Royal Gorge...we survived!

We took a thrilling raft trip yesterday through Royal Gorge, one of the premire rafting destinations in the world. Pictured above Todd is in the front left and Donna is well...covered with water next to the guide on left. The tour boasts class IV+ rapids with names like sledgehammer and pinball and travels under the world's highest suspension bridge pictured here:


The trip started with a safety lesson where the first three rules were "don't fall out, don't fall out, and don't fall out" followed by a series of what to do to survive if you broke one of the first three rules. I learned how intense this trip was by listening in on a quiet conversation one of the guides was having on the van trip home. The past three years there had only been one death "running the gorge", but since May of this year, 5 people on guided tours have died including one guide in training. Is it too late to get our money back?

This was one of the few tours that actually followed you with a photographer, so we'll be posting all the rafting pictures in the photo archive soon.

World's Largest Ball of Twine? not yet... BUT

We haven't yet found the elusive Worlds largest ball of twine, but did stumble upon this self-proclaimed World's largest rocking chair near Colorado Springs, Co. It sat behind a locked gate in a closed, for sale, restaurant, so I'm a little suspect of it's claim. After all, if it was indeed what it said it was, wouldn't the droves of people, driving hundreds of miles to see it kept the restaurant in business?

Anyway we are now settled in CO. Springs for a few days after a great time in Breckenridge where I finally booked a fly fishing guide and took lessons. 4 Rainbow trout later, I think I'm catching on (no pun intended).

Since our time is limited here we've decided to pass up on the train ride to the top of Pikes Peak and instead booked a raft trip on the Arkansas River through the Royal Gorge. An adventure that promises Class IV and V rapids. Since we have never been in anything bigger than class III this could be our final entry.

Ahhhhh, Breckenridge

We don't usually blog about the sites we stay at because unless you're staying in a state or national park they're pretty much just parking spaces. Sometimes you get a tree or a little grass, but it's just a place to call base camp. Every now and then though, you get lucky, which is the case here in Breckenridge, Colorado. After the hustle and bustle of Estes Park we were looking forward to just hanging out at the site and doing nothing (I know.... I know... pretty much what you thought we were doing every day!). What a great site to do nothing. We're on a large lot with trees, lots of grass and right where the Swan River meets the lake. Now after a hard day of hiking, kayaking or walking thru town we can sip a glass of wine, watch the sun go down, do a little fishing and let the stress of the day melt away....ok no stress.

Hey Rocky! watch me pull a tourist outa my hat....AGAIN

Estes Park, and RMNP was the first destination that we visited in which we were slightly under-whelmed. Granted we had just visited, Yellowstone, The Grand Tetons, Galacier, The Black Hills, etc and our expectations were high. Rocky Mountain National Park was very diverse. Everything from high altitude tundra to rivers winding through meadows. We drove on the highest continuous highway in the US. A two lane road at 12,183 feet with shear drop-offs on both sides and hiked to a beautiful high altitude lake.

Estes Park where we are staying however, is packed with tourists trying to make the most of their 2 weeks a year off. The town is crowded with cars, the sidewalks full of people pushing their way from shop to shop looking for a deal on authentic Rocky Mountain merchandise, made or course in China.

Even we succumbed to a few touristy moments... like a visit to the Historic Stanley Hotel, Stephen King's inspiration for the Overlook Hotel in the Shining. It was used in the filming of the made-for-TV version. There you can buy a coffee mug with REDRUM on the side.

It is now Sunday and as were watching the campground empty of people who have to be at work tomorrow morning, I'm thinking to myself.... this place isn't so bad after all.

A Potpourri of Hodgepodge

On the tv show Jeopardy the category "Potpourri" is a hodgepodge of leftover questions, or is the category "Hodgepodge" a potpourri of questions?.... anyway here are some things that we have done that didn't make the blog or deserve another mention:

In Eureka, Ca. we stopped by the houses where our children were born, strolled Old Towne, and paid a visit to the TV station that I used to work at.... which is now a dilapidated building which I'm sure is haunted.






In McMinnville, Or. we saw the Spruce Goose. Here is an inside view that I didn't include before. I believe the person in the picture is Howard Hughes.... looking good for his age.




Deschutes Fish Hatchery in OR. had ponds that included a 14 foot sturgeon as well as rainbow and brown trout (not 14 foot, but big none the less) if I'd only had my fishing pole handy.... what do you think.... shakey head, dropshot... or should I just reach down and grab one?



