Colorado Finds: Gems & Metal

Hello Readers,
Just a quick post to share our Colorado finds of turquoise and gold -- Brad and Mickey have been the best host & hostess in showing us the treasures of Colorado -- I call Mickey, Midas Mickey because she has a gift for knowing where to look -- truly amazing!

Turquoise that washes down from the mine above.  We spent hours picking through the dry stream (no running water this year) to find the pieces that filter through the mining process.

The mine has been closed but may reopen sometime in the future.

This picture shows pieces of gold you either pan, water sluice in the river or can get from "dry" washing the dirt in a land sluice.  

The straight pieces (top and bottom) are referred to as "wire gold" and the larger "roundish" piece (in the middle of the wires) are called pickers -- as you can usually pick them up with your fingernails.

The black pan is for clean up as you get other metals or grit attached to the gold.  It has been quite the learning process.  Lots of fun and you cannot beat the scenery as you sit by the stream, panning.

Other things we have found have been our Aspen walking sticks (you've seen this picture in an earlier post), agates, and quartz.  Of course we cannot keep everything we find, but we have a few smaller pieces tucked away to travel with us.

We have truly enjoyed our stay and plan to come back next year to explore even more -- two months just wasn't long enough to see and experience everything South Fork and the Rio Grande mountains have to offer.

So we bid Colorado adieu and welcome our new home of Congress, Arizona!!!

Happy Trails,

Susan & Darrel

Last Week in Colorado

Hello Readers,
Our last week is almost over -- we will be heading out on Monday, Oct. 1.  The nights are getting chilly and we wake up to temps in the lower 40's.  Our last couple of nights we here may be in the upper 30's??  However, the days warm up to a nice 72-75 degrees by noon, so it has been great weather to get out and about.

Here's a few things we've done or just fun pics to share:

I mentioned we moved sites -- you can see the bluff behind us and we have nice shade.

Our back patio folds right out to the bluff (this is the area we trimmed and cleaned out to fit)

This is the side view of the patio with a "weeping willow" bush -- it provides a little closure so you cannot walk around the patio easily.

The other side view puts us next to our friends' RV -- we can put out our awnings and have the 3 sets of steps to access front, garage and patio.  It is much quieter in the back.

We loaded the cycles a few days early before we depart -- always the most work to get ready to move.  You can see Archie, the cat, checking out my motorcycle.  He belongs to Woodrow's and checks out everything.

Archie is very curious, we like him to keep away the mice and rodents -- he is quite the hunter!

Overalls are the dress code for dry washing for gold.  Here we are ready to go with 3 prong claw to dig the dirt.

Had a beautiful full moon this past week.  We had the clouds overcasting the moon, but gorgeous anyway!

It was really big but mostly covered by the clouds!

And to close this post, you can see the change in the season here in Colorado.  No snow on the Rio Grande mountains that we can see, but snow has happened in Snow Mass, Loveland and Pike's Peak.  We plan to be gone before the snow falls on us.

The Aspens have been changing for fall, the colors of the landscape are amazing.

We will check in from Arizona and let you know how the travel goes -- thanks for reading!

Susan & Darrel

AZ sneak peek!

Hello --
Because I am highly organized (LOL), I managed to quickly find pictures of the North Ranch, Congress, AZ lot we will be occupying come October 2.  We are excited about exploring Arizona but from the weather forecast predictions, we will probably be a little weather shocked as the temps are back in the upper 80's and 90's --- at least for the first couple of weeks of October.  I am keeping out my summer clothes for this transition.

Main driveway for truck and a storage shed

Pad for the RV to park on

There is a gazebo available for us to use and the cover is in the shed.... so hopefully a nice place for a shaded evening meal, or afternoon snack.

I don't think we will have to mow (ha ha), but the owners mentioned there might be a weed or two but mostly I am seeing cacti and rock landscaping -- no mowing or snow shoveling for the Pendergast's.

Will send another post with details of our arrival and adventures in Arizona!

Take care, drop us an email or comment to the posts if so inclined -- we would love to hear from you!

S & D

penderdar68@gmail.com  or pendersus77@gmail.com

Colorado Pictorial - awesome scenery

Just some extra pics to share!

Waterfalls along Beaver Lake area

Creede Bachelor Loop view

Creede Bachelor Loop view

Creede Bachelor Loop View

Creede Bachelor Loop View

As we parked in Creede, these 2 deer were just inside the town chowing down on grass.

Trying to capture the Aspen trees turning yellow, air was hazy that day, so not a great picture.

Aspen trees changing color .... spectacular views all around us!

   

Susan working on the mine

 Can't tell if Brad is trying to help me and his wife, Mickey mine -- or take us out???

Part of the mine transport -- Brad and Darrel goofing off, too!

