Colorado Springs and Friends

Zoe here:  Oh Boy!!! My turn finally. 

I always get seconds, but I’m never last. Our second week in RMNP was, really, the best of times.






Mama and Papa gave in and continued to take us on all of their daily jaunts. One day, we all went to the Cherry Creek State Park outside of Denver to visit our great friends - Carol, John, and Jimmie from Sanibel. We spent the day with them and even visited Buckley Air Force Base where they were camping. You should have seen the golf course - it had the biggest golf balls I’ve ever seen.

They tried to convince me that these big white balls behind us in the picture are really for military radio communications, but you know what they say - if they tell anyone the truth, they’d have to kill them.  So, this can’t be true.  It really is a golf ball for superhuman people!  What a fun day! They are great dog people.  Jimmy even let us hang out in his RV without getting testy about his space or things.  Phaedra would never do that!  But I would!



We went over Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake, again. The snow was mostly gone even at 12,000 feet up after just one week. Phae loves to play in the snow - me, not so much. It was so different that second time.  The animals were back up top. We saw elk in the snow, sheep at the top, and more moose on the other side of Trail Ridge Road. We had a great day. 




One of the best things we saw was a mom moose and her baby.

The baby was only about the size of me standing on top of Phaedra.  Mama moose was really protective of her baby and chased away a big, but young, male moose.  Moms are fierce!

More friends from Sanibel visited the camper. Darst and Walt came over and took the folks out to dinner at the YMCA which is like no other YMCA ever Papa says! They drove all over the property after dinner. It was huge - much, much bigger than our campground.
They even have their own horses.  They saw the largest bull elk that they have ever seen.  Mom and Dad do have great friends.

All good things must end, though.  We left there and went to Colorado Springs. Hot, Hot, Hot!  My poor paws!!!!!. Record temps, but Mom kept saying it was dry heat. I sure don’t understand that because it was HOT. They did not take us for walks out in the Garden of the Gods because they were worried that the heat would get to Phaedra, but of course, it wouldn’t bother me.

It sure didn’t stop them. They went on a guided walk and saw all sort of cool (well, really hot) sandstone formations.

They really liked the “Kissing Camels”, “Siamese Twins”
and the “Balanced Rock”.
 Everywhere they looked it was fantastic - almost like another planet. We got to see them when they drove around.  Not the same, but almost!

One day, with the temperature was going to be 97*, and set a record, the folks decided to take us for

a drive up to higher elevations and visit Cripple Creek which is at 9700 feet. Cripple Creek is a very old wild west cowboy town.  They didn’t get any souvenirs and they didn’t go to the casinos, but they liked seeing the old fashioned town.  We had great views and even saw a gold mine. We spent the whole day and when we got back, the campground had lost power because of overuse. It got really hot even at 6000 feet. I'm sure glad that we weren’t left home alone.

The best thing about being in Colorado Springs was that we all got to see our friends, Judy and Woody, who used to be with us at Ding Darling Refuge. They came over to the camper twice - Woody had to help Dad, and they also went out to dinner. Boy, they talked, talked and talked. Both of them would throw and throw my toy. They were so awesome.  We didn’t get to see Bailey, our dog friend, but we heard stories about her.  She’s doing great, but really misses the anoles she used to chase at the Ding.



The last day, Mom and  Dad went  to visit The Broadmoor  which is a fancy place. Mom was there as a little kid and really wanted to revisit it.  It was as good as expected.  This is more than just a hotel.

It’s a museum with famous western paintings and sculptures.  There were lots of works by Frederic Remington. I wonder if he is the one who invented the Remington Shaver?  I can’t imagine why a fancy hotel would display electric shavers, but who knows?

We are all excited because tomorrow is moving time. We’re headed to Wyoming. Hope we get to see cowboys!  Mama wants Papa to get a cowboy hat.  I think she really wants cowboy boots, too.  Time will tell, right?

Hasta la vista, amigos!

Zoe over and out!


Here are a few more pics you might like...

Cute little Moose

Baby Moose

Big Horned Rams moved  top of Trail Ridge Road

Elks now on top of Trail Ridge Road

Bear Lake - still with melting snow

Broad Tailed Hummer at window feeder of camper

Clark's Nuthatch

Hare in Garden of the Gods

Red Rocks at sunset

Garden of the Gods

Phaedra and Zoe overlooking Sheep's Meadow

Damage from Lawn Lake Flood of 1982.  Thanks to RMNP Rangers, only 2 people lost their lives in this flood.

