Central City & Golden, CO – May 16 – 30, 2015

After getting safely over the snow-covered Wolf Creek Pass we spent one night in Buena Vista midway between Pagosa Springs and Denver. We then headed up to the Central City KOA in Colorado where we stayed from May 16 to May 25. The KOA is located in the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of 8,490, one mile above the casino towns of Central City and Black Hawk and just 35 miles west of Denver. At this elevation you can expect snow in May!

When Sharon picked this location she thought it would be nice to be high in the Rocky Mountains with a view overlooking the city.  Here is the KOA on a sunnier day!

What we didn’t think about was altitude sickness which is an illness that can affect travelers at high altitude (typically above 8,000 feet).  In most cases, the symptoms are mild, but in rare circumstances can be life threatening. Symptoms generally associated with mild to moderate sickness include dizziness, fatigue, headache, loss of appetite, nausea or vomiting, rapid pulse and shortness of breath. So we went to the local outfitter and got a couple of cans of oxygen to use if we went hiking.

In hindsight we should have started at a lower altitude to get acclimated before going to a higher altitude. After about 10 days at the KOA, Mike ended up in the urgent care with shortness of breath, especially at night.  The doctor prescribed a tank of oxygen that he used at night. Needless to say we didn’t do any hiking or exert any energy during our stay. The weather also prevented us from enjoying our time in the Denver area! Between snow, rain and a lot of flooding in the area, we stayed home.  Locals kept saying “this is very unusual for this time of year!” And the local weather broadcast had a cute video of a hummingbird with the caption “Springtime in Colorado.” Then the video changed to a rainy, dreary scene with the caption “We’re tired of it, too!”

Idaho Springs, CO

The only thing we did was visit nearby Idaho Springs and ate lunch at Tommyknocker Brewery & Pub on Miner Street. When the Cornish miners came from the tin mines in Cornwall to work in the gold mines of Colorado during the 1860’s, they brought with them their own elves.  These Tommyknockers lived in the mines and were responsible for all kinds of mischief: snuffing out candles, eating lunches and stealing tools!  If a miner was kind and left out food for the Tommyknockers, they often rewarded him by leading him to a rich vein or even the “mother lode” by tapping on the rock walls of the mine. Many a miner claimed to have been saved by a Tommyknockers warning of impending danger.

Moved to a Lower Elevation in Golden, CO

Even on the oxygen, Mike still had a difficult time breathing, so we cancelled the rest of our stay at the KOA and got a reservation at Dakota Ridge RV Resort from May 25 thru May 30.  Our RV friends, Nancy and Terry recommended it. We got a great site, easy pull-thru with views of the Rocky Mountains and the Denver skyline. We heard coyotes at night and the elevation was only 5,674 feet. What more could we ask for!

Before we exited the highway to the RV Park we noticed a herd of Buffalo. So we hurried to check-in at the RV Park and drove back to see the herd which included some young calves.

While in Golden we ate at the Old Capital Grill located in one of Colorado’s most historic buildings built in 1863. The building served as the Territorial Capitol for Colorado until statehood was declared and the capitol moved to Denver. The photos on the walls told a story of a fire that destroyed the upper portion of the landmark in 2005.  Upon arrival fire crews were met with heavy fire on the roof and second floor.  The building did not have a sprinkler system. A second alarm brought mutual aid departments to the scene.  The building was restored, making it look more historic after the fire than it did before!

When the weather cooperated, we visited a nearby town called Lakewood and ate lunch at the Yard House, a national chain with good food!  Mike always finds rock shops wherever we go so we tracked down a couple of shops.  

Our favorite shop was Rustic Relics, a unique rock and antique shop on Kipling Street in Lakewood.  We met the owner, Linda who is a geologist and her husband, Jim, is a geology professor. Sharon purchased a gem-quality aquamarine that Linda found and an aquamarine that Linda’s husband found, while rock hounding on Mount Antero. 

Aquamarine is a semi-precious gemstone and is the green-blue to blue variety of the mineral beryl. In general, the purer and more intense the blue color, the more valuable the stone. 

Here is the aquamarine found by Jim.

Here is the gem-quality aquamarine found by Linda.

