Friday, August 19, 2016

Seeking Warmer Elevations

It has started to cool down at night around the Leadville, CO area so we went down the mountain to a lower elevation.  First we went to Cheyenne Mountain State park for two nights.  Cheyenne Mountain is near Colorado Springs so while there we did some grocery shopping at Trader Joe's. We also had our hair trimmed by Anne at Cut It Out Salon.  Anne was so sweet and did a great job, and they even give a senior discount.  We'll remember Anne and next time we're through here we'll come back.



View east towards Kansas from Cheyenne Mountain.

From Colorado Springs we headed south on I 25 to highway 160 and turned west and went to San Luis Lake State Park for two nights.  While there we did some scouting out of dry/boondocking camping spots.  We found two that we marked on our map to stay in later.

View of Great Sand Dunes National Park east of San Luis Lake SP, out bedroom window.
Sun shinning on dunes while mountains behind are in shadow of cloud.

Here are the dunes up closer.

Then we moved back up towards Salida, CO.  Salida, elevation 7195' is at the southern end of the Arkansas Headwaters State Park and Leadville, elevation 10,152' is at the northern end.  In some places in this area it is a wide river valley and in other places it's just wide enough for the road, river and railroad tracks.  We found a very nice dry camping spot with good AT&T and Verizon coverage.  Another blogger mentioned this location and a few weeks ago mom, DeDe and I checked it out.  The next few pictures are of this pretty location off FR 272 between Buena Vista and Salida, in the shade of Mt. Antero.


See rv hiding in the trees?

We're not really in the trees.

A member of the cleome family.


See you down the road.

Evie and Joy



It must be love, fire ring at campsite.










Thursday, August 4, 2016

Shrine Pass


We took a drive under this bridge, past the little town of Red Cliff and up to Shrine Pass, elevation of 11,094 feet.  There are fields of wildflowers blooming everywhere.





Maripsoa Lily




We're still in the Leadville, Colorado area and will be here for another month.  Then in early Sept. we will head south towards New Mexico.  We are planning on going to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta again this year which is in early Oct.  So we are just going to wander around staying to the higher elevations to stay cool.  

Until next time.

Evie and Joy

You never know what you'll see when out for a drive.