began in the late 1870’s when Lt. Dunn, in charge of a cavalry detail from the frontier Army post of Fort Huachuca, was on a scouting mission against the Apache Indians. Lt. Dunn and his men headed for a spring in the Mule Mountains to camp for the night. The party camped on a spot of fairly flat ground in the canyon below the spring—a site now occupied by Old Bisbee, only several hundred yards from the beginning of today’s Mine Tour. On a walk after dinner, Lt. Dunn picked up an interesting rock. He found a few more pieces along the slope of the south wall of the canyon. Unable to do anything about it because of military duties, Dunn took a prospector by the name of George Warren into his confidence and struck up a deal by which Warren would locate claims and work the property with Dunn as a partner. But on his way to the site, prospector Warren stopped to visit some friends and enjoy his favorite pastime—whiskey drinking. He soon has new partners and they staked a new group of claims and left Dunn out of the deal. When Dunn came along later to check, he was on the outside looking in.

There were several different displays showing the mining techniques over the years. It took 3 or 4 men to push one of the one-ton ore carts but a donkey could pull four. There are seven layers to the mine and donkeys were stabled at each level.

The estimated production of this mine is 8,032,352,000 lbs of copper, 2,871,786 ounces of gold, 77,162,986 ounces of silver, 304,627,600 lbs of lead and 371,945,900 lbs of zinc.

In the early 1900's electricity provided the power to move the carts. Bare cooper lines were hung from the ceilings. The engine that pulled us through the mine is powered by batteries.

Copper production began on a limited basis around 1880. Individuals and then companies with capital gradually became involved and took over individual claims and brought them into production. Phelps Dodge Corporation, through a subsidiary the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company, became the dominant force and eventually the sole operator of the mining district. Building on its base in Bisbee, Phelps Dodge has long been one of the largest copper producers in the United States. Phelps Dodge Corporation closed the Bisbee underground mines in the summer of 1975. Bisbee Mayor Chuck Eads, with the generous cooperation of Phelps Dodge, brought to reality the idea of opening a mine tour through a portion of the world-famous copper Queen Mine. Mayor Eads felt that history of mining should be kept alive in Bisbee and in a manner that would attract tourists to the community. Many faithful volunteers cleared thousands of tons of fallen rock and re-timbered the old workings. They were assisted by local individuals and groups who furnished support and food for the workers. The local effort came to the attention of a federal agency, the Economic Development Administration, which approved a large grant to the City of Bisbee to help the mine tour project and other improvements in downtown Bisbee designed to aid the tourist business.The Queen Mine Tour was officially opened to visitors on February 1, 1976. Since then, more than a million visitors, from all 50 states and more than 30 foreign countries, have enjoyed the ride into the mountain on the underground mine tour train. The Queen Mine Tour is an authentic mining experience and the tour guides are all experienced miners, having worked in the local mines for many years, and assure you a safe tour set against a background of factual information.

All dressed up for our mine date.

Nolan striking a pose dressed in the latest in mine gear. Hard had, yellow slicker and belt that held on the battery pack that powered the flashlight.

We straddled the tram and started into the mine at the third level.

A melting pot of immigrant miners from the mining districts of Europe labored beneath the Mule Mountains to feed the insatiable demand for copper and electricity.

The tram had five or six cars.

There wasn't much clearance around the tram so we kept our hands in.

We passed the shaft that lead down to the original mine shaft.

We stopped here and walked up 41 steps to a big open area. Because of the solid rock that formed it, it was not timbered.

300 lb drill and its 150 lb support. Imagine negotiating the mine carrying that load!

Further down the shaft we were shown the chutes where the ore from the upper levels came down to be loaded into carts. This bicycle was used by the mine supervisor to go around the mine to check acivities.

The elevator operator had to memorize this list of the different ring for different activities. The bell could be heard through all the levels.

Oh yes... when nature called this portable toilet cart was available. The miner/guide we had told us the leather seats were extremely cold. When it was full, it was pushed to the elevator and taken topside to be dumped.

The supervisor's office.

Back out into the sunshine, we could see the engine that had pulled us through the mine.

The Mystery Castle

2011-04-09T14:15:00.001-07:00

Double-click this photo to enlarge so you can read about the Mystery Castle.

Downtown Phoenix in the distance.