And to Sharon’s surprise, Linda gifted a topaz stone to her that Linda had found in Utah. Topaz is a lustrous and brilliant gem stone and has an exceptionally wide color range that, besides brown, includes various tones and saturations of blue, green, yellow, orange, red, pink, purple and colorless. Sharon will design some jewelry using these stones in the rough. After an interesting conversation with Linda she said if we come back to this area she and husband would take us rock hounding on Mount Antero! One of the benefits of meeting people in our travels!

Here is the topaz found by Linda in Utah.

We plan to come back to the Denver area next year during the summer months when the weather should be better for exploring the Rocky Mountains and go rock hounding on Mount Antero (known for aquamarine and the Prospectors show on the weather channel) with Linda and her husband! Mount Antero is prized for its gemstone deposits and has one of the highest concentrations of aquamarine in the country. There are several active private mining claims being exploited on Mount Antero and surrounding peaks. The elevation at the highest peak is 14,276 feet.

Here is a 6.90 cts, 20x9 mm, clean aquamarine stone, rich blue green. Found by Jim Grika in 1988 and cut by Robert Spomer of Buena Vista Gem Works. Currently in the collection of Steve Green, Rough and Ready Gems. Photo by Steve Green. If we could only be so lucky!

Our next blogs will feature our long-awaited Yellowstone adventure in Moran, WY (south Yellowstone) and Livingston, MT (north Yellowstone). Stay tuned!

Mike & Sharon

“Take the time to dream – It is hitching your wagon to a star. Take time to love and to be loved – Take time to look around – It is too short a day to be closed in. Take time to laugh – It is the music of the soul.”

Old English Prayer

Mesa Verde, Durango & Pagosa Springs in CO – May 4-14, 2015

We arrived at the Mesa Verde RV Resort in Mancos, Colorado and stayed for four days. While we were here we went to Mesa Verde National Park, but also drove to Durango and took a train up to Silverton. And after our short stay in Mancos, we drove to Pagosa Springs and stayed for a week at the Pagosa Riverside RV Campground on the San Juan River.

MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK

It was only a ten minute drive from the RV Park to Mesa Verde National Park. From the many sites located here and in the surrounding Four Corners region of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado, archeologists have compiled one of the most significant chapters in the history of ancient America. Today the park protects nearly 5,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings.  Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years.

Today it’s hard to imagine the area filled with families growing crops of corn, squash, and beans; chatting and weaving baskets; and conducting a lively trade with other communities stretching across what is now the southwestern United States. And yet at one time, this area was home to a culture called the Anasazi, now often known as the Ancestral Puebloans.  Its people settled in the area in approximately A.D. 550, where they flourished. Then some say they disappeared into the desert by around A.D. 1300.

Overlook to Spruce House

But the people didn’t completely disappear. Their descendants are the Hopi and Zuni, as well as the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. The remnants of their communities stretch across national parks and monuments in the Four Corners states, including the remains of villages of Mesa Verde National Park.

We arrived at the Visitor Center and Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum for information. The cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde are often considered some of the best sites for exploring the history of the people who built them. The park includes hiking trails, driving loop roads with scenic overlooks and climbing the ladders. Some of the highest points in the park are Point Lookout at 8,427 feet and Park Point Overlook at 8,572 feet. The Balcony House (the most adventurous cliff dwelling), Cliff Palace (the park’s most famous cliff dwelling was undergoing preservation work), and Long House require a ranger-guided tour which were not available during our visit.  One day is not enough! Here are some of the overlooks:

We hiked a ½ mile from the Museum to see the Spruce Tree House, the park’s third largest and best-preserved cliff dwelling which was occupied by Ancestral Pueblo people between A.D. 1200 and 1280. The winding, paved trail includes a steep 100-foot descent and ascent and is moderately strenuous, but worth it! Early explorers named it for the towering Douglas-fir trees (historically referred to as spruce trees) found in the canyon bottom below the alcove.  The alcove is 216 feet long and 89 feet deep. The cliff dwelling included 120 rooms, 10 associated ledge rooms, 8 kivas and two towers. It was estimated that the peak population included about 19 households of 60-90 people. It was truly amazing to see and wonder how something like this could be built in ancient times.

