Day 9 - Colorado Springs, CO - Elk City, OK

We awoke to a hot air balloon ascending outside our hotel window, which was quite nice to see.  After a hotel breakfast, we faced a long driving day as we had to drive across parts of 4 states.  Heading down I-25, we paralleled the southern part of the Rockies, but they soon got smaller in size and then became mesas and buttes as we entered southern Colorado.  We took a break in Trinidad as our Roadside America app pointed us to the "Canary in the Coal Mine Monument" in downtown.  It honors the "thankless" canaries that helped ensure miners were alerted to the presence of carbon monoxide.  Jason drove us around the town a bit and we soon found ourselves going up a very steep county road full of boulders, potholes, and no guardrails.  We were all shaken, not stirred.  At the top is Simpson's Rest, an overlook of the town which includes the final resting place of pioneer George S. Simpson.  The grave marker has unfortunately been very desecrated so there are no words or inscriptions left, but the sandstone bluff offers great views of Trinidad, Fisher's Peak (the mesa to the south), and the Trinidad electric sign which is still lit nightly.

Once we scampered back down the road, we made our way south to Raton, New Mexico.  We grabbed lunch at Pappa's Sweet Shop, which used to be the candy/sweet store in town, but has since morphed into a great local restaurant.  Near the historic downtown, we spotted the Raton Public Service Company's power plant and had to stop to look in the windows.  Just like Conway, Raton's electric is municipally owned and provided by the PSC.  Even though the plant stopped producing power in 2006 (the coal supply dried up), it was a neat building to see.  We made one more unplanned stop near Raton:  Sugarite Canyon State Park.  While at lunch, we learned that the local coal mine and town in Sugarite Canyon still had ruins you could see.  We stopped at the visitor center, but learned that all the ruins are on a hike in the area and we just didn't have time to do this.  Another time, perhaps.

Our next stop was a short drive away:  Capulin Volcano National Monument.  It is a well-preserved, relatively young (58,000 to 62,000 years old), dormant symmetrical cinder cone volcano that rises steeply from the surrounding grassland plains to an elevation of 8,182 feet above sea level. The irregular rim of the crater is about a mile in circumference and the crater about 400 feet deep.  We drove up the volcano to the parking area and then hiked up (and I mean up) to the summit where we could see out across the prairie to Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado.  The crater is full of green plants, but under their leaves are ancient volcanic rock.  It was a neat stop and one I'm glad we made, but the heat and biting gnats were distractions.  I'd love to go back for one of their star viewings as this area is apparently known for having one of the darkest skies in the country (excellent for star viewing).

We still had many miles to cover so off we went.  Texas and the Central Time Zone were soon whizzing by our windows and the mesas gave way to the flat agricultural fields that I've often seen from the air:  the circular patches of green in otherwise desert-looking land.  We stopped for dinner in Dumas, TX (yes, there is a disagreement between this Dumas and the Arkansas Dumas over the origination of a specific song which mentions the town name) and then continued toward western Oklahoma.  We finally arrived at our hotel in Elk City at about 10:00 pm which is far later than we had originally hoped, but we had an excellent day yet again!  One more push and we'll be in our own beds soon.

Day 7 - Grand Lake - Colorado Springs, CO

We said goodbye to our faithful cabin this morning.  It served us well and we'll definitely be back, but it was time to make the turn towards home.  We stopped at a few of the shops along the main street in Grand Lake and then we headed south to Granby and a City Market/Kroger to refuel and replenish.  It was oddly comforting to be back in a real, live grocery store with good lighting, tile floors, and plentiful options.  Fraser, Winter Park, and Empire were soon behind us as we made our way back to the Red Rocks Amphitheatre.  I called earlier and learned it would close to visitors at 1:30 today so our arrival at 12:30 was perfect.  I was the only one in our group that had visited here before so it was neat to see the others react to it.  Music was being pumped through all the speakers (a sound check, I guess), folks were running laps and jumping up the stairs, and the temperature was about 95:  quite a change from our short visit on Sunday.  The CCC constructed the amphitheatre and it was dedicated in 1941.  The sandstone ledges that make up the "walls" date back to the Jurassic period, or 160 million years ago.  Besides the beauty of the environment, I was struck by the geometric design the seats made when viewed from a certain angle.

