ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH…IN COLORADO

July-August, 2019

We are on our way back to Arizona, hoping to time our arrival to beat the heat.  Our wintering campground is in Mesa, where the average temperature in September (!) is 98…most years.  This year has broken all heat records with daytime temperatures well into the 110s, and it’s not likely to surprise us anytime until mid-October or later with temperatures making the Northeast and Midwest jealous, and giving us that ultimate reason to winter in Arizona.  Hopefully the temperature and weather conditions in Colorado will be kinder to us for the 3 weeks we’ll be here.

Barbara lived in Colorado for 45 years until she blessed Brian by coming off of the mountain and becoming a “flatlander” in 1992.  She still has family and friends in Colorado, and spending some time in the “Mile High State” every few years is a natural.  As visitors we are free to explore the many sites, activities, hikes, festivals and places that, and as we all well know, in the pursuit of everyday life locals benignly ignore.  We have time to be visitors, and time for Barbara to see what has changed since her last visit.

Our campground is west of Loveland, and about 20 miles or so to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Seven years ago we were in Colorado for our friends’ daughter’s wedding (shout out to good friends Dennis and Susan and their wonderful daughter Emily).  We flew into Denver a week and a half before the wedding, rented a Class C motorhome and visited the State’s 4 National Parks.  We spent a few days in Estes Park and contracted with a local to take us on a personal tour of Rocky Mountain National Park – what a great time!

While we planned on re-visiting the Park, Loveland was on our agenda to be able to spend quality time with nephew Manuel Ayala, his wife Shari and family.  We found Loveland to be a delightful city, and we thoroughly enjoyed 2 of their 3 outdoor sculpture gardens.  Now how many cities of 75,000 or so have 3 outdoor sculpture gardens?

Manuel and Shari treated us like royalty – running around Lake Loveland in their motorboat was an unexpected treat!

Rocky Mountain National Park encompasses 415 square miles of spectacular subalpine and alpine environments.

Trail Ridge Road has been designated an All-American Road, and was built on top of an old footpath originally used by the Ute Nation and other Native American Peoples.  It cuts through Rocky Mountain NP running east to west from Estes Park to Grand Lake, and it is the highest continuous paved road in the United States, cresting at over 12,000 feet.  We stopped at the Alpine Visitors Center, enjoyed brief hikes along the road, and stopped to admire the views from many of the pullouts along the way.

In order to access Rocky Mountain NP from the east we travelled through Estes Park.  And as long as we were there we felt that a stop to see the Hotel Stanley was a must.  Why?  Other than the Hotel being an old fashioned 5-star resort and just a treat to see, it has been reported that Stephen King wrote The Shining after staying a single night in Room 217.

The last time we were in Rocky Mountain NP we had an up close chance to see herds of Big Horn Sheep and Elk – no such luck this time while we were traveling along the Trail Ridge Road.  But on our way back to Aimee we were delayed as some Big Horn Sheep claimed the roadway as their own.

The Chapungu Sculpture Garden opened in 2007, and is a one-of-a-kind outdoor exhibit, displaying 82 monumental stone sculptures from Zimbabwean artisans, traversing 26 acres of natural and landscaped gardens. The Loveland Garden was built to, in a small way, duplicate the original Chapungu Sculpture Park located in Msasa, Harare, Zimbabwe and founded in 1970 by Roy Guthrie.

We found the sculptures to be terrific works of art on their own, and found that by taking a minute or so to read the artist’s definition of how their sculpture depicted the culture of their family, village, region or country our appreciation of the Garden was increased 10-fold.  Whether in Zimbabwe or Loveland the title of the Gardens follows form and is well practiced –  “Chapungu: Custom and Legend — A Culture in Stone.”

Ted and Mabel Thompson are known as Loveland’s Sweetheart Couple.  In 1946, Ted, who was head of the city’s Chamber of Commerce, Mabel, and the local postmaster came up with an idea to spread romance by creating the Valentine Remailing Program.  Ever since, volunteers in “Sweetheart City” have processed millions of valentines from people in all 50 states and over 100 countries around the world.

Opened in 1985 the Benson Sculpture Garden has been drawing visitors from around the world to view its 164 pieces on permanent display.  The 10-acre park anchored by the Loveland High Plains Arts Council Headquarters is located in a neighborhood of single family homes.  Recently there have been 6 new additions to the collection, and the park has expand another half block south.  We enjoyed a leisurely stroll on a very hot day appreciating the diversity of this fine collection.

Did we mention that Barbara was born and lived most of her life in Colorado Springs?  Yup – Colorado Springs – home of the US Olympic Training Center, the United States Air Force Academy, Pikes Peak, and the Broadmoor Hotel ice rink where Peggy Fleming trained prior to her figure skating Gold Medal at the 1968 Winter Olympics.

Remember Adrian and Nichole?  Brian officiated at their Las Vegas wedding back in April, and Colorado Springs is their home.  They opened their house to a good long visit and hosted a spectaculous dinner.  Many kudos on the fine meal and wonderful hospitality.