Mike was feeling adventurous, so we decided to take a 2.4 mile hike on the Petroglyph Point Trail that leads to a large petroglyph panel.  The trail took us through a forest of slow-growing pinon pine and juniper trees, yucca, Utah serviceberry, choke-cherry and Gambel oak. It was strenuous as we hiked with our hiking poles along rim rock bluffs, climbing up in elevation with grand views of the valley below. At one point we came to steps carved into the canyon wall that lead up to the mesa above. The first step was made for a giant as Mike had to pull Sharon up! The views were spectacular!

DURANGO, CO

Durango was founded by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway in 1879. The railroad arrived in Durango on August 5, 1881 and construction on the line to Silverton began in the fall of the same year. By July of 1882 the tracks to Silverton were completed, and the train began hauling both freight and passengers. The line was constructed to haul silver and gold ore from the San Juan Mountains, but passengers soon realized it was the view that was truly precious. This historic train has been in continuous operation for 133 years, carrying passengers behind vintage steam locomotives and rolling stock indigenous to the line.

We had purchased tickets to take the historic narration coach on a steam-powered, coal-fired train from the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum/Depot to Silverton “Where the Pavement Ends.” It was the first train ride of the season and it was a dreary day. But the scenery along the San Juan Mountains and Animas River was beautiful and the period-costumed narrators were very interesting and entertaining. The train travels 45.4 miles each way.

“Thomas Graden,” our narrator on the trip to Silverton, was a Civil War veteran who came to the San Juans to make his fortune, not in mining but in a myriad of other business activities. He built roads, provided lumber to the new towns and railroad ties to the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, built the finest mercantile in Durango, owned a flour mill, and even started the first electric company in Durango in 1885.

When we arrived in Silverton it was cold and rainy. All of the roads in the town were dirt, but very muddy during our visit!  First, we ate lunch at Handlebars Food & Saloon built in the 1800s and filled with hundreds of antiques from the area’s historic mining past and game trophies and other memorabilia. As we strolled along the streets we stopped at as many shops as we could before the whistle blew and we had to return to the train or be stuck on the mountain! Our favorite shop was the local mineral shop!

“Victoria Day,” our narrator on the trip back to Durango, was the wife of noted newspaper editor, David Day. She was a business woman in her own right, an early woman entrepreneur, something quite unusual for a 19^th century lady.

An unusual albino Elk...

Funny story - the day after we took the train ride, we met a couple at Mesa Verde National Park who took the train the day after we did. We asked why they returned so early and they said there was a landslide along the tracks the night before (after we got off of the train!) and so they never made it to Silverton. About 100 yards of track was pushed down the mountain. Apparently the rain we had the day before loosened the dirt and rock! The couple were only able to take the train part way and turn around. We were feeling very lucky the landslide happened after we got off!

On a sunnier day, we revisited Durango to enjoy what this quaint town had to offer. While Durango began as a railroad town, it has grown into a booming mountain town. The architecture in Durango is diverse and included the Strater Hotel, a prominent historic downtown landmark. There were plenty of shopping opportunities including “A Shared Blanket” with museum quality American Art and artifacts where we purchased a Virgil Long Hopi Kachina to add to Sharon’s hand-carved and painted collection. We enjoyed lunch at Nini’s Taqueria. Durango would be a neat town to live in if it weren’t for the winter months!

PAGOSA SPRINGS, CO

We packed up the RV and headed to Pagosa Springs, only a few hours away. The Pagosa Riverside RV Campground was very nice with a view of the San Juan River and San Juan Mountains. We were here from May 8 through May 15.  It was early in the season and the park had just opened. Although it was spring time, it did snow a few times.

Located within the San Juan National Forest amid the majestic San Juan Mountains, Pagosa Springs offers a rich geological and cultural history to explore. Known for its world-famous hot springs, “Pagosah” is the Southwestern Ute word for “healing waters.”  The soaring cliffs, jagged peaks, magical alpine pools, undisturbed wilderness, cascading rivers, and soothing hot springs reveal a dramatic geological history.

What we enjoyed most about our stay here was the abundance of birds along the river. We set up our bird feeder….if you feed them, they will come!  It was very entertaining. We got out our bird book and started to identify birds we had never seen before. This is one place we really relaxed and did nothing, except for a couple of hikes to see waterfalls! 

