Blogs from Rocky Mountains, Colorado, United States, North America - page 7

In case anyone was wondering, this is what the best job in the world looks like. I cannot begin to describe the pleasure of working a full day of hard, honest work. None of this office cubicle, bureaucratic, paper shuffling BS. This is actually work I can feel good about at the end of the day. I don't want to leave. Still lost. Still confused. Still not sure what to do as a college grad. ... read more

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 with Pueblo People whose building style doesn't show influence from the Chaco Canyon area. The upper more primitive Pueblo Trail climbs steeply to a site that shows definite Chaco influence and approaches the mysterious Chimney ... read more

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 the touristy shops for a while, long enough for the kids to buy croc shoe-like charm bracelets and a replica yellow snowball (hmm). Lots of nice statues here - cowboys, frontiersmen, bison, deer and (huge) ... read more

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 walk though - sunny, peaceful glades, clear water flowing past - and an onslaught of gigantic mosquitoes which attacked all of us apart from Jack, who didn't stay in one place long enough to become ... read more

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, but it seemed much less strenuous, which was a huge relief. Our final day in the park was the 4th of July. We wanted to go on a short hike before we left, but the ... read more