Glenwood Springs and Redstone

We left Silverton on Monday afternoon and headed north east to Glenwood Springs. We couldn't find a campsite that night, so we spent the night in the Walmart parking lot. Not very glamorous, but we were out of options. We noticed there was a crazy amount of traffic in the area and found out they are replacing a bridge in town, making the detour route super congested during rush hour. So, Tuesday morning we called around and found a campsite at a campground right in town, which wouldn't usually be our first choice, but with the bridge construction, we felt like it was the best option. We went to the new hot springs in town on Tuesday and visited the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park on the Wednesday. The hot springs in Pagosa are much better in our opinion, but  he kids loved the Adventure Park. It's a small park, but since it wasn't crowded, they were able to ride all of of the rides so many times. We got there just as the park was opening and stayed until it closed. As we were leaving I realized that we've moved on to a new phase of life - even last year we wouldn't have considered staying at an amusement park all day - the risk of melt downs would have been too high!  The coolest part about the park is that it's on top of the mountain. You have to ride a gondela to get up to the park, and several of the rides go out over the edge of the mountain, which isn't my favorite but Big Sister and Little Bud both thought that was so cool!

On Thursday we decided to check out a hot spring we'd read about that was right off the road on the river. The kids loved it!  We also drove a little farther south to Marble (we were there a few weeks ago, but drove in from the opposite way). On our way back to Glenwood Springs, we stopped at some interesting beehive looking ovens on the side of the road (turns out they were used to burn off impurities to make a high quality coal called "coke") and noticed that there was a little town across the street. We drove through and found a dispersed camping site on the river in the national forest just outside of town. We decided to pack up the motorhome and head back for a few days.  Redstone is such a quaint, idealic town. It was originally a planned community for the coal workers in the area (in the early 1900s), and the community has worked hard to preserve the history of the town.  There's a hotel, bed and breakfast, national forest camp ground and a few other rental properties that help keep the area businesses going - they have a tackle shop, general store, art gallery and the coolest little antique shop. They also have a beautiful park on the river with picnic tables made of marble (!) and a musem. Most of the houses in town are historic and have been beautifully preserved. The flower gardens around town were amazing; lots of water and temperate summers make gardening so much easier!  We will definitely plan to visit Redstone again 😊

Fun at Glenwood Springs Adventure Park:

 

  

Penny Hot Springs:

This kid loves warm water!  

Marble Quary in Marble 

  

The view from the river by our campsite 

Silverton

Last summer when we were camping in Durango, we made a day trip up to Silverton to visit the old mining town in Animas Forks. The scenery was amazing and the history of the area was so interesting. It was our first jeep road experience, and we all really enjoyed it. So, this year we decided to spend several days camping in the Silverton area to explore more of the mountains and to visit some of the other old mines and ghost towns. We had originally planned to camp in Ouray, but we read about a dispersed camping spot just north of  Silverton on the river, and decided to check it out. The only problem was the road to Silverton from Ouray. It's known as "The Million Dollar Highway" (if only we could still build roads for a million dollars!), and it has lots of steep drop offs and very few guardrails. I'm super afraid of heights, but my parents assured us the road was safe for the motorhome (they've driven it often on their motorcycle trips), so we decided to go for it. 

We safely made it up the mountain, and were rewarded with a beautiful campsite on the river. Even though it's a dispersed campground area (dry camping with no modern conveniences), the campground was quite full and we got the last site on the river.  The kids immediately went to explore the river, and they were both excited when a new friend came out to explore with them.  

We happened into a great group of campers who have been camping in this area together for many summers. Most of them are retired and enjoy spending their summers in the cool Colorado mountains. A couple of the families had grandkids visiting, and Big Sister and Little Bud had so much fun playing and exploring with them. Every morning we would check out a new jeep trail and then head back to camp in the early afternoon so the kids could play with their new friends. I'm sure if you ask our kids, they'll tell you this was the highlight of our trip. 

 

The river in front of our National Forest campsite. The river is about 45 degrees and the warmest day while we've been in Silverton has been 70 degrees. The elevation here is nearly 10,000 feet. The cold hasn't kept the kids out of the water though, even Little Bud has enjoyed playing in the frigid waters. 

 

There are crazy mushrooms everywhere!

 

Old Hundred Mine Tour - the kids loved going up into the mine!  

 

  

Little Bud lost his first tooth 😢. He was so proud. He thinks he's basically a grown up now!  (and  he chose to wear his pajamas inside out for some crazy reason)

  

Gunnison

After we left our dispersed camping site, we decided to spend a few nights in a commercial campground, so that we could drain our tanks, fill up with fresh water, dispose of our trash, wash clothes and take a few long, hot showers. We were all disappointed when we drove into our campground though - the sites are so close together!  It was a stark contrast from our last campsite.  

On Monday we drove through the Currecanti National Recreation Area. The reservoir is the largest in Colorado. We took the jeep on a trail up to Rainbow Lake, then we drove into town to let the kids play at a super fun playground. We walked around town for a bit before we went to the local Pioneer Museum. 

