« May 2011 | Main | July 2011 »
for SKYWATCH FRIDAY. Click the links! Looking at the sky is good for the soul!
And it stayed blue as we traveled from there through more of beautiful Colorado and on into Utah and Nevada. After gray skies from the time we left Florida all the way through Kansas, we were happy to get to Boulder County Colorado where the sky is amost always blue.
We will be happy if our luck holds and we have blue sky all summer!
This post from our summer roadtrip is linked to LESLEY'S SIGNS SIGNS, the most fun place in blogland.
The old mining town of Silverton Colorado is at one end of the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge steam railroad through the San Juan mountains. Nowadays, the town exists pretty much to serve tourists...kayakers, jeepers, climbers, hikers, fishermen, and people (like us) who stay there so that we can ride the train. (Or get off the train for lunch if they started from Durango, as most people do.) The enlargement below the collage provides a glimpse of the town's bawdier past!
The street -- and the train -- have been used as sets for a number of western movies. The train brings over 140,000 passengers a year into Silverton and it loads and unloads on Blair Street, providing passengers a glimpse of the town's past history. There are quite a few interesting shops and restaurants, as well as some saloons. There are goodies to go (on the train ride or in your jeep). But no bordellos. Which is good. The Silverton Train stop (and this restaurant) are on Blair Street, which, in the old mining days, was notorious for its saloons, gambling halls, and bordellos.
This post is linked at WATERY WEDNESDAY. Click the links to get your eyes wet!
The photos are from our recent roadtrip. We took the Narrow Gauge steam train from Silverton to Durango. The track passes through narrow canyons in the San Juan Mountains along the Animas River.
Narrow is the operative word. At times, you could have reached out and touched the canyon walls.
All of these photos were taken leaning out of our train window, at places where the canyon was just a little wider.
Literally. The train has to stop at about the half-way point to take on water. Otherwise it would run out of steam.
A summer roadtrip stop for SCENIC SUNDAY. Beautiful places there ... click the links!
______ Usually the scenery in Colorado involves looking UP! But at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison the breathtaking view is definitely DOWN. This was the 37th National Park we've visited. It's small as National Parks go but the geologic history and beauty are well worth a visit.
_______________
The Gunnison River has an average fall of 95 feet per mile. This gives the river the energy to cut downward faster than other kids of erosion can widen it.
There are eleven viewpoints from here to the end of the six-mile South Rim Road. Most involve a short walk to the viewpoint. The view from Tomichi Point welcomed us to the South Rim.
Molten rock was squeezed into these shapes and colors over a billion years ago.
There is no evidence of human occupation in the depths of the canyon, although the Ute Indians have lived in this area since written history began. The lands below the canyon rims have been designated as National Wilderness to preserve the ecological conditions. Each layer of the rock cliff marks a span of geologic time. The thin brown layer is called entrada and it is young rock -- only about 165 million years old! It rests directly on rock that is almost 2 billion years old. This marks a gap in geological history (somehow the rock that should be between these layers eroded). It is called an unconformity.
THIS POST IS LINKED TO WORLD BIRD WEDNESDAY. Go visit Springman, the host, and all the wonderful bird posts there. We are on the road -- this is a flashback to the first day of our trip, still in Florida.
LOOK AT ME! Stop searching for lunch. Turn around and look at me -- I'm so handsome!
Really -- I'm still here. Over here.... turn around!
Look....just just focus on my beautiful feathers -- ignore my bald head! I'm really a very handsome guy.
This post was written and posted a week ago Sunday and was meant for last week's THAT'S MY WORLD. But last Monday we were on the road again and unable that evening to connect to the Internet. So I am linking it this week instead. And of course family is always our world, even when we're not in the same time zone!
We packed a lot of activities in to our visit with our Colorado kids. Here are a few that I got pictures of. The collage above is Lisa and me at our girls' night out at Posh, a do-it-yourself painting studio. I haven't held an artist's brush for over half a century, but this studio almost made me feel like I knew what I was doing. It was an absolute blast!
Here's Bill feeling sporty as he gets a ride with Geoff.
Lisa and I got in a couple of good morning hikes. (Well, they were walks for her, but hikes for me.) But I didn't do too bad for being a flat-lander at this altitude.