At the Grand Tetons we hiked 3 hours and 10,500 feet to one of the peaks.... ok the first 9,000 feet was on a gondola but an accomplishment none the less.






Leaving Yellowstone by the east gate we were surprised by the amount of forest that had been devastated by wildfires as well as nature's ability to recover.





Cody, Wy. offered up the Buffalo Bill Museum which was actually 5 museums: Spectacular art work by some of America's premeire western artist, including Fredrick Remmington. Also a Plains Indian exhibit, an unbelievable selection of firearms, Buffalo Bill memorabilia and a Museum of Natural History. On the other end of town we visited "Old Trail Town" a collection of western abodes including the "Hole in the Wall" hideout and most notably the final resting place of Jeremiah "liver eating" Johnson, whose body was moved there in the 70's with Robert Redford as one of the pallbearers.



In Thermopolis, Wy. we visited the Wyoming Dinosaur Museum. 150 dollars would buy you a day at the dig site, we opted for the 7 dollar tour. And of course the famous mineral baths where you have the opportunity to sit in hot, stinky water.

Devils Tower, Wy. not only presented a "close encounter" with America's first National Monument but a prairie dog village; don't put your hand in the vacant holes as rattlesnakes occupy them.... or so the sign said.




Finially Mt. Rushmore. It's not every day you get to see someone placing fireworks on Teddy Roosevelt's head. The show was of course spectacular, but the rising blood-red moon was a reminder that it's tough to beat Mother Nature!

Where You At?

Looks like Boost Mobile has expanded their coverage area. You can once again see where we are by clicking the link to the left.

If you'd like to see how we got there: 1) goto accutracking.com 2) signon as "smalldog" with password "smalldog" 3) bottom of page on left is a link "unit 1" click on that to see our history.

Yes it also shows our speed along the way. Colorado and Wyoming are 75mph and I was only going 70!

Fireworks! - worth the wait

We have talked about being in Mt. Rushmore for their fireworks extravaganza hand in hand with hitting the road in our RV since the discussion first came up, calling it the real starting point of our adventure. Since they usually draw 20 to 30 thousand spectators we decided not to take any chances and get the lay of the land the day before, find out where to park, where to sit, how early to show up etc. We were told by a park ranger that unless we showed up by 9am the parking garage would be full and we would have to walk 3 miles up the hill (little did we know that walking would be preferable, but more on that later). His next piece of information was a shocker.... unless there was rain in the next 24 hours the fireworks would be cancelled as the immediate fire danger was extremely high. Current forecast showed the chance or rain at less than 30 percent, (might I add it was 95 degrees and not a cloud in the sky). We awoke the next morning to find.... guess what....low clouds and drizzle, the fireworks gods were indeed smiling on us! We got to the parking garage by 9am interred the park, placed our chairs in perfect positions and then......hmmmm... what the heck are we going to do for the next 13 hours! After walking the trail 3 time, listening to the audio tour, checking out the museum, gift shop and eating we only had.....uh.... 9 hours left to kill. I won't bore you with the minute by minute details, suffice to say we killed the time.
The show started with a Lakota tribal prayer that ended oddly enough with a low level fly by from a B-1 bomber with full afterburners that rattled your teeth! The fireworks were everything we expected... pictures to be posted soon. After the show we headed to the garage only to find that they would not let traffic out for at least an hour and a half, that was to let the thousands of people walk down to their cars safely. When we did leave the parking area we were directed down the opposite side of the hill, a detour of more that 20 miles.... why....because they had accidently set fire to part of the park with the fireworks.
Today we went to the Crazy Horse monument, Carving began in 1948 and when finished it will be every bit as spectacular as Mr. Rushmore, it's a truly an amazing story worth checking out on line if you have a chance. We were lucky enough to arrive just as they were blasting away part of the mountain, talk about fireworks!
Happy 4th of July to all!

A Close Encounter

If the caption doesn't make sense perhaps you should rent Close Encounters of the Third Kind again, or you could just stay here at the Devil's Tower campground. They play the movie every evening 365 days a year. Actually it's pretty cool watching in an outdoor theater with the real tower as a backdrop. Oh, yeah.... it is a National monument and all, so we hiked completely around the tower and stopped at the prarrie dog village on the way up. I'm not sure what we will do with 150 pictures of prarrie dogs! And speaking of pictures, I'm hoping to catch up on uploading more at our next stop (Mt. Rushmore), wi-fi gods willing of course.