June 2010

After our granddaughter flew back to Macon at the end of May, we headed for Rocky Mountain National Park.  This is Cheryl's favorite park and it really lived up to her remembrance.

We saw lots of elk.

The rivers were running fast and the waterfalls were awesome.

Did a couple of wonderful hikes.  We were at peak snow melt even though from these pictures you would not believe it.    We hiked to Willis Lake our last day there.  A beautiful spot!!!

From RMNP we went to Breckenridge, CO.  We have skied there many times, but this was our first summer visit.  We found out why so many people say, "Come for the winter, Move here for the summer."  The RV resort we stayed in was across the street from a bike path.  We could ride for miles.  One day we rode from Frisco to Keystone.  We enjoyed seeing both Breckenridge and Keystone ski resorts without snow.

We wanted to see more of Colorado, so decided to try a few of their state parks. Here are a few pictures.

 This beautiful lake is at Eleven Mile State Park.

From Eleven Mile we made our way to Mueller State Park. Mueller is just north of Colorado Springs, at 8400 feet, with beautiful views of Pike's Peak from the campsite.

Made a drive to the top of Pike's Peak.   

Visited a number of beautiful areas in and around Colordao Springs. Here are a few pictures from some of them.

This is a view of Seven Falls.

View of Colorado Springs from Inspiration Point at Seven Falls

US Air Force Academy Chapel

Falcon Stadium from the bike path going through the AF Academy

Petrified Redwood in Florissant National Monument

Garden of the Gods

We moved on to Trinidad Lake State Park in southern Colorado.  Trinidad was on the historic Sante Fe Trail.  There was a fabulous museum in town.  It was located in the old Baca House.

There were quite a few other "mansions" which were on the old Millionaire Row.  

Now it was on to Texas.  We had heard lots about Palo Duro State Park in the panhandle of Texas and decided to check it out.  We were certainly not disappointed.  Even attended a Texas steak dinner and the Texas show in the park.  Both were wonderful.  Here are a few pictures of the scenery in the park.

View as we made our way down into the canyon to our campsite.

We were welcomed to our campsite by this roadrunner and big tom turkey.

View from our campsite.

Hiking in the canyon.  Can you see Cheryl?

Made the hike to see the Lighthouse.  You can see the size of this by how small Steve looks!!!

It was then on to Caprock Canyon State Park.



We rode on a bike path which is part of an abandoned railway.  Made our way to this tunnel where there was one of the largest colonies of Mexican Free-tail bats in the US.  Did not see any bats as we rode through in the dark, but we sure smelled them.

Saw lots of these along the path.



We then headed to Oklahoma to visit a few Army Corps Parks as well as to play golf at some of the Oklahoma State Park golf courses.
At one park we awoke to this huge flock of geese.  Most we have ever seen in one spot.

At another park we could sit under our awning, look at the lake, and watch this deer walk right by.



We are now going to head back into Texas for lots of golfing using our Club Corp of America membership as well as stay at the Thousand Trails parks along the way.  Will head back to Tallahassee for Bree's first birthday in August and then to Macon to visit the other seven grandchildren.