Thursday, June 23, 2016

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


2 comments:

Rosy Brewer said...

You have great parents!

Rosy

John and Carol said...

It was so cool to see all of you while we were hanging out in Denver. Looks like you have continued to have some great adventures. Your mommy sure take great photographs.