Monday, July 20, 2009

Colorado or Bust

One of my online friends, Mary-Austin, is traveling with her family all around Colorado -- God's country in my opinion. She designed the cutest header for the trip; pop over to Organized Chaos to see it. Today she is staying at Lake Vallecito, called Vallecito Reservoir in my day. I spent many a summer at Vallecito with my mother, father and brother fishing for rainbow trout, cooking on a wood stove, and where I was introduced to snipe hunting. lol

Following Mary-Austin's progress day-by-day has inspired me to pull out some photos of my and hubby's first trip to Colorado. Hubby is a C&W singer and a friend promised his niece who lived in Monroe, Colorado a C&W band at her wedding. Hubby and a couple of band players were invited to the wedding.

This was my first car trip back to where I had so many wonderful vacation memories with my family. Only one thing I refused to do and that was drive the "Million Dollar Highway" to Silverton. However, we got there by taking the narrow-gauge train from Durango to Silverton. It is a wonderful experience; the train clings to the side of the mountain as it travels along the tracks.

New Mexico. The white strata above the red is fascinating.

The mountains! Can you feel the cool air?

We are drinking in the Colorado beauty.

The Durango & Silverton train has a coal fired, steam-powered engine. It is really a neat experience. You can travel up and back in one day, or travel up, stay overnight, and catch the train back to Durango. You get a little sooty, but who cares because the beauty of the Colorado countryside is breath taking.

Taaaa-dah! Chicken-fried steak, anyone?

The Shady Lady is pretty cool inside, too.

Then there is always Mesa Verde, a premiere archaeological preserve in the U.S. The drive from the valley floor to where Mesa Verde is located at the top is magnificent. We arrived in the afternoon and were fortunate that the last tour had not yet started. I was in complete awe of the cliff dwellings. Note the mystery white space, upper right corner, in the photo. Anasazi ghosts?


Until next time, God bless.

8 comments:

Donna said...

HAHahahahaaaa...Snipe? You TOO huh???HAHahahaaa...
Great photos sweetie!!hughugs

DJan said...

Since I lived in Colorado for so many years (more than 30) I also think it's a beautiful place. I took the train once long ago to spend a weekend climbing. We took it in, got off in the wilderness and took it back out three days later.

I loved the high country and climbed 26 of the 14,000-foot-high mountains. But that was a while ago!

Lynn said...

Donna, glad to know I'm not the only one to go snipe hunting. lol

DJan, you are so adventurous!

Rae said...

It is very beautiful country. My daughter lived there for a while and I was always awestruck at how much bluer the sky appeared.

Ziggy Stardust said...

There are many places I would like to see, Colorado is next on my list. Beautiful photos.

Anne

SquirrelQueen said...

Beautiful country, what a great experience you had. We are not that far away where we live now so Colorado is very high on my list. I really want to see Mesa Verde.

Fortunately I knew about snipe hunting before someone offered to take me, too funny.

Al said...

Hmm pretty cool adventure! Where's the chicken steak?

AL

Mary-Austin said...

Hey Lynn - Thanks for posting all these and mentioning my blog!! How very neat to see some pics from your trip!! I wish we could have fit Mesa Verde in but alas, it didn't work this time! We've certainly had fun here.