Portrait of Boyce Gulley

Kitchen

View from dining room

Boyce's bedroom

There were actually three separate buildings. This one was connected to the main rooms by a patio. The patio had several "snake" inlays and a compass. Cast off parts, items from the local junkyard and bricks that were thrown away were used in the contruction of the castle.

Lion rock on South Mountain right behind the castle.

Portrait of Mary Lou Gulley

Snake inlay on floor.

Boyce Thompson Arboretum

2011-04-02T10:13:00.000-07:00

The Arboretum brings together plants from the Earth's many and varied deserts and dry lands and displays them alongside examples of the native Sonoran Desert vegetation. Picketpost Mountain to the south of the Arboretum.

This tree had pretty purple flowers. It's called a Mescal Bean or Texas Mountain Laurel tree.

If you double-click this photo to enlarge it, you will see the large bee getting nectar from the flowers.

This butterfly liked the flowers too.

We took a tour that was the combination of a general tour and a flower tour. The guide was pointing out the different kinds of flowers but we had such a huge group that it was difficult to see what he was pointing at. I think most of these are forms of daisys. The tall bushy plant is a Joshua tree. There are also at least two kinds of prickly pear and one cholla.

The large stalk that looks like a large piece of asparagus is the flower stalk of an agave. This particular type of agave is huge and has a huge flower stalk. The folds will open up, braches will fan out and flower bunches will form on the ends. Once the agave blooms, it dies.

It's been five years since we've seen one of these. It's a Boojum and is a relative of the ocotilla. They are native to Baja California.

This is a pond created by diverting water from Queen Creek. It is impounded here to provide water for the arboretum. Queen Creek is on the other side of the hill.

Native fish are grown here to repopulate other areas of the state. This is a school of minnows.

I think these flowers are penstemon. The hairy cactus in the front and middle left are an Old Man Cacti. The hairs shade it during the intense sun of the day and helps it hold in heat during the cool of the night.

This is the outflow for the water diversion from Queek Creek. It runs into the pond. Some plants that normally wouldn't grow here because of the arid conditions do because of the water.

The pond from above.

The park's funny attempt to keep people on the trail.

The arboretum is named for Boyce Thompson, who started it and built this house. Thompson was a multi-millionaire that died shortly after building this house in the late 1920's. Do you see Odie, the cartoon dog?

Thompson's house from the other leg of the Canyon where Queen Creek runs.

Even further along Queen Creek where a suspension bridge crosses the creek.

The arboretum is built around a ridge of magma left from an eruption more than 20 million years ago. Wind and water have carved out the canyons on either side. There are many more gardens and things to look at in the park so we'll probably go back some time. We took a tour about the medicial uses of some of the plants and that we very interesting.

Schnepf Farms

2011-02-20T17:12:00.000-08:00

Fifty-seven people from Sunscape went on a tour of Schnepf Farms by Queen Creek, AZ.

Yep, we went for a ride on the train. Ok, so it's small scale. Nolan and I just barely fit in a seat together.

Running alongside one of their small canals.

They have a u-pick vegetable garden. Only 6 acres.

The wheels sure squealed going around the curves.

They even had a covered bridge.

Some of the varieties of peaches were blooming. We had several nights of hard freezes a couple weeks before this and some of the early bloom varieties lost their blossoms.

Fry's Grocery Stores were having a commercial filmed while we were there. Yep, they hung oranges on oleander bushes. LOL

After the train ride we went on a hay ride around the farm. Man those bales were hard.

They even had a herd of deer. Course they magically transformed into reindeer at Christmas time.

The farmhouse where the present owner was raised is now the wedding center.

They also grew apples which were in bloom.

Peach blossoms. They do not have a fragrance. 85% of the Schnepf Farms peach crop is picked by people coming to the farm. The other 15% is used by the farm to make their peach produces that they sell in their gift shop.

Queen Creek Olive Mill

2011-02-20T17:01:00.000-08:00

I organized a tagalong to go on a tour of Queen Creek Olive Mill and we ended up with 57 people attending. The tour consisted of an explanation of how the farm started, information on the different types of olives and what what grown on the farm. Then we went into this tent where we were told how the olives were pressed and aged to make the olive oil.

The walls were covered in panels explaining the production of olive oil.

The photo at the bottom of this panel shows how slow the oil is processed at peak capacity. It takes 50 lbs of olives to make one gallon of oil.