A quick bite to eat and off we headed to Colorado Springs.  Our hotel is on the east side of town as that was all I could find for a reasonable price, but we made good time and arrived mid-afternoon.  It's Caroline's 40th birthday today and we decided to celebrate by taking her to an early dinner at The Melting Pot in downtown.  Even though we were slightly underdressed, we had an amazing meal.  We often do fondue for dessert at home, but even the kiddos thought it was fun to experience fondue for an entire meal.  Cheese to start, then entrees, then dessert.  Everything we had was a hit (the teriyaki steak was so-so) and we left content and full!  We hadn't yet played miniature golf on this trip so we decided to head to one tonight.  Laughs abounded as we putted our way through "wonders of the world" and we were even treated to an amazingly colorful sunset.  Happy birthday, Caroline!  I hope this was one of your best yet.

Day 5 - Grand Lake, CO

Today was a jam-packed one for sure!  We started by driving 10 miles into the park at about 7:30 this morning to try to catch some wildlife.  One of my goals on this trip was to spot and photograph a moose.  Right after we entered the National Park entry gates, off in the distance we spotted a mama moose chasing (running) after her calf.  What an exciting way to start the day!  They were too far off to photograph, but it was good to spot them.  A short time later, a deer scampered up the hillside right next to the road offering a chance for a great shot.  We then took the Coyote Valley trail for a beautiful morning hike and while we didn't see any wildlife up close (except a pretty-sounding bird), there was a herd of elk off in the distance.  The walk did offer some amazing reflection photo opportunities as the sun was rising behind us and striking the mountains to the west.  After our hike we continued up the road further to an area called the Beaver Ponds.  No beavers were sighted, but we did see a baby muskrat!

We returned to our cabin to get ready for our big adventure of the day:  waterwater rafting on the Upper Colorado River.  After fueling up on some local coffee, packing our swimsuits and water shoes, and grabbing some PB&J sandwiches, we headed off an hour west to Kremmling, CO where we had a 12:30 appointment with the river.  Caroline LOVES to whitewater raft.  I've been twice in my life:  in Montana with my dad and with Jason & Caroline in Virginia.  This was the first foray for the kids, however, and we chose a company that catered to families.  We knew the rapids wouldn't be too much, but still fun for everyone.  We arrived early and were afforded the opportunity to take the conversion van down to the river with the guides as opposed to the big old school bus.  Once we put in it took Franklin and Sylvia a bit to warm up to the idea, but after successfully navigating the first rapids, we had smiles all around.  All three kids even jumped into the "refreshingly cool" Colorado River off Punk Rock.  The float lasted about 2 hours and we got to see some great countryside, including 2 Amtrak passenger trains, a bald eagle, a juvenile eagle, and an osprey.  Our guide, Johnny, was excellent and we all left tired, but so thrilled to have done it! (photo credits to Jason Hansen for this section as he has the waterproof camera)

We arrived back in Grand Lake about dinner time and had our first "meh" meal of the trip, but we followed it up with some yummy homemade ice cream.  One of our friends who recently visited the Rockies had told us she had luck seeing wildlife at dusk, so we decided to try our luck again and drove back up into the park.  WE HIT PAYDIRT!!!  Prepare for wildlife photograph overload below.  I came to the Rockies hoping to see and photograph a moose; in total today, we saw 7:  1 mamma, 1 calf, and 5 bucks.  We also saw several elk alongside the road and then a herd of 40+ out in a field just off a hiking trail.  And to top it off, we were treated to an excellent sunset.  This was a fantastic day and we head up into the mountains tomorrow.  Do we dare see bear, mountain goat, and marmots?