In Search of Fall in Colorado

Hello Family & Friends,
We took one last trip up Willow Park in search of Bowman Creek and the Aspens changing since today is the first day of Fall.  We have been busy packing and getting ready to head out on Wed. so it was nice to take a couple of hours off to sight see.

We will miss Colorado but the temperatures are definitely Fall with cool mornings and today with mostly clouds, I think we reached mid-60's around 4pm!  I think when we head out on Wed., we will be departing in the low 40's (definitely will need my hoodie)!!

Here's a few of our last Colorado pics -- Enjoy and I'll be off the grid for as we travel back to Arizona.

We started the journey up Willow Park road looking for the Bowman Creek sign that Darrel just knew he had seen in a previous trip.??

We found one "golden" aspen among the green aspens, just getting ready to turn!

Next stop was the creek that goes across the road and has still quite a bit of water and a steep climb so we got out and hiked up stream a ways.

Looking for rocks to make a stepping stone crossing -- Darrel told me I should have taken my walking stick, really, I think I needed my rubber boots!

Tossing rocks is hard work, so I took a break to smile at him!

He didn't find the road sign for Bowman Creek but on our way down, we found a few more aspens changing color and we found some in the orangey-red color, too!

I finally convinced him that the sign he saw was for Bowman Creek Road and we found that but was unsure of where the creek was -- to late in the day to keep looking so that will be a quest for next year.

So for now I'll send blessings from the road and wish us good travels as we head back to Arizona.

Love and hugs to all,

Susan & Darrel

Colorado Farewell

Hello Family & Friends,
We have been packing in last minute activities before we leave Colorado and head back to Arizona.  We have less than a week and on Friday 9/20, we are starting the process of packing the RV for travel which takes about 3 days of fun!!! (NOT)

But we headed up the mountain to Big Meadows Lake and I didn't take too many pictures but did see a wonderful waterfall with a walk bridge over it.  We didn't stop to hike since we were winding down our day but I did snap a couple of pictures.

We headed up the mountain near Seitz Creek area to prospect in the drywashes.  We had been looking at this rock outcropping trying to tell if it was a rock between the 2 big stones or a tree/bush.  We finally decided today that it is a rock!

Far away

Closer view, what do you think???  Little tree to the left and what is between the 2 big stones?

It is a rock!  Looks like a couple of people visiting? or maybe a couple of gorillas duking it out??

You guess!!!

The day was absolutely beautiful compared to a couple of days earlier when it rained on us twice -- makes the prospecting a little difficult to avoid the drops!

This is a different rock outcropping -- they just seem to set on the mountain side, ready to roll down when something sets them off!

Beautiful blue skies and lots of clouds!

I love the variety of trees we see, from firs, to pinyon pines to scrub brush --- we are still very green and lots of vegetation.

This is Darrel working the drywasher -- not much shade but the temps were in the upper 70's!

We are expecting rain over the next few days before we leave on Wed., Sept. 25 so I am not sure what we will be doing in between packing -- I am going to miss Colorado as I always do when we head out but am looking forward to our visit to Kansas, Iowa and Oklahoma to see family and friends.

I thank everyone for reading this blog and keeping in touch with phone calls and texts.... please let us know how you are doing even though we are long distance.  We think of everyone often and consider you our on the road support network!

Take care and send blessings from the road,

Love,

Susan & Darrel

Rio Grande Cathedral CG Trail

Hello Family & Friends,
We've spent the last few days doing a little metal detecting, pre-loading the RV for the journey back to Arizona, and exploring Cathedral Campground and hiking trail.  So this might be a little longer post to catch you up since I don't want to do a really small one on Darrel's metal detecting finds 😉

So earlier this week, we took the metal detector up the mountains because Darrel is still learning (and mastering) this skill.  It was a beautiful day, a little windy which made it difficult to hear the metal detector.  So a few hours later, we here's what we were able to find:

Several bullet casings, a tent stake, lead from a bullet and a pair of glasses!

In Arizona we are going to practice with him blind folded or with the different metal pieces hidden so he can begin to learn how to tell the gold from the "metal discards".... my motto is

"give a man a metal detector and let him find others' discarded junk 😜"

The pre-loading came next with getting the upper bunk packed with the camping chairs, the patio step, the lounge chair, and lots of other miscellaneous stuff that returns to AZ.  I am keeping a list of what we didn't use, so we don't bring it back next year!

So today, 9/12, we took an exploration trip up to Cathedral Campground -- we've been up that way to sluice on Embargo but never when all the way up to see the campground the mountain outcrop that gives the campground it's name.  So without further words, here's the beautiful pictures along the way.

We didn't venture up to Fremont's trail as the road got rougher and narrows for only hiking, horseback riding and some place motorcycles.

The Aspen's are still green but with overnight lows dropping, maybe we'll see some of the autumn color changes before we head out.

Here we are -- it is a primitive campground but has nice pit toilets and camping sites.

We headed up the trail toward Cathedral mountain and have a couple of streams to cross.  Here's Darrel navigating the log across as the water is still flowing.

You can tell where the high waters were earlier in the season with lots of changes in the creek bed.

Catching a waterfall every now and then as we journeyed up the trail.

The day was brisk but I have a long denim shirt on over my t-shirt to start the hike.

We think this is a Puffball mushroom, yes, they can get this big, I didn't pick it or destroy it as I wasn't sure if it was a Puffball or not.