Hiking in Garden of the Gods

Snow almost gone now

Phaedra and Zoe - Westward Ho!

Phaedra and Zoe coming to you from the high county - Rocky Mountain National Park


It’s been such a long trip since we have been on a real road trip.   This is no trip to Florida to stay: no this is a real road deal.

We left home on May 25th headin’ out for the real west - Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.
We talked Papa into doing the trip in 7 days instead of  the the normal 4. They decided to give Zoe Benadryl to keep her from getting a guppy tummy. She slept the whole trip. Boy was I happy.

Storms followed us through Tennessee, Kentucky and even Illinois. Mom thinks she’s a storm magnet.  Who’s to say? The threat of bad weather and lack of available campgrounds in Missouri caused us to drive 4 hours to East St. Louis where we camped at the Casino Queen under the Arch. And, just in case you wondered, Papa and Mama were too tired to gamble away our inheritance! Check out the beautiful sunset over St. Louis and the Arch.

Kansas and into Colorado took us through black skies and tornado warnings. Mom finally got her wish - campgrounds with storm shelters!  NO JOKE!  We hustled through and got to RMNP a day early just so we would miss the next round of severe weather.

Zoe is not longer drugged. Damn!!!!!





So far, our first week in Estes Park has been better than what usually happens to us.  You may remember that Papa and Mama always leave us to “Guard the House” while they galavant here and there. We have been invited on most of their excursions into the Park. And, you should see the beautiful views from the camper! . Even if we had to stay and “guard the house” we had cool views. 

There are elk everywhere!  And, you know what that means, right?

Our yard is a veritable feast after a herd grazes its way past the camper! We even had a baby and mom Elk walk in front of the truck.   For once, Zoe didn’t yell at them so we really had a great close-up. It is funny to see big herds of elk - they are either mostly
females or Batchelor Herds with only males with huge antler racks. Don’t want to run into one of those!  But, did you know, that in the spring it’s the moms who are really dangerous.  I guess it makes sense, though.  If someone was trying to hurt one of us, Mama would pulverize that person.

We thought that we were back in Florida as we watched a mom, dad and two baby great horned owls on a rock wall in downtown Estes Park.  These parents have been raising their family on the same rock face for the past 8 years!  It's very protected (we would have a problem climbing up the rock face) so it's safe from them.  They stare back at us just like we stare at them!

We’ve also been really lucky to see sheep several different days so
far. Once we were held up in traffic because they crossed the road in front of us. Mom and Dad like to picnic next to a roaring river.
That’s the area where we see Big Horn Sheep.  One day, they even butted heads and it sounded like a rifle shot! The also come down to shallow lakes to drink the water because the water has minerals in it along the edge from the mud and they must replenish what they lost over the winter.  Soon, many of the sheep will move back up to the top of the range for the summer.

Saturday, we drove over Trail Ridge Road which had just opened
up the weekend before. This is the highest road in the park. It reaches 12,183 feet above sea level  (Sure wouldn’t have to worry about any floods like we do in Chapel Hill!) There was snow up there so I was able to pee in the snow. Oh what fun! It was 40 degrees which i don’t understand, but I do know cold. We drove 50 miles to the other entrance at Grand Lake and turned around and came back. It was a perfect day with unbelievable views.

This is the year of the 100th Anniversary of the National Park System.  We've been in most of the national parks, but this one is probably our favorite.  Since this is a big deal, someone carved a message in a snowbank up top.  We must have had our pictures taken a hundred times, too.  Of course, you understand it's because we are so photogenic and smart, right?

We saw a mom and baby moose which was what we were hoping to see. How lucky. was that!

Then we had the best experience when we came upon a mother elk

who had just given birth to a baby. She was licking the baby clean as we watched. The baby must have been no more than an hour old.  It was so cool even if Zoe and I really did not see it. We just heard Mama and Papa exclaiming about it once they got back in the car.  We were gone all day. We are in trouble now ‘cause Papa and Mama want to do more hiking and we are not allowed on the trails.  (I told Zoe that it’ll be just the 2 of us.  She better behave!)


It's time for us to get ready to go back out to see what we can see.  We'll be back in touch soon, but wanted to leave you with some more pictures of things that Zoe and I really love about Rocky Mountain National Park!