All four of us had fun hanging out on Pearl Street in Boulder (one of the most vital downtowns of any city ever). It has great restaurants and bookshops. We spent some time in Denver too and all of this in addition to enjoying the beautiful scenery and bird watching that I blogged about earlier.
As always, we had a great time on our visit.
We're on the road, on the way to visit family and friends in Oregon (eventually), so here's some advertising from the Oregon coast for SIGNS SIGNS.
The YaTel Motel advertises "Always Ultra Clean -- Usually Friendly."
I think it'd be worth taking a chance.
Our grandson and grand-daughter-in-law were on the Oregon Coast this spring and he e-mailed this picture to us. The motel is in Yachats, on the Central Oregon coast.
FOR WORLD BIRD WEDNESDAY. On our son and daughter-in-law's patio (taken through a window -- not the best lighting, but still too good to miss!).
We're easy guests to entertain! Just put a robin's nest outside the dining room window. All four of us are having a wonderful time watching the babies' progress.
We can see them grow each day. We'll be gone when they fledge -- but I hope Geoff and Lisa are home from work and get to see the big event.
FOR THAT'S MY WORLD, the end of the first part of our summer roadtrip.
On a cross-country roadtrip, when this is your drive-by photo, you know you've reached Colorado.
The only elevation we saw until we got here was the Oachita Mountains in Arkansas (below). We had hazy skies during most of our roadtrip and very hot weather after we crossed the Mississippi. Some of the haze was from the Arizona fires and maybe some because of the extreme heat.
As you can see below, we covered a lot of miles of farmland, lonely roads, and neglected and abandoned towns as we drove through Oklahoma and Kansas:
The roadtrip miles are always worth it! But we are in beautiful Colorado now, with family ... and where the skies are (now) blue.
SHARED WITH MELLOW YELLOW MONDAY and RUBY TUESDAY
Spring flowers are in bloom in Colorado! It's great to be here to enjoy them. We saw the yellow iris and red poppy at Benson Park.
FOR WEEKEND REFLECTIONS and SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY.
We have reached the first major destination for our Summer road trip -- Longmont Colorado -- where we are visiting our kids. We dropped in to see these old friends at Benson Sculpture Park in nearby Loveland.
FOR SKYWATCH FRIDAY. We're on our roadtrip -- our pictures just haven't caught up. This one's from the backyard, just before we left -- a week ago today.
It looks a little bit like a black rabbit to me. But whatever it looks like, it means it's going to rain.
This was a stormy afternoon sky above the Canal Cottage the week before we left. There are often afternoon storms, sometimes with thunder and lightning, this time of year. But unlike many other parts of the country, Southwest Florida needs more rain and storm clouds are welcome.
FOR CAMERA CRITTERS and SIGNS SIGNS Taken near Koreshan State Park, Estero Florida (before we left on our summer road trip).
Gopher tortoises are on Florida's threatened species list because of loss of habitat. So far at least. Because unfortunately, at this time this State has a governor and legislative majority who are not at all environmentally friendly and quite a few species have recently been removed from the list. (This would make it easier for builders to get construction permits on land that is now set aside for habitat.)
Here is one link to more information about the tortoises.
FOR WATERY WEDNESDAY
For a couple of slowpokes, we're moving along pretty quickly on this leg of our road trip -- really just traveling, not touring. But we have found some lovely watery places to spend the nights. Great parks for stretching road-weary legs and lovely water to look at while unwinding before dinner and bedtime.
Night one (still in Florida -- we had some planned work done on the Roadtrek in Nokomis). That's Oscar Sherer State Park
Night two -- the mallards at a fishing pond in the RV Park in Albany Georgia
Night three -- Lake Lurleen State Park, Coker Alabama
Night four -- JJ RV Park Hot Springs Arkansas (that's a picture from Fall 2008 -- we are parked right now at the exact same spot we had back then. It's greener -- and hotter -- now.)
Shared with the blogging community at THAT'S MY WORLD.
Sunday June 5. We're living our full time life on the road again this week, right now in Hot Springs Arkansas. We spent a week in this lovely area in Fall 2008. One of the highlights of that visit was visiting bathhouse row at Hot Springs National Park. It's just a quick stopover this year, so no time for a bath (maybe a shower in the campground ;>). So this is a repeat of a post from our earlier trip. Click on Arkansas on the category list to read more about this area -- It's a great place to visit.
