Glenwood Springs CO (09-05-21)

 

SILT

Well, first of all, we didn’t actually stay in Glenwood Springs, we stayed in  Silt, about 25 minutes away. Had we realized how far it was, we might have looked for something closer.  Oh well, our first adventure was to explore the tiny town of Silt (1.4 square miles). There was supposed to be a farm to market store, so we headed there first to get some goodies, but it was closed. We did notice that down the street there is a Historical Park, so that was our next stop.

There are about 10 or so old buildings on the property, which were interesting to meander through. We were hoping to learn about the town history, but there wasn’t much information about the town. Judging from all the farming equipment, we assumed it was a farming community, and later found out that in fact, they used to grow sugar beets.  I have heard of sugar beets but don’t know much about them. Turns out 30% of the worlds sugar production is from sugar beets.

Paul is always fascinated by antique gadgets and equipment, and was happy to explain to me what this gadget is. It’s a smudge pot, which would be loaded with diesel and used on a highway as a flare. As an added footnote, I absolutely remember having baskets like the one in this picture.

I like looking at the day to day items of yesteryear…such as this iron. To my way of thinking, the old saying “too many irons in the fire” should mean that someone was heating too many irons at once and couldn’t iron their clothes fast enough to use them all. In reality of course, it refers to a blacksmith and how many irons he has in the fire.  Apparently a good blacksmith will have Just The Right Amount.  Anyway, I doubt either of my kids has ever even used an iron.

Aspen

 

Our intent on our second day was to hike Grizzly Creek- an 8 mile hike with lots of elevation gain. We weren't sure we’d make it the whole 8 miles, but I was game to try.  It didn’t happen though. Many people may have heard that Rte 70 headed to Denver, was closed for quite a while due to a mud slide. Although it is now open, the parking lots for the hiking trails are not. We took a drive through the beautiful canyon before heading up to Aspen for the afternoon.

John Denver was one of my favorite musical artists when I was growing up, and I was happy to hear there is a John Denver Sanctuary in Aspen.

 There are all kinds of pathways in the park, and a rock garden that features boulders with the lyrics to his songs etched into them.

Flat Tops Scenic  Drive

This scenic drive took us through the White River National forest, which is actually the second national forest to ever be created (the first was Shoshone). The road loosely follows the White River. Years ago this area was home to the Ute Indian Nation, until an unfortunate misunderstanding resulted in their removal to a reservation. 

 

It is still home to one of the largest Elk herds in the country. We were therefore expecting to see some elk- but we only saw one.  Had we been camping up here at 10,000 ft. we could have done some hiking, but today we didn’t have time.

Doc Holliday

When you do a search for the town of Glenwood Springs, three things pop up : Hanging Lake Trail (closed due to mudslide), the Hot Springs Pool, and Doc Holliday’s grave.

One of our few hikes was a short one to his grave. All I know about Doc Holliday is that he was at the shootout at the OK Corral, in Arizona.  Turns out, he spent his last few years in Glenwood Springs, suffering from late stage Tuberculosis.  He died destitute, and was buried here, and since  no one knows exactly where his grave is, a memorial was put in place overlooking the town.

 

I was interested to learn that Kid Curry is also buried here. In 1904, after robbing a train, he was so severely injured by the posse that chased him, that he took his own life. I will admit, most of my "knowledge” about Kid Curry comes from the TV show Alias Smith and Jones.

 Rifle Falls

There are 3 state parks near us, and one day we drove out to check them out. The most interesting one is Rifle Falls State Park.  

There is a short hike that circles the falls. Taking our time, we walked the trail and enjoyed the falls.

Glenwood Springs Hot Springs Pool

 

Our last day in Glenwood, we finally made it to the hot springs pool.  This thing is enormous!   Built in 1888, it is the largest mineral hot springs pool in the world.  “The small” pool is 40’ wide and 100’ long. It’s kept at 104*, a little too hot for me. 

 

The regular pool is 100’ wide and 405’ long.  There are swim lanes for lap swimming, and a diving board at one end.  It is kept at about 93*, much better for us. After about 2 hours we were waterlogged and made our way back home.

Exploring Once More (08-28-21)

 

With "only" a month or so to explore before we head back to Arizona, we got out a map and looked to see where we could go that we had never been, but wouldn't be too far away. Glenwood Springs, CO fit the bill, so that’s where we headed.

In order to avoid the huge mountains, we took the long way there, which took us through Albuquerque NM, and Cortez CO. It seems like there is always something to look at while driving around in the southwest. Maybe because there are so few trees, we can see for miles and miles.

It always amazes me to see these kinds of things- it looks as if the sand is being worn away, revealing the monolith enclosed within it.

We had been through here before when we visited Mesa Verde National Park, but there was still plenty we hadn't seen, so we booked two nights in Cortez.

The lady at the Visitor Center was very helpful and mapped out a full day of exploring for us.

We packed a lunch and headed towards Canyon of the Ancients National Monument....with our first stop being Hovenweep.

Hovenweep was designated a National Monument in 1923, with the purpose of preserving some of the best ancient puebloan masonry in existence today.

The settlement we explored involved a two mile hike along a ridge, with remnants of ancient dwellings sitting both atop the ridge, and down below in the canyon.