They had four different varieties of olives for us to try. I'm not an olive fan.

Wrigley Mansion

2011-01-18T17:55:00.001-08:00

This mansion was built by William Wrigley Jr. as a 50th wedding anniversary present. It is built on top of a hill with 360° views.

This grass would be hard to mow.

The front of the house.

A view from the front porch.

The ceiling just as you step into the entry.

A cantilevered staircase goes around the entry.

There is a very small room in the entry called the "gum room". The walls and ceiling are covered in gum wrappers.

The main living room.

One of only two Steinway pianos built this size. This one was rebuilt as a player piano.

Mrs. Wrigley could sit anywhere in the room and start the piano playing the song of her choice by pushing the corresponding button on this remote.

Photo of Mr. Wrigley who died in this mansion in 1930.

The bathrooms are all tiled in Catalina Tile, a business owned by Wrigley on Catalina Island, which he owned.

Spice Clips and cabinet reorganization

2011-01-18T17:47:00.000-08:00

I've always been unhappy on this kitchen cabinet and how difficult my spices were to get out of the mess.

See what I mean?

So I found something online called Spice Clips. The are like the broom clips that hold brooms and mops up by they are made of plastic and adheare with sticky tape.

Doesn't that look better? Not perfect but much better.

At least now I can get to all the spices without having to dig them out of a pile. I actually have spice clips on one more cabinet door.

Holiday Inflatables

2011-01-18T17:31:00.000-08:00

There were a lot of inflatable Christmas decorations in the park for Christmas.

The next three photos are of the same inflatables but the one moves so you can see what's happening.

It's your choice if the reindeer is pulling Santa out of the chimney or pushing him in.

This one also moves. Santa opens and closes the trailer door. Yes, it's an RV camper trailer.
Too cute!

Sunscape's Uninvited Resident

2011-01-18T17:27:00.000-08:00

There is at least one javalina (have-a-lean-a) in the park. They can not be shot except for certain times of the year. We've been tracking it so we can determine where it hangs out. It's been know to run through our site.

Nolan saw it run by the Activity Center.

Sunscape Christmas Lights Float

2010-12-16T18:39:00.001-08:00

Oh the things I get I get myself into. No one was volunteering to coordinate the building of the Christmas Lights parade float so I took it on. Course I had lots of help. The theme was Disney in the Desert so I decided we would build Cinderella's castle. So first we started painting the many pieces.

The brick castle walls required that we draw the lines first....

then we started painting. 28' of wall is a lot of bricks.

Of course we had to have a sign on each side with the theme on it.

Turrets and a saguaro.

Outside erection begins. The float bed is a 30' fifth-wheel camper frame someone donated to the park. It has signs permanently mounted on the sides with Sunscape written in rope lights.

The castle starts going up.

This gave us an idea to have a Jack-in-the-Box on the float next season.

The tops of the turrets going on.

Castle completed.

Getting the castle guard walls and the tree ready.

Getting the fringe put on. The bottoms of the palm trees are already wrapped in burlap.

Our trial run through the park. All the fringe is not on yet and the characters aren't lit as well as they will be for the real parades.

The characters at their photo shoot. LOL

The trailer hitched to the truck and ready to go.

For the second parade, we put on 18 more strings of lights but then we had generator problems.... it kept quitting. So we made the most of it and acted tragic when it went off and estatic when it came back on. We won first place at the Coolidge parade.

Loved the Eloy fire truck. That's a lot of lights.

You can just barely make out the green saguaro on the back of the trailer.

Tie-died shirts

2010-12-16T18:33:00.001-08:00

Tie dye shirts we made.

We decided we ought to leave the tie dying to the professionals and just buy the ones we like. At least then we know what we are getting.

What we've been up to

2010-12-16T18:24:00.000-08:00

We are at our winter home at Sunscape RV Resort by Casa Grande, AZ.

We got a sunscreen on our back window.

A dust storm rolling in. The wind hasn't been an issue so far this winter.

I dressed up in my version of a dirndl for Oktoberfest here at the resort.

London Bridge

2010-10-03T21:27:00.000-07:00

We were in Lake Havasu City, AZ on September 19th and took these photos of the London Bridge. Yes the actually London Bridge that was dismantled and shipped here. Interesting huh?