November 17, 2008
Hot Springs is quite an unusual National Park. Water -- for bathing and drinking -- is the main attraction. The Park is a developed area in the small city of Hot Springs, Arkansas. Some beautiful scenery surrounds the city, but the main part of the National Park is located along one street in downtown Hot Springs called Bathhouse Row. There is also is a series of walking paths through a park area behind the Row. This is the Buckstaff Bathhouse, seen from the path behind it.
Hot Springs isn't a volcanic region. The water began as rain that fell over 4000 years ago. It is heated by a combination of rocks that lie deep in the earth here and then it surfaces in springs on the slopes of the Hot Springs mountains. It gets hot because of gravity compressing the earth and by certain elements decaying the earth crust. When it gets to the surface it is an average temperature of 143 degrees F.
Many people believe in the therapeutic powers of the spring water. There are free fountains fed by springs throughout the town and we saw people collecting it by the jugful to carry home. The water has no taste or odor at all.
There are records and pictures showing that various American Indian tribes bathed in these springs in the 1700s and probably their ancestors used them before that. People soon began to build shacks and wooden covers over some of the springs. After several disastrous fires, the government took control of the springs in the 1870s and began to license private bathhouses. The area was promoted as "the Nation's Health Sanitarium." Water therapy was one of the few treatments available for many diseases. In the 1920s and 30s, the area was a hugely popular health and vacation destination and a major rail travel destination.
But as medical advances provided a surer way to cure disease and car ownership made it easier for people to travel for longer distances, Hot Springs began to decline as a vacation/health destination.
By the 1950s, only one Bathhouse was still operating and some of the others were left to become eyesores.
After years of decline, the National Park Service began working to restore Bathhouse Row and preserve it as an historical attraction. The Foredyce Bathhouse is where the Park Visitor Center is located. It has been restored to the glory of its hey-days and there is a self-guided tour. The room pictured here was part of the men's bathing room. The women's side of the bath house was not as elegant. Taking the baths was quite the social occasion in those days, as well as being therapeutic.
Now there are eight preserved bathhouses along the row, but only a couple are operating. The Park Service regulates and supervises, but they are run by private concessioners. Others are still in the process of being renovated..
We felt like it would be a shame to be in a National Park and not sample its main reason for being. So we went to the Buckstaff, which is the one that has been operating continuously since 1912. It isn't quite as glamorous as it used to be, but being pampered felt great. Ahhh! Who would ever think that taking a bath would be a part of a National Park experience.
What a fun way to "soak up" some history.
This rocker with its view of the Estero River is shared with WEEKEND REFLECTIONS. It looked inviting on the hot afternoon of our visit to Koreshan State Park.
Koreshan State Park and Historic Site was a day trip destination last Sunday when we took a break from getting ready for our summer road trip.
The park lies on the banks of the Estero River. This property was formerly the site of the Koreshan Unity Settlement, one of many communal societies which sprung up around the turn of the (19th) century. The Koreshan founder, Cyrus Teed, envisioned it as a "New Jerusalem", and himself as the new Messiah (Koresh is the Hebrew translation of Cyrus). He began recruiting members in New York, moved to Chicago and, in 1894, relocated to the Florida frontier.
Koresh had some rather odd scientific views, including the belief that the entire universe existed in the center of a giant sphere.
He was definitely a charismatic leader though, because his followers worked for an entire year in the heat and bug-filled swamp to build a community from the ground up. The town eventually included homes for members, a dining hall, performance hall, bakery, sawmill, store and school. Education and cultural opportunities were important to them and for some time time Koreshan was a thriving settlement, with people from the surrounding community, as well as commune residents, taking advantage of the stores and cultural events.
The founder died in 1908 and, when he was not resurrected as his followers had believed he would be, membership began to decline. In 1961, the four remaining members donated the 305-acre property to the State of Florida. Many of the settlement buildings and some of the landscaping and gardens are preserved as they would have been when Koreshan was at its height.
In addition to the historic site, the park also includes a campground, boat launch, and several nature trails. It is near the town of Estero, which is just south of Fort Myers, an easy drive for us.