1st stops in Colorado: Pueblo & Cheyenne Mntn

Our travels started off with lots of clouds and overcast skies. As we traveled through the pass by Raton, New Mexico, the clouds gently clasped their fingers over the mountains. The temperature dropped 10 degrees here.

Well, we are on the road again in 2010. Time to get the wheels rolling on the 5th wheel and head towards cooler weather before we get hit with the 100 degree days in Arizona. They sneak up on you and stay for a long, long time.

Our first stop in Colorado is Pueblo State Park. Although it rained off and on, we still managed to get in some walks between the rain showers. Lots of beautiful wildflowers adorn the hills. Don plods on while I stop every 20 feet to take another picture. I am really grateful for the digital camera hung around my neck as I snap away!

A stalk of purple Sky Pilot flowers are beautiful, even though it is also known by Skunkweed because it's leaves emit a strong, offensive odor!
The white Cowbane flowers (which are poisonous to cattle) surround the purple Lupine.
This is our site at Cheyenne Mountain State Park, which is on the way to being one of our favorite places to stay. Our site is halfway up the side of the mountain, affording us wonderful views of Colorado Springs.
Storms set in Saturday afternoon, and God provided a beautiful rainbow.
View from our site. Awesome!
We saw this red fox as we returned to camp Monday afternoon. I think he was smiling at us.

Cripple Creek, Colorado

Gold was discovered in the Cripple Creek area in the late 1800's. This created a rush by miners to stake claims and make their fortunes. In the early 1900's, this area had a total population of over 55,000 people. Nowadays, there are few people who live in the two small towns of Victor and Cripple Creek. The area is covered with old mines and abandoned shacks. Today we killed two birds with one stone: we got our exercise hiking the trail and got a lesson in history to boot.
Above is Joy, the wonder dog, our longtime friends, Helen and Milo and Don. Helen and Milo were our guides for the day and peppered us with all sorts of history lessons about the area around Cripple Creek and the town of Victor.
This makes me wonder how in the world this old mine building manages to stay standing! The normal male would probably want to take duct tape to this so it doesn't come apart....
Clouds are starting to build up as we head back to spot where we parked. We started out with a clear blue sky and no clouds at all.
The weather man predicted thundershowers. Early in the afternoon, the dark clouds started to gather. Guess he was right.