North on the Tahoe Rim Trail

2010-09-15T14:56:00.001-07:00

The last time we took Hwy 50 up to Spooner Summit I noticed this odd looking tree. Then I realized it was a cell phone antenna.

The start of all three of our Tahoe Rim Trail hikes.

This time we walked up the Tahoe Rim Trail and we were way above Spooner Lake. We did get a few glimpses of Lake Tahoe too. The trail started out really wide but it narrowed down. It was also real dusty like the other times we have hiked.

At the first viewpoint we stopped for a rest. I found a chair, or should I say throne. Most of the hilltops had jumbles of stones like these.

Nolan enjoying the view.

The view.

The second viewpoint showed us Hwy 50 and the Carson Valley.

I think this plant is commonly called pussy paws.

Found this sitting on a log about 45 minutes up the trail. We hauled it back down and threw it in the trash. The plastic bag was bad enough to have in the forest but who know if the substance within was dangerous to animals - besides humans.

Spooner Lake

2010-09-14T15:55:00.001-07:00

We went on another hike in the Carson Mountains. Started out on the north side of Spooner Summit intending to hike north on the Tahoe Rim Trail.

Saw this loop trail and decided to take it instead.

The trail lead downhill first. It was a sandy trail that lead us out of the pines and into an aspen grove.

I thought this tree was interesting in the way the main truck kept dividing in two.

Of course we couldn't get the whole tree in one photo.

Where the trail started its loop around the lake there was a boardwalk to get across areas that were probably wet earlier in the year.

There were ducks on the lake and fishing was allowed.

We walked all the way around the lake. Lots of people out enjoying this trail.

Nolan even spotted a blue heron.

At one point the trail met up with this road that we think used to be part of an old railbed. The loop trail turned and I wanted to make sure Nolan saw where it turned, so I was making faces at him here. Glad you can't see that in the photo.

This trail was much easier than the one we did a few days ago but the uphill climb at the end was enough to make me tired.

HIking the Tahoe Rim Trail

2010-09-12T17:10:00.000-07:00

We decided to hike south from Spooner Summit from where Hwy 50 crosses the Carson Mountains.

The first 20 minutes or so all we did was climb. It wasn't constantly steep but it is all uphill. Then there's a little flat area before we continued to climb again.

The trail is used by hikers, bikers and horseback riders so we had to watch out for them. We never saw a horse but saw some of their droppings. We saw a few bikes. I can't imagine going up that hill on a bike!

Our first glimpse of Lake Tahoe during our hike.

We finally got to a good viewing spot.

We hiked about three miles before we turned around. That was enough for me but Nolan wasn't tired at all.

First Look at Lake Tahoe

2010-09-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

My first look at Lake Tahoe. Ok so it's not a great, or even good, photo. Lake Tahoe is 12 miles wide and 22 miles long. It is also 1,645 feet deep and the water level is 6,225 feet above sea level. The water is 99.9% pure and comes from 63 alpine streams that run over granite and are filtered through wetlands before reaching the lake. One drop of water can take 700 years to leave the lake.

We drove round the south side of the lake, through South Lake Tahoe, to the Taylor Creek Visitor Center that is run by the National Forest Service. We checked out the visitor center then walked the Lake of the Sky Trail. It's an easy trail out to the edge of the lake.

The Taylor Creek Marsh is the winter home of bald eagles.

I don't know what kind of tree these cones come off but they are big. Definitely not big enough to be Sugar Pine trees. I think they are off of Ponderosa pines.

Those cones were a little sappy so I tried washing my hands in Lake Tahoe. Still sticky although maybe not quick as much.

Ok, did you really think I would post photos without a bunch of useless information? Think again. Double click photos to enlarge for reading.

Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories, Canada is the deepest at 2,015' and Crater Lake is the second deepest.

Now on with the scenery photos. This is the view from the Emerald Bay Viewpoint. The island is called Fannette Island and it is the only island in the lake.

The mouth of Emerald Bay where it enters Lake Tahoe is very narrow.

This is very hard to read but is a humorous story about the winter caretaker of a summer villa.

This is another view of Emerald Bay at the Vikingsholm parking area. One of my sisters was married here a few years ago.

One of the main things we wanted to accomplish during our visit to Lake Tahoe was to see Vikingsholm. This is a 38-room reproduction of a Norse fortress. This castlelike building was built as a summer home in 1929. The website http://www.vikingsholm.org/ has a lot of neat info on the house and its construction.
Mrs Knight's land included Fannette Island and she had a tea room built on the top of the island.