Here are a few photos of the many birds we saw during our stay in Pagosa Springs, which included: Yellow Rumped Warbler, Canadian Geese, Western Scrub Jay, Downy Woodpecker, Lewis’ Woodpecker (rare), Pine Siskin, Common Merganser, Black-headed Grosbeak, Red backed Junco, Audubon’s Warbler, White crowned Sparrow, White Breasted Nuthatcher, Red Winged Blackbird, American Robin, Eurasian Dove and the Green Tailed Towhee. 

The Lewis’ Woodpecker was the most interesting bird. We thought woodpeckers ate bugs, but they were at our feeder daily. They would then take their seed to the tree and bury it in the bark – unusual behavior that we had never seen before, especially for a woodpecker!

One day we took a drive and hiked to Treasure Falls, a short .5 mile easy trail to a bridge at the base of the falls. Treasure Falls is named for Treasure Mountain, an area rich in folklore and stories of large buried treasure.  Most accounts suggest that a treasure chest full of gold was buried in the area after a group of Frenchmen were “waylaid” by either Spanish explorers or Native Americans. It was a cold rainy day. While standing on the bridge, the falls rushed hundreds of feet down the cliff toward us. Sharon made Mike climb higher toward the falls for a photo opportunity. While Sharon watched from the bridge, she motioned Mike to move closer toward the falls.  Luckily we had our rain jackets on.  Mike got very wet!!

 

We then took a very scenic drive through the San Juan Forest to hike to the Piedra Falls, a short .5 mile easy trail.  On the way Mike spotted some deer grazing,  a deer crossing the Piedra River, a blue bird, and a deer running along the hillside.

The Piedra Falls were impressive, thundering off two large steps among sheer volcanic cliffs into a V-shaped canyon of huge boulders. We enjoyed the very scenic and quiet hike through the forest.

On our way back from Piedra Falls it was near dusk. We came upon more deer, but what we didn't expect was a red fox along the side of the road carrying an egg of all things!!  Sharon was driving so she stopped and asked Mike to take a photo. He opened the window and tried to take a photo and Sharon insisted that he get out of the Jeep! Mike shot a few photos of the back of the fox as he walked away, but then Sharon beeped the horn and the fox turned around and Mike got the shot with the egg in its mouth!

When we left Pagosa Springs, we checked the weather and the road conditions and it was supposed to be clear. We left early so we could make it over Wolf Creek Pass in the San Juan Mountain range, where the elevation is 10,857 feet.  It is a high mountain pass on the Continental Divide.  The pass is significantly steep on either side with a 6.8% maximum grade and can be dangerous in the winter.

Wolf Creek Pass was made famous in 1975 by country music artist C. W. McCall’s humorous spoken word song of the same name, in which the pass is fondly described as “37 miles o’hell – which is up on the Great Divide.”  In the song, two truckers drive an out-of-control 1948 Peterbilt down U.S. Highway 160 to Pagosa Springs – a 5,000-foot drop in elevation. Here are a few lyrics from the song:

“I looked at Earl and his eyes were wide, his lip was curled, and his leg was fried. And his hand was froze to the wheel like a tongue to a sled in the middle of a blizzard. I says, “Earl, I’m not the type to complain, but the time has come for me to explain that if you don’t apply some brake real soon, they’re gonna have to pick us up with a stick and a spoon…”

When we were near the top of Wolf Creek Pass it started to drizzle out and then the drizzle turned to snow.  Three inches of snow accumulated very quickly when two semi-trucks were stopped in front of us putting chains on their tires. We had no chains (it’s the law) and if we had known it was going to snow we would have never attempted the pass in our motorhome!  We decided rather than turn around we would follow the semi-trucks down the mountain and go very slow. Mike unhitched the Jeep and Sharon followed. Mike pulled over to let traffic pass and when he pulled back into traffic Sharon watched in horror as the back end of the motorhome slipped toward the edge of the mountain!!  Luckily Mike pulled safely onto the road. We made it down the mountain where blue skies and dry roads were a welcome sight! Here are a few photos of our experience, not to be repeated! We were happy to arrive in Buena Vista for a night on our way to Denver.

Our next blog will be our adventure in Central City, CO near Denver!

Mike & Sharon

“You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself.”

Buddha