Waterfalls Burgers and Mines

 It is always a treat to show our guests around out little corner of Colorado.

Colorado has many waterfalls. Some are a bit over commercialized, making you pay not only an entrance fee but for parking as well.

The most famous falls in our county is North Clear Creek Falls. It is only 1/2 mile off of the little highway between  Lake City, CO and Creede. There is paved paved parking, a nice restroom, picnic tables and guardrails and all for free. It was our first stop with our guests, but I was eager to show them a nearby waterfall that is a bit hidden.

Less than a mile down the road and tucked away behind a small campground is South Clear Creek Falls, where you  are allowed to hike down a short trail to the bottom of the falls.Those are our guests trekking down. You would never know it is there as there isn’t any visible signage on the road.

Next stop was the small town of Creede where there  are  still remnants of the booming mining town it was. Creede is a popular tourist town in the summer so the rstaurants were swamped.

So we headed back toward Lake City and stopped at our favorite General Store.

It a real trip back in time,

where you can get a delicious grilled hamburger ,

not to mention where their $2 single dip  ice cream cones that  always  includes two scoops.

It ended up being their favorite days here.

Chamber Music

 As rough and tumble as this little mountain town can be, we do have a very broad spectrum of things going on. Along with the outdoor activities, like hiking, four wheeling and fly fishing we have three chamber music concerts a summer.

In addition to the chamber music concerts we have a String Academy that just  celebrated its’s fifth season. Master violinist from all over the world complete for the seven available slots.

This week the violinist from the  String Academy teamed up with a visiting chamber music orchestra to perform Antonio  Vivaldi’s  Four  Seasons. A musical expression of the four seasons and I  can’t even begin to explain how beautiful it was.

Feeding the Hikers

 Two trails converge near the top of the mountain to east of Lake City. The Colorado Trail that goes from Denver to Durango, Colorado which is 486 miles (783km).

and  the much longer Continental Trail 3,100 miles (4,873 km).

Many of the hikers drop down into Lake City to stay over in one of our hostels …where there are showers, and also to replenish their provisions.

To make them feel welcome, the town has gotten together to have a dinner for them once a week.

Last night we fed 50 hungry hikers.

I think the locals enjoyed it almost as much as the hikers.

It Ain’t Broadway

 No it isn’t Broadway…but it is Broadway in little Lake city.

Our cute MC’s for the evening. 

These are just local folks with talent.

They entertained us with Broadway Songs, and they were great,

and at times hilarious!

Yes, this song was from the Lion King.

I haven’t been posting because  we have guests…but I will try to do better!

A Castle

 On Friday of this week, we drove my daughter and two little granddaughters to Denver to catch their flight back to North Carolina. Gosh we are going to miss them.

Instead of the usual way back to the mountains, Tom and I drove down to Colorado Springs.

There was a very special place that I have always wanted to spend the night.

Glen Eyrie Castle was the home of General Wm Palmer and his family. He was a decorated General of the American Civil war and an executive of the railroad, founder of Colorado Springs and a philanthropist.

He bought a huge amount of land and built a castle for his new bride which he called Queen.

Queen and Palmer  had three beautiful daughters and were generous with the community that he had founded. I love history but won’t bore you with all of the details, except to say Queen had heart trouble and couldn’t cope with the high altitude in Colorado Springs . She died young and Palmer remained in the castle with his three daughters even though he became paralyzed in a riding accident.

The castle now hosts conventions as well as overnight guests.We had breakfast on this pretty terrace.

I of course was busy snooping  around inside.

The place was simply beautiful..

There are tours of the castle. I liked  this lovely painting is of their first daughter Elsie,

and you can also book a high tea in the afternoon.

I would like this table please. No 

we didn’t stay for tea…we headed to head back home after breakfast.

Although we had time to walk around the property especially since it was such a pretty day.

Those are wild turkeys across the way.

There was also a rose garden.

I especially liked these.

I forgot to mention that the property adjoins a park called Garden of the Gods. A huge selection of red rock formations. This was the view from our room.

Well, I can now cross this off of my bucket list. We had a wonderful stay and then headed back to the hills.

A week of Fun

 We have had a busy fun week so far.

We have been on nature walks,

2

where we spotted a lot of interesting things.

We played mini golf,

and tried our hand at some sports.

Our favorite thing to do is collect smooth river rocks,

and paint them!

The rains have arrived so we are going to have to find some indoor activities.

Visitors

 I have been missing my little North Carolina granddaughters.

So this week, they packed  their bags,

grabbed Mom and flew all the way to Colorado to spend a week with me and Gramps!💕

Ye Old Swimming Hole

 We don’t have a swimming pool in this little town. There use to be one at one of the lodges and we always saved a day when vacationing here to go for a swim. For some reason they filled it in few years ago.

You can click on photo to enlarge

So now this is the favorite place to swim. Once the river calms down from the runoff caused by the snow melt. I wouldn’t know since I hear it is ice cold!

Happy Fourth

 For the first time that I can remember, this little town has split the Fourth of July festivities. They had the fire works display last night and the parade and games in the park will be today on the fourth,

which meant we had our  firework watching party a day early. In answer to your question, no we are not hunters…

In addition to hotdogs baked  beans and macaroni salad we had a whole array of desserts.Out friend Betty made the cake.

Bundled up against the mountain chill,

we had our usual ringside seats to view the fireworks.