A Few More...

This walkway was a real rush to cross! And we had to do it twice!

There is a lot going on in this shot. In the lower left of the photo you can see the trail switch-backing it's way up and down. In the far right is a Shepard's tent, the white object. He had two horses, a sheep dog (a big one) and easy a couple hundred sheep scattered all over.

Yes, parents, children, siblings, and friends, we followed the bear instructions to the letter. When we left early in the morning we noticed that two out of the three other campers did not.

More Devil's Causeway...

The photo does not show the exposure that well, but there was plenty of it.

The full trail is a 23 mile loop. You can see it in the shot. That is snow is the far distance.

We hike the Devil's Causeway...

Our camp altitude, according to our GPS, was 10,265 feet. The Devil's Causeway, our objective is 11,965 feet! We thought the air was thin at our site, we needed supplemental oxygen to climb this trail. It is much steeper then it looks and just kept getting steeper.

That is our destination. The very top of the mountain.

Does this look steep? We had to stop about fifty times to get our breathing back to normal (normal for this altitude anyway).

We made it, it was a real challenge for both of us.

Cold Springs campground...

The pond directly behind our site. You could see the bottom every where.

We thought this was where you got water back in the day. Now they have one of those pumps that shoots water out like a fire hose.

Kremmling to Yampa Colorado...

This is main street in Yampa. We are going to make a left turn at the end and drive about 35 miles, mostly on dirt roads to the Flat Top Wilderness. After that we dropped off the grid, no cell or Internet, electric or showers for that matter, and we loved it (except for the no shower thing).

This is our site at the Cold Springs campground in the Routt National Forrest. We had the place to ourselves for a while, but it only had about five sites and it never did fill up. Behind us is a pond that was so clear you could see the fish swimming.

Enroute to Denver Colorado...

We were driving north on hwy 71 and saw a lot of open fields and cows. Norm spotted this place that looked kind of cool.

We arrived in Denver and spent the night at our good friends home, Bruce and Becky, and their dog, Reilly. We spent the entire time catching up and filling each other in since we last got together. This time was very special as their daughter, Hannah and her two kids, Madi and Kenny stopped by. Bruce has them riding dirt bikes and golfing, plus they both love to go camping with Grandpa. Becky loves to have them and like some other Grandma I know, lets them have a lot of leeway. It is always good times when we get together and it seems to get better every year.

This is Safeway in Winter Park. At 9100 feet above sea level, we ate breakfast in their parking lot.

Our camp site in Kremmling was a little congested, but no one showed up to the unit on the left.

Colorado....

This is the Las Animas railroad station.

Las Animas is the county seat.

If you have been a faithful follower of our blog, you know my opinion of KOA campgrounds, 'For Emergency Use Only.' But this is the second time we have stayed at the KOA in Lamar and the facility and the people are first rate.

Las Animas, Colorado...

This was our residence for Sunday night in Lamar Colorado. It was a nice park, very dusty with few stones on the spaces. The owners were very nice.

This is in Las Animas, Boggsville, but it was only open weekends. We went there specifically to visit the Kit Carson museum which turned out to be quite the ordeal. First I got two different sets of directions from two different convenience stores that did not pan out. Fortunately at the second store a local fellow felt sorry for me and gave me the straight skinny. It seems that the museum was in poor condition and was broken into and artifacts were stolen. So, they are in the process of moving to a new location.

This is near the railroad tracks.

Black Mesa...

The views were just outstanding. The photos don't do them justice.

These are suppose to be dinosaur tracks, but we were dubious. The tracks are not protected in any way and finding them seemed to be only by word of mouth. We thought the state would do a better job of keeping people away from them, but these are the first ones we have ever seen.

Our campsite was really nice, no one near us and very pretty.

Norm has bad Mojo...

This is a large and old prairie rattlesnake taking a morning snooze. That brown area right in front of him is the trail. The same trail Norm was walking on, and at the last moment before stepping right in front of his face, she leaped like a gazelle into my arms. Norm has had countless encounters with venomous reptiles in the last few years, I am thinking about not letting her go hiking anymore. Three other fellow hikers showed up and they were as freaked out as we were. Finally Mr. Snake had all he was going to take and struck out at no one in particular, which I took as our time to move on toward the summit, ASAP. On the way down she got another opportunity to practice her leaping skills as a large green snake was laying all across the trail as she was leading the way.

We saw a large number of these horned toads.

I think Norm is peeking around this nice monument from the Colorado side. Our next destination. You can also see New Mexico and Texas from here.

Black Mesa State Park, Oklahoma...

We travelled to the far northwest panhandle of Oklahoma to hike the highest point in the state. This definitely helped with our bad case of 'Leo withdrawal.' Our third and last state park visit was the best. The park is very remote and lots of sites were available to choose from.

Here is the trail cut into the side of the hill. Yes, it was very steep.

Of course, the view made all the sweat worth it. We got an early start and it was a good thing as the temperature soared onto the low nighties with high humidity.

We have never seen grass hoppers this big. Locust on 'roids!'