Family Travel

The weather is still cloudy and rainy in the morning, but we decide to drive up to the top of Pikes Peak anyway. We get to the entrance and see the sign that says it is 36 degrees at the peak. We ask the cashier if the sign if accurate and he says "a storm just went through so it is probably a few degrees colder". I'm glad I wore pants.

We drive up in the dreary weather and they are working on the road near the top where the visibility is a few feet at places. The road is muddy and the drive gets kindof scary at places.

We get to the top and look around.

There's a plaque at the top of Pikes Peak commemorating the 100th anniversary of the writing of the song, "America, the Beautiful".

Apparently the composer wrote the song after traveling to the top of Pikes Peak and being inspired by the beautiful view. She must have traveled to the top on a clear day; here is the view we saw:

We go into the gift shop and have some of their freshly made donuts (according to the sign, this is the only place that the donuts can be made due to the high altitude). The donuts are actually very good. And they're warm, which is good since it's cold up here. So after eating our donuts and drinking some hot chocolate, we head back down the mountain.

We stop at a lookout on the way down and Joe wants to hike over to a large rock outcropping, so Jere and he hike over to the rock while I check out the wildflowers near the lookout. They are tiny specks on top of the rock:

The tundra wildflowers are everywhere on this part of the mountain, so the three of us head down the trail to look at the wildflowers. We see lots and lots of wildflowers everywhere along the path,

AND the fog breaks up several times for us to see a view of the valley below us.

We continue down the mountain and stop at Halfway Picnic Grove to eat our lunch. As we're eating, the sky is getting blue. Jere thinks we should head back up the mountain now that the fog/clouds are lifting. Joe votes NO, but I know Jere well enough that he's going to drive back up no matter what Joe and I say, so I say "sure, let's go. I have nothing else planned for the rest of the day".

We get back to the top and it is initially still very cloudy, but then the clouds break apart and we get a wonderful view. Yea!

We drive back down the mountain again (it's a lot different drive in clear skies versus the fog; we never realized how big a drop off was beside the road at places when there was so much fog that we could barely see where to drive). Our only stop on the way back to the campground is to get some diesel (we're paying around $4.75/gallon these days). We have some leftovers for dinner. The wifi is down again so I organize some photos, read a book, and watch the one channel we get on TV.

We pack up, have lunch with Jere's brother and wife, and then head out for our drive to Colorado Springs. We have an uneventful drive with some occasional showers and stop at a campground south of Colorado Springs, Mountaindale RV Park. Soon after we set up the skies open up and it pours. I try to use their wifi to try to get caught up with my travel blog, but the wifi is down -- very frustrating night. No cell phone, nothing on the one channnel we get on TV, no wifi, no campfires allowed. So I call it a day early, go to bed, and finish reading my book.

We're visiting with Jere's brother in Mead, Colorado. We spend the morning just hanging around the house and then go over to visit Jere's niece, Becky, and her son, Breckin. We have a nice visit there and then take Breckin with us to travel to Denver.

Our first stop in Denver is at their capitol building. We check out the one step in front of the capitol building that is exactly "One Mile High".

We walk around the area and check out the statues and artwork, including a giant broom and dustpan sculpture in front of the art museum.

We then drive over to Coors Field to see the Colorado Rockies play the Florida Marlins. Jere is still trying to visit all of the Major League baseball parks and we haven't been to this one yet.

We get there early enough to watch batting practice. The boys try to get a baseball during practice, but no luck tonight. Some came close but no baseball souvenirs tonight (I thought one very large man was going to knock Breckin over in his attempt to catch a ball -- I am always amazed at what some full-grown men will do to snatch a baseball during batting practice).

We buy tickets for the "cheap seats" and have a nice view of the game and the Rocky Mountains in the background. Before the game starts, we grab some dinner. I try the Rocky Dog -- it is a disappointment. The peanuts are good though -- even baseball concessioners can't ruin peanuts :-)

The game is good for the most part. It's Matt Holliday bobblehead night, so we each get a free bobblehead. I like free things; even though I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with a Matt Holliday bobblehead. There are a couple homeruns tonight (including one by Matt Holiday the bobblehead guy) and the Rockies win, so that helps make the game fun.

Beautiful blue skies this morning. We start to pack up and realize that our bike rack is broken (again) and Jere needs to fix that before we can leave so we get kindof a late start.

We drive around 40 miles to Mead, Colorado to visit Jere's brother family. We park our 5ver in his large driveway and will spend the next two nights "camped" in his driveway.

We spend the rest of the day getting caught up with each other's activities and end the day sitting on their back patio and watching fireworks from different communities in the area. The prairie is flat here so we can see a long distance and see many different firework displays. Joe loves watching the multiple firework shows. He also enjoys watching some illegal fireworks at private residences near us. Coloradans certainly love their fireworks!

After last night's gloomy/stormy weather we're happy to see blue skies this morning. We get ready and leave by 8am to tour Rocky Mountain National Park. We stop at the visitors center and then take off on the Trail Ridge Road. Beautiful scenery and blue skies.

We stop at Rock Cut and hike the tundra trail. Incredible scenery and wildflowers and even some elk on the trail.

We stop at the Alpine Visitors Center for lunch and then hike the "huffing" trail up the hill. Again, incredible scenery and wildflowers and elk.

We continue our drive over to Grand Lake. The Grand Lake area has many dead pine trees from beetle damage. I guess this area was a beautiful area at one time, but the dead trees make this area somewhat "ugly".

We see more elk and some big horn sheep and more beautiful wildflowers on our return trip to Estes Park.

We also see a tourist illegally feeding the birds at one of the overlooks along Trail Ridge Road. One of the movies that we watched at the Visitor Center specifically told visitors to not feed the birds.

We get back to the campground, relax a little, have dinner, do some laundry and I try to get caught up on my travel blog while the wifi is working.