This is my last blog post for this Manns tours event 😢 It’s 5.30 pm here.

We are now at the airport and because we were able to use our air miles, we are in the executives lounge. Free drinks and lovely snacks!

We visited a place called Loveland (yes really) and a place called Greeley on our way to the airport. This stretched out the time as our flight leaves at 19.40.

Our bags were not over weight as we feared and so we are relieved. 

We have both had such a brilliant time and now we have our memories and photos to see to take us back here.

What was our very best experience? Mmmm Alaska 

Mishaps? Yes I arrived in Phoenix and tripped over my bag and hurt my foot so I’ve been hobbling for 11 weeks. Much better now but still doesn’t feel right.

Best hotel? Cody

Best wildlife? Sequim Washington and Yellowstone

Best food? Last night in Fort Collins

Best thing to look forward to now? Seeing our lovely family missed you all so much!

Lots and lots of love

From both of us xxxx

Today after breakfast it was already in the high 80*f ‘s! We decided to go in the mountains where it is cooler and found a delightful road that followed a white water river and its gorge.

There was really only room in the gorge for the river and the road, and at times it was a tight fit in places. The views were wonderful but there were not many stopping places along the route.

There were many boats white water rafting and we stopped to watch some go by.

The river was fierce and fast flowing with white bubbly waves flowing over big boulders here and there. The gorge sides were all twisted with strata going up vertically at times.

A few anglers were in the water with welly boots up to their thighs and the water well above their knees.

We stopped at 2 picnic areas to take photos and spot the wildlife i.e. birds and butterflies.

I’m not sure if the blue bird was a type of jay. There were loads of butterflies around too and huge dandelion clocks.

So here are the pictures

 

 

Hi we arrived here early afternoon. The traffic around Denver was terrible. The drivers were so aggressive and we nearly had 2 accidents so we were relieved to get north of Denver and out of the traffic.

I forgot to say yesterday we were in the outskirts of Colorado Springs when a large deer decided to cross 6 lanes of traffic right in front of us. Luckily I saw it in the corner of my eye and screamed out. Grandad managed to do an emergency stop and the car behind us was far enough back to stop without hitting us…..so the deer survived for another day. It was in a housing and shopping area and totally unexpected to find a deer there. We put that down to experience. Do you remember we hit a deer last year in California near the redwoods?

We are chilling out for the last few days and not going to do much. No photos today. We have a lovely hotel with a swimming pool and hot tub to relax in.

All for now xxxxxx

It is our last full day at Pueblo today and so we decided to find the River Arkansas and its Gorge. The road from our hotel leads right up to the Gorge and we loved exploring the surrounding countryside. We found this tourist attraction over the Gorge . The Royal Gorge bridge. It had a cable car and ski lift and you could walk over it. ….We didn’t ,it was very hot and quite expensive so we took the photos and off we went.

 

Next stop was the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. It was very interesting. Giant redwood trees once grew in this valley and also it had been under the ocean too. I’m talking of 34 millions of years here. Volcanoes erupted and the area was covered in mud which preserved all the creatures leaves and trees. There were huge petrified tree trunks preserved by the volcanic mud.

For 200 years tourists plundered and took away fossils and pieces of petrified trees. It wasn’t until 1969 that the area was declared a national monument and preserved for the future. Now 50000 museum specimens from fossils have been recorded.

We were very hot and feeling breathless due to the high altitudes so we couldn’t walk far sadly, but we got these photos.

We headed for Colorado Springs and saw a sign for the “garden of the gods”. It was another breathtakingly beautiful place and free to visit. The red sandstone out crops were extraordinary. You could drive up and round the area of the mountain in a one way system. There were loads of parking places to stop and walking routes to view the rocks. We seemed to get another spurt of energy and wandered around. The balanced rock was amazing.

There were rocks looking like men and we saw faces on them in our imagination. All this is directly above Colorado Springs which is in the plain below. The tallest mountain is very important to the Native Ute Americans and is called Pikes Peak.

We are in temperatures around 100*f and at altitudes from 6000 to 11000 feet. We are finding it hard going and exhausting as you can imagine. “Feeling our age”!

We called in at Cracker Barrel for our tea yummy and now we are washing clothes and preparing to travel North again to Fort Collins NW of Denver. This is our last stay for 3 nights and then we will fly from Denver at 7.40 pm Denver time.on Saturday evening.

looking forward to seeing you all soon and sleeping in our own bed xxx

So today we explored locally in Pueblo. We went to see the state park at the reservoir and then headed into Pueblo down town. There was not much there in the way of shops so we had some strong coffee in a coffee house. We did not want to visit museums.

Next we thought we’d try Colorado Springs which is 25 miles away. We followed signs to Cheyenne Creek. It is a stream which comes down from the Pike Peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Pikes Peak is the furthest east of the Rockies Mountains and is special to the Ute Red Indians as here the sun rises first to shine o the Rockies.

The creek is narrow and winds right up the mountain with many footpaths leading from it all the way up . There are lots of sharp bends but no great drops from the road until we got to the top 200 feet. We stopped at the Helen Hunt falls called after  Helen Hunt who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of native Americans. She wrote novels and poems.