 

Ancestral Puebloans moved to this area around the year 700, and moved on to new places in about the year 1230. No one knows exactly why they left, although there are several theories.

While here, they farmed, using a terrace method, planting crops down the sides of the canyon.

It was already getting warm when we started our two mile hike, so we were happy when the sky started dripping. The flashes of lightning and crackle of thunder didn't thrill us, but we survived it.

Looking across the canyon it was amazing to see just how many buildings there were in this small area.

These Twin Towers, although they maybe don't look like much, have a total of 16 interior rooms.

We were hoping to visit the Holly Tower area as well, but the ranger warned us that the road resembled a swimming pool after the recent rains. We went as far as we could, although one of us was convinced we could make it through to the other side with no problem.

Back on the paved road we made our way to Lowry Pueblo, where we had a picnic lunch before exploring the kivas. Kivas are special buildings that were used for ceremonies and community activities.

Lowry is known for the murals that were painted on the interior walls, which had 15 coats of plaster. Unfortunately, all attempts to preserve the murals failed.

Continuing on the loop road, our last stop of the day was the Anasazi Heritage Center. When nearby McPhee reservoir was created, artifacts were removed before it was filled with water, and they are housed at the heritage center.

I have been interested in dendrochronology since i was in 5th grade and at environmental science camp. While there, we drilled into a tree, and counted the rings to find out how old it was.

When comparing the rings of an older tree and a younger tree, the ring patterns for the overlapping years are the same on both trees, allowing scientists to establish a timeline.

Several wood beams from this area were sent off to the dendrochronology lab in Tucson where they have a master chart of tree rings, with known dates. Pretty cool.

California, Here We Come (08-14-21)

 

Having spent our last week in Texas helping Paul’s mom, we were ready to head to California. Before we left, we were treated to one hellacious storm, with winds apparently clocked at 60 mph- based on the damage we saw in the RV park-I can believe it.

Along the way we decided to make a short stop at home. We dropped off some stuff and fixed the irrigation system at the house.

Our original plans for California were thwarted by the lack of available RV spaces in southern California. We were going to start south and then head to northern CA, but ended up heading north first. We called our friends in Fresno and gave them the heads up that we would be arriving in a day or so. 

We haven't seen our CA friends in over 2 years, due to Covid, so it was awesome to be able to catch up on all the happenings. The week was full of group meals, including the night that Nancy and Bill came down from their farm to meet us all for dinner.

They brought with them boxes of fresh peaches and tomatoes. Wow. Peaches that taste like peaches, and tomatoes that taste like tomatoes. It’s one of the things I will miss about California- no where else in the country have I had fruits and vegetables that taste so good.

We were invited to a “zoom wine tasting” at Karen’s friend’s house. The winery shipped boxes that contain 5 small wine samples per person, and at 5 pm, the zoom meeting started, and the tasting began. We had technical difficulties with the TV we were using so our zoom ended up being a call on speaker phone. It was still fun.

As the night wore on, we made the switch to tequila, and more silliness ensued.

Once the weekend arrived, we headed up the mountain to Kirk and Karen’s cabin. We knew the 2020 Creek Fire came close to their cabin, and caused significant damage to the area, but it was awful to see the devastation and loss of property  first hand.

 

We heard that the fire moved so fast at times that the firefighters couldn’t save all the homes, so they made their decision based in part on who had maintained a “defensible space”. The structures that had all the debris and deadwood removed from around them, were prioritized. I guess it makes sense to do it that way, since not everything could be saved.

We had our usual fun time at the cabin, with the guys finding enough projects to keep them busy.

  And again, most of the fun seemed to revolve around food and drink. With the temperatures in the city reaching over 100 degrees, it was nice to be in the mountains and be able to eat outside.

After a little over a week, we said goodbye to everyone and headed southwest to Santa Barbara. We had discovered that our daughter had a week off, so she drove up to meet us and we spent a couple of days exploring.

Our day in Santa Barbara started at the wharf. 

From there we did a couple of wine tastings as we walked around town, and ended up back at the wharf, where we had dinner reservations. 

There were so many wine rooms it was hard to choose which ones to try, but we narrowed it down to two. It was a huge perk to us that we had Jess’s car, so we didn’t have to park the dually, and a huge perk for her that dad doesn't drink wine, and didn't mind being DD.

The following day we walked around Solvang, “the Danish capital of America”.  We had been here once before, but Jess never had been, so we made sure she tried Aebleskivers, a Danish dessert that is similar to doughnuts.

She seemed to enjoy them, just as she enjoyed meandering through all the stores.

Leaving Jess, we braved the L.A. traffic to make our way south towards Oceanside.  It was a bonus that because our visit was delayed, Paul’s brother was back in town, so we got to see them, as well as Paul’s niece and nephew. I didn’t manage to take a single picture!

This summer did not at all go as we had originally planned, and we had to be flexible and quick on our feet so to speak to keep up with the changes.

Now, instead of heading north, we needed to  head back to El Paso to handle some things for Paul’s mom.  Even that plan changed a bit.  We once again stopped at the house, this time so that Paul could replace the brakes on the trailer- doing it at the house was more comfortable than trying to do it in an RV park.

While we were in California, Paul's mom celebrated her 91st birthday.