The Chimney Rock Archaeology Area is an unusual Chaco Canyon influenced site located between Bayfield and Pagosa Springs in southwest Colorado. An unusual rock formation that is thought to have been helpful in astronomical observations may have played an important role in the history of this site. There are two short trails on the tour of the Chimney Rock area. Visitors sign in at the small visitor center and caravan up a gravel road for two miles to the trail head area. The lower barrier free looped Great Kiva Trail is 0.33 miles visits several lower village sites that are associated [View Full Entry]

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Final thoughts on Colorado So... We got up fairly early (but not as early as Rob and Helen, who went to work - har har), fed ourselves (read that as stole food), and unpacked and re-packed all our belongings in a more rational way. Rob arrived and dutifully took us to the airport, regaling us on the way with anecdotes like 'an avalanche killed a skier there' and 'an avalanche killed another skier over there' and ... well, you get the theme! Ellie had a squeeze (pocket of air) in her ear as we descended in altitude, but on the brighter [View Full Entry]

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Off for a walk Whilst Helen was at work this morning the rest of us drove off to Devil's Thumb Park (at around 10,000 feet). On the way we encountered some lumberjacks and were held up for a few minutes whilst they effortlessly moved three trees from out of the middle of the road with a big grabby crane thing (that's the technical term for it!). There we tracked Moose (there's a moose loose aboot this hoose) by following tracks and scats (that's poo to you guys back home) but unfortunately we didn't get to see any moose just a couple [View Full Entry]

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Saturday - mooching in the morning Woke up fairly early - Helen and Rob had already gone to work, so we were left to our own devices and decided to take the Honda (CRV) into Winter Park to look at the local shops and practice driving on the right whilst we were in still in a quiet(ish) area. The drive into town went OK, if you don't count not being able to start the vehicle in the first place (clutch in!), missing a turning and realising a little too late what the function of the turning lane was.. We wandered around [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday Off out for a walk along St Louis Creek near Fraser, where all the Lodgepole Pine trees are either dead or dying thanks to a little beetle called the Pine Beetle. This little blighter is responsible for the death of nearly 90% of the Lodgepole pines in the rocky mountains. It makes the mountains look a little more brown than we imagined - apparently the spread is so rapid because the trees are growing so close to each other. A good forest fire would do the trick, but the human inhabitants aren't keen on the idea. It was a nice [View Full Entry]

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Car, Coach, Train, Plane... and we arrive at Denver International Airport. It's sunny and around 80F and we've just missed a mega hailstorm. Rob's there to meet us and we pile into his car and start the 2 hour drive to Winter Park/Fraser where we are staying with Rob and Helen for 5 nights (what have they let themselves in for?). Lowlight of the drive: Passing the Purina Dog Food factory which was polluting the atmosphere with a really delightful dog food stink. Yum. Highlight(s) of the drive: Following Clear Creek and seeing the gold mines, a waterfall, avalanche path [View Full Entry]

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Once again we headed up into the mountains for some camping and hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. After we got our camp site set up, we took a hike up to see a few of the glacial lakes we had seen last time. The trail was completely unfrozen this time, which made the hiking easier, but the scenery was still just as magnificent. On day two we decided to hike up Flattop mountain. At 12,324 ft, it was the highest peak we'd ever climbed. The trail was about as long, and had about as much vertical gain as Mt. Washington, [View Full Entry]

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Our RV site at the Mountain Views RV Park in Creede was right on the Rio Grande River, which allowed us to watch the twice-daily parade of river rafters as well as men and women fly fishing from boats. While Alan caught a few small trout from the river using a conventional rod/reel, the highlight of our trip was a fly-fishing trip to a mountain creek in the Wiminuche Wilderness Area. We first learned how to cast the fly rod in the campground. The next day, our guide Robert, accompanied by his canine companion Willow, picked us up early for the [View Full Entry]

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Creede Elevation 8,862; Mineral County Population ~ 900 We arrived in Creede June 1st to clear blue skies, with chilly daytime temperatures and overnight freezing. Since much of the country was sweltering or being flooded, we didn’t complain too much. The weather did warm up nicely during the month. Creede is an old silver mining town whose heyday was the late 1800’s. Quite a few colorful Western characters spent time here over the years. Silver was mined until the mid 1970’s, and a mining company plans new exploration this year. Evidence of old abandoned silver [View Full Entry]

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Today’s hike was such a good time, and by far the best hike I’ve done since being out here in Boulder. About 1 hour Northwest of Boulder is the Bear Lake trailhead, where I started my hike. To be honest I was a little surprised to see snow on the ground when I arrived at 9am; considering I was in shorts and a tee-shirt. Oh well never mind I will see how it goes. I marched off down the trail where 25 yards later I’m faced with a trail sign pointing off into the snow-covered forest. After staring at what does [View Full Entry]

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