There was an information centre at the falls and it was really  interesting to learn about the Ute tribes and their beliefs. I was also shown a hummingbirds nest again. Like the one I saw in Phoenix you could see the spiders webs it had used to hold it together. It is so tiny.

After our tour of the mountainside we went into Colorado Springs, We drove along the old centre and saw the older buildings. It is a town which developed due to mining.

So here are my photos and see if you can spot Grandma this time. Clue look up higher.

5 more sleeps until we get to airport for home xxxx

 

 

We decided to drive the extra mile to see these sand dunes. They cover 30 square miles and are at elevation 8,200 feet. The dunes are colossal and reach up to 750 feet high.

Many people were there as it was Sunday and Fathers Day so we couldn’t park near them. We parked about a mile from the stream which is at the bottom of them and granddad walked towards them for about half a mile but turned back as it was so hot.

There were people right at the top and some were sand boarding down them. They were quite extraordinary to see and pleased we went. My photos make them seem unreal but they are of different colours. No shadows at midday of course but couldn’t stay in that heat until late afternoon to see the shadows I’m afraid . Can you spot grandad?

 

 

Hope Matthew and Trevor had a good Fathers Day and Vince loved your messages. Thank you for your little video Louis.xxxx

6 more sleeps until we board the plane. xxxxx

Hi all we arrived here early afternoon and it’s crept up to 106*f……. very hot and dry. At least it’s not humid. We have the air conditioning on and are comfortable. We will just have to stay in here for 4 days. Only joking! They said they had snow falling last week too.

Found out our best man Pete from our wedding, his wife Liz has died. So sad. She had breast cancer and then it spread to lungs and brain. (Over the last 4 years )She had a stroke and died Thursday.

We plan to go to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and to the nearby Rocky  Mountains while we are here.

Only 7 sleeps to go and we will be flying out from Denver.

Hope the children liked my moose story. If they did let me know and I might make up a bear one for them xxxxxx

 

For Louis Otis Xavi and Alice (and lily and Anona to read to them?)

Whose that hiding in the woods?

Come on now don’t be shy!

Whats your name?

I am Bruce, Bruce the moose.

Thats a cute name. where do you live?

Follow me

I live here in the woods

near a stream in Colorado. In the Rocky Mountains

I like to eat the lush green grass

And leaves from the trees

Look at my reflection in the water. I look so handsome.

I have a long nose and I’m growing my antlers right now. They will be bigger in the Autumn. Can you see my big teeth and my tongue?

Well I really can’t stay much longer. I need to go to bed.

So I’ll say goodbye and hope you can come to see me one day when you are bigger.

 

Today was very very hot, so we headed once again to the mountains. This time we went further North in Colorado to The Rocky Mountains National Park.

We stopped for coffee at ” the barkin’ dog café”, in a little town called Lyons. It was a friendly uncommercialised town and we liked it very much.

We drove into the park. It is a huge green valley surrounded by the high rocky Mountains. The roads take you through the valley and then way up high via hairpin bends to the tops of the mountains.

We did go up quite high until we felt it was best to go down again!! The valley is huge and wide with large rock outcrops in it. Many people were there as it is Americas holiday time now. We were pleased it wasn’t the weekend as it must be even worse for traffic.

We didn’t see any animals but did see different birds. the valley is especially beautiful.

Hope you like my photos and can you spot Grandad in one of them?

Back in Denver the temperatures are in the 90’s and set to be even higher into next week!

(Las Vegas/Death Valley areas have warnings of extreme temperatures up to 120*+f pleased we are not there)

Lots of love and looking forward to seeing you all soon xxx

To reach Mount Evans we first of all called in to Idaho Springs to the information centre. The lady there told us how to find the road and off we set up the hills.

Last time we came here, it was April 2015 and the mountain was covered in snow with clear roads.

Today it was so different! Everywhere was green pine trees and rock faces. Snow piled up at both sides of the road had given us a false sense of security last time! This time we could see just how steep the drops from the side of the road were.

We went up to Echo Lake at 10500 feet and this was as far as you could get to last time as the higher roads were full of snow.

(We had our dinner here on the way back and watched all the hummingbirds on the feeder. Also there were loads and loads of small dragon flies everywhere probably hatching out from the lake in the sunshine )

This time the road was #good to go#and open, so off we set.

It was so scary; steep hair pin bends, steep drops, and NO crash barriers. We progressed 3 miles to the visitor centre at Mount Goliath.

There was still 11 miles to go but we decided not to go any further! We were at 12000 feet and the road goes up to14000+ feet …not for us.

Hope you like the photos of the mountainside and ancient pines. See if you can spot Grandma?Doesn’t this tree look like a kangarooEcho lake

A grey Jay2 little birds from the mountains here. a jay and a baby robin.

Our view as we descended the mountain.

Tomorrow we are going to visit Rocky Mountain National Park.

Only 10 days left of our holiday. xxxx love you all xxxxx