To visit Vikingsholm, you must walk down a steep 1 mile trail. Of course you must walk back up it too.

Vikingsholm as seen from the lakeside.

Slightly different angle shows the tower on the corner. The bottom floor of the tower houses the library and the upper floor is a bedroom. If I remember right, there are six bedrooms in the home and each has its own bathroom.

The North end of the outside of the house.

The view of Emerald Bay and Fannette Island from the back of the house..

Flash was not allowed while taking photos and it was dark inside the house so we don't have many photos. This is the living room with the door leading into the library.

This is the staff kitchen that was housed in one of the buildings surrounding the courtyard.

When a guest arrived by car they drove through this entry into the courtyard.
They would be greeted at this beautiful doorway. Notice the carved details around the door and the light fixture above the door.

So if you stood at the front door and looked away from the house, you would see the entry way you just came through.
As you looked right, you would see how the courtyard is formed by the buildings surrounding it. The buildings on the next side were housing for the servants.

This building and the one opposite the courtyard from it have sod roofs. They are irrigated and Mrs. Knight would have the roofs planted with wild flowers.

There was a break between buildings. The next building housed the staff dining room and the kitchen in the previous photo.

The second and third floor of the north end of the main house contained Mrs. Knight's bedroom and sitting room.

The house was built around the old growth trees, some of which are hundreds of years old. Here the view of the front door that visitors arrived at is partially blocked by a tree.

Continuing around the courtyard you can see the tower of the main house and the courtyard side of the garage. Inside the garage is a 1937 Dodge that was used by Mrs. Knight's personal secretary.

To the left of the garage is a maintenance building with a sod roof.

The maintenance building attaches to some of the servant's quarters that frame the vehicle entry way.

After Mrs. Knight's death, the property went through two owners before the second one sold some of the property to the state for half its worth and donated the rest. His name was Harvey West and this plaque commemorates his donation.

As we climbed back up the hillside, we got a glimpse of one of the many commercial boats giving tours of the lake.

Riding the Oregon Dunes

2010-09-02T18:13:00.000-07:00

We were so close to the Oregon Dunes that we just had to rent an ATV and get out on them. We rented this Rhino.

Our pilot for the day was Nolan. Doesn't he look like he knows what he's doing? We're both novices at this.

We started off real tame and mainly stuck to the low road. Sometimes the low road got very bumpy. They called the condition "the whoops". Kinda like deep ruts running perpendicular to the road about every 5'.

You can't really tell by this photo, but that dune is pretty tall.
This was a double hump top.

There were islands of trees among the dunes. Places where the ATVers got funneled into certain lanes. We were so worried about other ATVers hitting us that it was hard to enjoy the ride. I'm glad we went on a weekday when the dunes aren't crowded.

There are lots of shallow water holes among the dunes.

Some are even big enough to be called lakes. By the way, this photo was taken from the top of one of the big dunes.

You might have to enlarge this photo so be able to see that we are at the lip of a steep drop off. Yes we stopped at the top of the dunes so we could see what was on the other side.

There were some RVs out on the dunes. I'd be afraid of getting stuck.

This guy had to stop and let some of the air out of his tires so he could have better traction. We saw him later on the move but didn't know if he had to get some assistance or got moving again on his own. No, he's not really going up hill here. I got the camera crooked.

Water, water everywhere

2010-08-30T12:06:00.001-07:00

On the way back to Loon Lake from Crater Lake we traveled Hwy 138, The Highway of Waterfalls. The white line is Hwy 138. If you enlarge the photo you can see each of the waterfalls we visited marked on the map.

The first waterfall was Clearwater Falls. It lived up to its name as the water was crystal clear. All the waterfalls we visited had clear water. This glade was covered in moss and the water actually ran under a lot of tree roots at the top so we could walk over the water.

Stephanie and I started up the wrong side of the creek and had to cross over a log to get back to the right side.

Nolan and I by Clearwater Falls.

Just another pretty photo of the falls.

Our next stop was Whitehorse Falls. As you can see,there was a nice pool at the bottom of this falls.

The next falls was Watson Falls. On the hike up to the falls I saw this mossy area and just had to pose for a photo.