You can't help but see the beauty!

Aspens mixed among the Blue Spruce, gorgeous!

OK, I think the pics are covered, probably lots more, but enough for now!  Hope you enjoyed!

S & D

Colorado Happenings...before we move on

Hello Readers,
Prepare yourself, this may be a long post as I have much to share, and today (9/23) we were just talking about our 2 months are almost over and we will be traveling to AZ... if I am lucky and don't run out of time sharing the last 2 weeks, I'll try to give you a sneak peek of what our AZ "spot" will look like for our next extended stay.

Here goes -- to capture in a nutshell (or a bullet list) here's what we've been up to:

1. Panning for gold (yes, still doing that)
2. Mushroom hunting and a hike to Lake Poage (Darrel thought he might have a heart attack)
3. Metal detecting for gold (yes, still learning that skill)
4. Visited Creede, CO car show and took a mine tour
5. Moved to a new campsite within the Ute Bluff RV park (more on that later)

Now for the picture sharing ----

Brad, Mickey, Susan & Darrel - Creede Car Show

Two Old Firefighters and an old firetruck -- Darrel & Brad

Darrel & Susan  and the owner -- standing in front of a circa 1966 T-Bird

Susan making new Chipmunk friends -- and they didn't bite me feeding them sunflower seeds.

The mine tour was really authentic and with a 30 min. self guided tour, we explored what working a mine would be like -- it was all in a "mine" simulated exhibit -- pretty awesome!

Equipment was used to make movies, too.

Susan running the sluice -- which is a better way to find gold without the "pans"

Truckin' the buckets of "material" to the sluice, you can see Darrel in the background running the sluice -- we were fighting the water flow through the sluice.

Aren't I the snappy dresser -- I am standing on my waders but with the chillier day time temps, I wear heavier socks, flannel shirt and jean capri's to warm up the skin!

After a morning of looking for mushrooms (we didn't find any again), we took a hike to Lake Poage.

Check out the background -- it was a beautiful lake and not a fisherman in sight!

Pretty chilly that day -- probably upper 50's at that elevation (10,000 +)

Lake Poage

Yes, I am bundled up and was glad for heat in the jeep

You might notice the "dead" looking trees to the left, Beetle kill is everywhere and I guess it is nature's way of clearing out the forests but it really intensifies with drought and windy conditions.

OK, now about the "move" to a new site -- we are planning to come back to Ute Bluff next year (probably late May or early June) -- we were trying to find a site along the Bluff so that our RV & back patio would have some shade throughout the day, so with blessings from the RV park owners, we cleared out some over growth on the bluff (had one big bonfire) and moved the playground equipment to the community area.... we like the change -- more shade and we can actually put our awnings out without worrying about winds blowing them off!

Darrel & Brad carting the playground equipment to new location.

Susan gets in the action to move the "tire" sandbox to new location.

So thanks for reading this longer than normal blog post -- seems like we are running out of time -- I have some other pics that I will post just as a pictorial blog -- extra stuff that we have experienced.

Head to Congress, Arizona on Monday, October 1 -- a little sad to be leaving Colorado but don't want to experience Colorado snowfalls in a RV so the time has come to travel on.

We miss you all, take care and be safe,

Love,

Susan & Darrel

Summitville, Elevation 11,500 ft

Hello Family & Friends,
We have been touring the area looking for places that you might want to hike, pan for gold or see the wonders of Colorado.  I wake up each morning and think how blessed I am to be able to take this journey and spend the time exploring our great US of A!!!

We have found Summitville, elevation 11,500 ft and what an awesome Ghost town (Boom town) it was in its day.  I added a link to a History Net website with more information about Summitville and hope it depicts the correct information.

I have some pics to share as you take this 18 mile trek to the summit (hence, Summitville), and it was a coolish day as we journeyed up and up our noon time temperature was 45 degrees!

I hope you enjoy the pictures!  This first batch are the buildings still left from the mining town.  The were signs posted that a historical restoration was in progress.  I sure do hope so because we are losing these types of places for people to see what it was like in 1870's.

Right now there is a Super Fund remediation of the site happening that is suppose to clean up the damage from the mining so long ago.  So some areas are off limits!  Click to link above to find out about the clean up project if you so desire.

 Lots of neat, old buildings, it had to be a really big boom town at the time of operation.

 

Darrel was inspecting the property because he was sure we could fix it up!  We had a friend that day, Mr. Dog, found us as we arrived and followed us around until we left.

This one he picked for our new home....

Since I try to keep these posts to short reads --- I will get a couple more posts going about the other wonders we saw after departing Summitville and heading down the mountain.

Thanks for reading, we miss you all and think of our days in Kansas often, but we are enjoying our adventure, too!

Love to all,

Susan & Darrel