Maryellen has been Barbara’s best friend since 3rd grade – her oldest friend in the whole wide world.  Her husband, Roy, claims that Barbara introduced the 2 of them during their senior year in high school…53 years later and the 2 of them are as inseparable as ever.  Brian has a special craving for chili verde whenever he’s anywhere near Colorado, and Maryellen makes sure there are breakfast burritos smothered in that special sauce waiting for him whenever he’s in the Springs!  Roy and Maryellen were kind enough to gift him a half dozen burritos and sauce – what a score!

We wanted to take a trip into the mountains, and, well, we needed a destination.  Roy and Maryellen suggested Breckenridge, and off we went.  What a great day: a great view of South Park, Colorado, great lunch, great upscale small town to walk around, the trail to the troll, and spending time with good friends.

Sitting at 15 feet tall, the massive troll was made of trashed lumber with sticks for hair; by Danish artist Thomas Dambo it has been dubbed Isak Heartstone.  The Troll can be reached via a short hike through the woods from downtown Breckenridge.  How cool is this guy?

Sue is Barbara’s best friend, and the 2 of them have been through oh so very much for the past 45 years.  Her husband Dennis and I are home cooks and adore our spouses, we are both sports fans, and we have shared one too many margaritas on more than 1 occasion along the way.  Their delightful daughter Emily married Solomon 7 years ago and their daughter Iris is 3 years old.  We spent several evenings with our friends, and were delighted that a dinner party was planned so we could visit with Emily and Solomon and meet Iris for the first time.  As with our other friends and family in Colorado, Dennis and Sue opened their home and hearts to our visit.

Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun was built by Spencer Penrose between 1934 and 1937, and is dedicated to Will Rogers who died in a plane crash in 1935. The elevation of the shrine is 8,136 feet on the top deck and provides breathtaking views of Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak Region.  Perfect…however, the Shrine is an attraction of Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, and admission can only be obtained by buying admission to the zoo.

We had planned on a drive along Gold Camp Road –  not all the way to Cripple Creek – but high enough to be able to see as far as the eye can see from, oh, 10,000 feet or so.  A rain storm had other ideas for us, but we were able to snap a couple of pictures before the deluge hit!

We did get the chance to take a nice 2 mile hike up the Mt. Cutler Trail in North Cheyenne Canyon for some glorious views…

…and spent some time at the Garden of the Gods visitors center before our drive through the beautiful red rock formations of the Park.

The Royal Gorge Bridge is near Cañon City, Colorado (in Fremont County near Florence – home of Supermax Prison!), and it is a 360-acre attraction located along the edge of the Royal Gorge around both ends of the bridge.  The bridge crosses the gorge 955 feet above the Arkansas River and held the record of highest bridge in the world from 1929 until 2001 when it was surpassed by the Liuguanghe Bridge in China.  The Liuguanghe Bridge maintained the title of the world’s highest suspension bridge until the Beipan River Guanxing Highway Bridge was completed in 2003, also in China. The Royal Gorge Bridge remains the highest bridge in the United States, and it is among the ten highest bridges in the world.

Outside of the theater showing a short film about the construction of the Bridge there were several hummingbird feeders.  Brian hadn’t known until recently that hummingbirds are his sister’s favorites – so Karen, this one’s for you!

Walking across the Bridge, enjoying a gondola ride across the Gorge, and just looking over the edge and reflecting on this engineering marvel are favorite activities.  For the more daring there is a prone swing that sends the rider out over the Gorge without a net, a zip line across the entire expanse, and for the mountain goat in all of us a chance to hike from the bottom of the Gorge up to the 955 feet to the viewing area.

Emily suggested that we hike about the hoodoos of the Paint Mines Interpretive Park near Calhan, Colorado. Archeologists and geologists have found evidence in the Park of human life as far back as 9,000 years ago.  The Paint Mines is a unique geological structure unlike any other in Colorado, and its name comes from the colorful clays that were collected by Native Americans to make paint. Brightly colored bands in golden yellow, rose pink, snowy white, and mauve, caused by oxidized iron compounds, are found in varying amounts throughout the many different layers of clay in the park.

What a find…Thanks, Emily!

Can’t say goodbye to Colorado without mentioning our walk around Manitou Springs – couldn’t pass-up a good drink from their natural springs (contains heavy doses of lithium carbonate, which had been (may still be) commonly used to treat manic-depressive illness) and some salt water taffy from Patsy’s.

And just to wrap up our time in Colorado….For the first time in oh so many years Barbara was able to visit her father’s gravesite in The Springs.  We headed into Security to pay our respects and visited the interment site for her mother and sister, Christina at St. Raphael’s Episcopal Church.

Our Colorado adventures were a combination of visiting places from a long time ago remembered, new discoveries, and quality time with friends.  WONDERFUL!

Barbara and  Brian