It is the third highest waterfall in SW Oregon at 272'

The trailhead for the last falls, Toketee Falls was by this huge pipeline. Read more about it in the next photo. You could tell the pipe was full because water was spraying out of several holes, some of which were on the top.

We walked along the river. It got narrow at this point and the water was really churned up.

Toketee Falls was beautiful and much larger than it seems in this photo. If you enlarge the photo you can see the tree growing up the left side of the chasm.

The trail was a combination of wooden steps and rocky trail. This last part descended to a platform hanging over the hilllside and built around some trees.

Our last stop was at Glide, OR which is the only location in the world where two rivers meet head on. The Little River joins the North Umpqua as is it turns to the right. The North Umpqua splits right before it meets the Little River head on. The basalt around this location is hard and very resistant to water erosion.

Kids were jumping off the rocks and into the river in several places. In this place, right after the right fork of the Umpqua River meets the Little River, the current isn't very strong.

We walked down to the water then carefully walked through it to get to the basalt island.

Looking back after we crossed the water you can see the Hwy 138 bridge. The viewpoint for Colliding Rivers is to the left.

We walked to the other side of the island to see where the Umpqua River splits. The current is much stronger on this left fork but the kids were still jumping from the rocks on both sides.

Crater Lake Trip

2010-08-27T10:16:00.000-07:00

One of our co-workers and us decided to take a trip to Crater Lake. The first day was mainly about getting there. We stopped at this neat wayside for a bite to eat along the way.

It was right beside the North Umpqua River so we just had to do a little boulder hopping.

Eventually we made it to Crater Lake.

The main focus of the trip was walking down the Cleetwood Cove Trail and letting our co-worker take a dip in the lake. The trail was very steep and dusty.

Anyone wanting to go on the boat ride that the NPS offers has to go down and up this trail.

Crater Lake is beautiful and the photos really don't do it justice.
Eventually we could see the boat dock to which we were headed.

We ended up going past the boat dock to a place where people jumped off a high rock and into the water. We didn't do that.

Our co-worker went for a swim while we waded in the water. We read in the park flyer that the water stays 38° year-round but the top foot is much warmer. It gets cold real fast as it gets deeper.

Just had to take a photo of us at Crater Lake.

Oh the trail back up. We weren't looking forward to that. If you know where to look, you can see some of the trail.

Oh, forgot to mention that the boats were all helicoptered in. The trail is the only lake access. I saw ATV tracks on the trail at one place so I suppose the dock crew went up and down the easy way.

Some parts of the trail are very steep which makes it hard to go slow down but really hard to do anything but go slow going up.

Just a few feet from the top.

We drove around a short piece of the Rim Road for some more views. Nolan and I were here in 2001 when we climbed Watchman Peak for a high view of the crater.

The color change as the lake gets closer to shore is really pretty.

There was a forest fire in the park.

That night we stayed at Diamond Lake Resort just north of Crater Lake on Diamond Lake.

Mt. Bailey

The Foot

2010-08-27T10:14:00.000-07:00

The donut shop in Reedsport has this special donut called the Foot. We decided to get one. We split it in half and each had 1/2 foot. LOL

Seaplane Flight

2010-08-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

Passing through Coos Bay we noticed a sign advertising sea plane (float plane) rides. After seeing it several times we decided it was time to go for a flight. The day was too foggy to go out towards the ocean so we went north instead.

The dock area when the float plane is moored.

Looking out the back of the plane as we take off.

A barge in Coos Bay.

More of the waterfront.

An island in the bay.

A wood chip shipping yard. That little speck on top is a big bulldozer pushing the chips around.

The RV park at The Mill Casino.

A ship loaded with logs headed to China.

No this isn't snow. It's sand and those spots are ATVers out having fun. The Oregon Dunes National Recreation area runs from Coos Bay to Florence and there are lots of access points for people wanting to play in the sand.

More dunes. Those are lakes surrounded by dunes and some of them are privately owned.

Ten Mile Lakes by Lakeside.

Lots of logging up this way. You can see hills that have recently been logged and those in the process of regrowing. Makes for a patchwork of greens and browns.

Another logging yard.

Coming in for a landing. Yes that's my fuzzy head on the right.

Close to splash down.

Ok, so this isn't us coming down but it gives you an idea of what it looked like from outside the plane.

Angling toward the dock. We've turned in twice as many dollars in cans as this plane ride cost.