Cathedral Mountain

The jagged edge between the Aspens

In the distance

Cathedral Mountain in the background.  We didn't hike the entire trail as we started late and wasn't sure how long it was -- plus us old people move slow!

Back down the trail after admiring the views, I was able to remove the denim shirt and enjoy some sunshine as we crossed the streams back to the campground!

A big smile from the trail....we are almost back to where we started.

Bear Rules are posted at the campground and we hear about warnings almost every morning on the news.  I know you cannot probably read the words but the last picture has the ways to protect yourself if you run across a bear on the trail!!!

I made this one larger but I love bullet number 2 that says 

Speak softly to the bear and try not to show fear (yea, right!!!!)

Guess you have to know how to take on a bear when you are living with wildlife.  Fortunately we've only seen antelope, deer, chipmunks, prairie dogs, elk and marmots -- no bear!!!

Better close for now, this has been a longer post but had so much to share.  Miss you all, and send blessing from the road,

Love,

Susan & Darrel

Summitville 2nd visit!

Hello Family & Friends,
I think Summitville is one of my favorite places but it is one of the longer trips to take.  Once we get to the turnoff -- about 10 miles from Ute Bluff, we have 18 miles of forest roads to get to Summitville.  We decided we had a great day earlier this week and headed back -- the trail along the mountain side was a nice walk and we didn't get to spend as long metal detecting and checking the stream out for gold possibilities.

I have to give kudos to Mickey for the picture taking -- I did take my camera but left it in the vehicle after we hiked up to the stream, I didn't want to hike back down for the camera!

Here's the forest road up to where we turned off and took an older trail along the mountain. Once again we had a beautiful blue, cloud filled day.

OK, yes that is me hanging over the stream picking small pieces of gold out of a water pool. Although you cannot really tell, just below my backside is about a 70 foot drop -- doesn't look that scary when you're facing the mountain.

Here's me ready for the trail (actually it looks like I am holding up the mountain???)

Now with my hiking stick, I am ready for the hike!

We headed up to Summitville for lunch with much warmer temperatures that a few days before.

This pic is from the information center and they have added a few picnic tables and a portable potty -- the buildings are a few of the ones remaining (in front) and the background buildings are the new ones on sight for the cleanup and restoration.

All you have to do is turn your head to see beautiful scenery and this is one place we can still see snow on the mountains in September.

On the way back home we took a side road and found a neat stream with a possibility for prospecting.  It was getting a little late in the day but we explored the stream and had a furry visitor come check us out --- I'm not sure how aggressive Marmots are but this one sure did check out Darrel.

We had a wonderful day, but arrived home tired and ready for a rest.  Our stay is getting shorter here in Colorado about 3 weeks or so -- we cannot wait to visit our family and friends in Kansas and hope we bring the cooler weather with us!

Sending our love and blessings,

Susan & Darrel

PS -- have to share an Archie picture -- remember him?  Brad and Mickey's cat -- he has such a personality -- today he was stalking a rabbit!  Talk about patience, I think he would sit still for hours if he had the right incentive! 

-- Yes, Archie is leash broke (most of the time) but he does walk the human, not the other way around 😊

Summitville 2019

Hello Family & Friends,
We had a busy Labor Day weekend and the RV park was a little busier but now has quieted down for the end of season.

We headed toward Summitville (we visited last year, check this link for the previous post if you wan to re-read).  We hiked a different trail with the guys metal detecting and Mickey and me hiking the trails.  We went a little later in the morning and took Brad's truck to make the climb.

We have just a little of snow you can see on the mountain tops as we are at about 11,500 elevation so 3-4,000 feet higher than South Fork.  It was an interesting weather day as the temperature kept dropping as we went higher and we had sprinkles and a little wind -- so chilly day.  I think our lowest temp was 61 degrees and that was at 2:00pm -- Fall is definitely on its way.

Here's the small patches of snowcap -- we had a beautiful blue sky and clouds to start off the day!

A closer shot of the snow patches

We did a little metal detecting up the trail and Mickey and I found a stream along a side mountain trail (kind of hard to explain) so we spent a little time exploring and prospecting.

I tried to get a picture of the stream going straight down the mountain side, but didn't do a very good job of zooming : (

But I love the little Christmas trees that are popping up from new growth!

The tree ridge behind us was straight up with a lot of Beetle Kill trees still waiting to drop.

Temperatures dropped and we headed back to the truck.  We ate lunch with the heater blasting to warm us up -- the ladies had been smart enough to wear jeans and long sleeved shirts, the guys were in shorts!!!

We traveled on up the extra mile or 2 to Summitville and got greeted by Marmots -- I have several pics because they were so entertaining -- I think we counted five from big to small.  First time I had seen so many in one place.  Marmots are rodents and related to ground squirrels and prairie dogs, but bigger.  They do hibernate so they are storing up fat reserves for the winter.

First one was lazing on a rock and just watched us like, "go away, I am relaxing"

A friend came to play!

But decided to find his own rock to sun on.

This little white faced one showed up from the ground -- just popped up from its burrow.

You had to really watch them travel, this one was up and down in the grass watching something in the distance.

We had a great day, really enjoyed the Marmot entertainment and made it back down the mountain before the rain started.

Better run, time for bed -- we are headed out tomorrow and will keep you updated on our adventures.

Sending hugs and Marmot comradery,

Love,

Susan & Darrel