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

Well we had a great fast journey to Brighton. It was highway all the way and no mountains to climb although we reached over 8000 feet on the Lincoln Highway where Abraham Lincoln’s statue is.

We stopped here to go to the visitors centre and took these pictures. Don’t laugh too much!

We passed through and had a coffee break in Laramie. Jimmy Young sang a song about the man from Laramie.

Here is the MANN at Laramie!

Next we passed by Cheyenne and turned right to Denver.

Do you recognise these town names from cowboy films?

Our hotel is very lovely and we are going to use this location to visit the mountains and Denver. We are here for 4 nights.

Today we set out to see a herd of elk at Wamsutter. It was a warm 74*f but very windy. The dust and sand was being whipped up by the wind and it was heavy going to drive along the highway. There were no elk to be seen!

We returned to Green River and decided to go to the Green River in the Gorge. As we travelled along we could see the clouds building up to the West and lots of dust coming towards us. It was 74*f and within 30 minutes the cold front had reached us and the temperature had dropped 30*f.

It was now 53*f and winds gusting over 65mph. We decided to return to the hotel. It was so cold and windy.

So we watched Tv and chilled out. It is now 6pm the wind has dropped and the sun is out again. Strange weather and not for hairpin bends today!

Tomorrow we travel to Denver and back to hot weather. It’s motorway all the way so we should be there mid afternoon.

No photos today sorry.

love you all xxxx

We continue to have restful days and enjoy the weather. We went around Flaming Gorge and stopped at the Red Canyon Lodge again. We saw an osprey swoop down and catch a fish from their pond. They use the pond to let children under 12 fish for free, as long as they throw the fish caught back in. I don’t think the osprey read the rules as he flew off with it!

We watched the woodpecker and finches and humming birds while we ate our lunch outside.

We saw lots of pronghorn deer today.

Here are some more pictures of the Geology and beauty of the area.

 

Today we were in Ashley National Forest

Near Green River town, the Green River winds through a deep gorge Flaming Gorge.

We followed the road in a loop around this Gorge.

First we began to see lots of rocky out crops with the snowy Rockies behind them

We began to see Pronghorn deer and prairie dogs.

Then the rocks changed and became many different colours and shapes.

To our surprise the Flaming Gorge was out of this world.

It was named by Wesley Powell who set off from here to explore the green river and then the Colorado when the green river joined it. He eventually went down the Grand Canyon and beyond, mapping out the areas.

In Flaming Gorge there is a rift line and the mountains have been forced up and mangled. The strata is up down and in all the wrong angles! Very impressive…

We were travelling along what had been the bottom of the ocean billions of years ago. Many dinosaurs and fossils are being found here. The ancient rocks were millions of years old. I need to study geology more

 

Next we went down a geological area named Sheep Creek Canyon. We were so unprepared for the delights down there. Our photos cannot show off well enough the contrasts in rock formations and sheer sided valley sides and rock towers formations. I’ve never seen anything like it before. It was 5 miles of magic.

Back on the loop road  we stopped at Red Canyon Lodge for lunch. It is built round a small lake and has lots of water activities for families who can hire log cabins and boats. We saw several humming bees sucking sweet water from feeders. There were 2 bird tables that had little reddish finches feeding from them . We saw 2 woodpeckers on the bird tables too.

We continued along the loop to Flaming Gorge Reservoir Dam and crossed the Green River by this bridge.

Eventually we were right on the top of the mountains along a ridge with marvellous views 360* Wow!

The whole area is classed as a cold desert and rarely reaches temperatures over 80*f

Today was hot again with a warm wind about 78*f. It looks very stormy outside now though. The sky has very dark clouds maybe we are in for thunder?

(no its just passed over)

xxxxx

 

 

 

We had a very long journey today to Green River. We went through Yellowstone and out through the south entrance into Teton National Park then the road followed the Snake River to where we had lunch and a rest. Then we followed the Green River to Green River town.

This is the last photo of Yellowstone NP near the South entrance.

This is the beautiful Grand Teton national Park. We just drove straight through as we had a long journey still to complete.

The Snake River. can you spot Grandad?

And the Green River…. It is very desert like environment and dusty.

So we left Cody at 52*f, dropped to 43*f in the Tetons and now its 90*f! Well we are 300 miles further South!

This is me at Jackson Wyoming standing under an arch made of elk antlers! There are 1400 elks in this area around Jackson

We are tired and here for 4 nights so we will have a good rest.

Hope you are all ok and look out for our postcards Love you all xxxx

Sadly its our last day here. We’ve enjoyed seeing all the scenery; the mountains, lakes, wildlife and friendly people. We went over the Chief Joseph Pass and through the Lamar Valley today.

We saw cowboys with lassoes and horses on a ranch. We got great action pictures. It was actually a photo shoot that we very cheekily watched from the road and used it to our advantage.

Grandad has a new leather hat…its a long story but he looks good in it.

We saw where 2 wolf dens are but did not see the wolves. We saw a bear and loads of buffalo. Then on the way back I saw what I think is a crane. So….. here are the photos.