On Tuesday we decided to drive up to Crystal Mill. When I was researching for our trip, I added the mill to our list of things to do (it's supposedly the most photographed place in Colorado), but I didn't research it beyond that. On Monday afternoon I checked our GPS and realized that we were only a couple of hours away (and it looked like this was the closest point to visit the mill while on our trip). So, Tuesday morning we drove up through Crested Butte (which looks like a fun ski town) and Gothic (which is a scientific research community) and up towards Crystal. The road started to get a lot rockier, and when we got to a river crossing, it started to rain and hail, so we decided to wait it out to make sure the water in the river didn't rise too much (the crossing was just below a water fall). A few minutes later 5 or 6 jeeps pulled up, and after talking for a bit, we all decided to cross. A few of the jeeps went on and the rest pulled over for a lunch break.  We decided to drive on, and possibly hike down the last part of the road, since several of the other jeep drivers told us the road was a bit rough. After we started down the mountain, we realized there wasn't a place for us to pull over and hike down. The road was very steep and narrow (no room for passing vehicles either). We finally made it to the mill (which was beautiful - even in the rain!), and decided to head to the town of Marble and drive out the "long way" back to Gunnison (many more miles but much quicker since it was all developed roads!). We stopped for a late lunch at a yummy restaurant in Marble (it was the only place to eat in a super small town - but the food was so delicious and fresh!). We felt like we needed to stop and decompress from the drive before we headed back. When we were almost back, and we finally had cell service again, I looked up the road we'd driven on. The scariest part is called the Devil's Punchbowl 😳. We never would have attempted it if we realized how crazy it was, but I guess all's well that ends well!  The lesson we learned is to do more homework and not to always trust the GPS!

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

Buena Vista

When we left Colorado Springs, we headed west to the Buena Vista area. We were only able to get a campsite for Thursday night, but the kids enjoyed making and playing with new friends while we were there. Big Sister had a rock decorating party with her new friends, and they had lots of fun decorating and hiding rocks for others to find.  We spent Thursday at Mount Princeton Hot Springs, where they had a super fun water slide, that was heated with water from the springs (Little Bud was a big fan - he likes his pool water nice and warm!). Towards the end of the day a crazy storm blew in (with lighting and hail!), so they gave us a rain check to come back another day - the kids super excited about that!

Friday morning we headed to San Isabel National  Forest to look for a dispersed camping site.  We found the most beautiful site to camp, and we all had a great time exploring the area and enjoying the beautiful mountain views. 

On Saturday we visited the Chalk Creek Fish Hatchery. It was so interesting to see all the work that goes into making Colorado (and surrounding states) such a great fishing destination. The kids were able to feed the fish (all different sizes) in the hatchery, which was fun. Afterwards, we drove up to Twin Lakes (near Aspen) where they caught some rainbow trout. 

On Sunday we headed back to the hot springs for a few hours (to use our rain check), before heading farther west. 

 

 

The view from our dispersed camping site in the national forest (they are first come, first serve free sites in certain areas on national land - most of these type of camping sites aren't RV accessible, but this area had plenty of accessible sites off of a groomed dirt road)

 

View of our campsite from one of the hiking trails 

 

Big Sisters marshmallow made a smiley face when she roasted it :)

This was a short hike from our campsite   

 

  

 

 

Big Sister found this camouflage caterpillar when she was exploring. She also found a ginormous termite mound and lots of elk and moose tracks and scat. Little Bud spotted several deer walking by while we were eating dinner done night. 

Colorado

This summer we decided to explore the great state of Colorado on our motorhome trip. We spent around a week in southern Colorado last summer, and we knew we'd just scraped the surface of all of the amazing things to see.

Early in the summer we researched places we wanted to explore, but didn't plan a specific itinerary. Other than deciding to visit Rocky Mountain at the end of our trip (so we can drive up to Wyoming to see the eclipse in the path of totality), we didn't map anything out or make the first campground reservation.  While we have run into a couple of snags finding campgrounds that aren't booked out (August is prime camping season in Colorado), it is freeing to have complete flexibility to stay and enjoy and explore each place until we're ready to move on - instead of rushing through to get to a specific place by a certain date. 

Our first destination after our rather LONG drive west, was Colorado Springs. My parents visited last summer and highly recommended it to us. It is a very neat town - but it was packed!  Everywhere we went was crowded, but we were still able to visit a lot of the sights on our list - The Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak (where Big Sister had a rough bout of elavation sickness), Florissant Fossil Bed, Mueller State Park, Dinosaur Resource Center (we went when they first opened and had an awesome guided tour all to ourselves. Big Sister and Little Bud know so many dinosaur facts; they seriously amaze me!), and we visited the Odyssey play area at Focus on the Family twice. Big Sister has always loved the Adventures  in Odyssey series (her uncle gifted her with lots of tapes and CDs from his childhood collection), so she enjoyed every second of her time there!  Having a snack in Whit's End made her day!

 

 

 

 

  

Little Bud's 1/2 Birthday and the 1st Day of School!

This past weekend we celebrated Little Bud's 1/2 Birthday!  I can't even believe he's 4 1/2!!  I think I'm going to shed a few tears on his 5th birthday.  Big Sister has always enjoyed celebrating her half birthday, but Little Bud was a bit confused about what it was all about.  He still had a fun day swimming and enjoyed a yummy meal and homemade ice cream cake :)

Today was our first day back at Classical Conversations.  Big Sister has missed her friends so much, and she was so excited for a new school year to begin.  It was a great first day!  We are so blessed to be part of such a loving community of friends.

First Day of CC!