Colorado
July 17, 1965 - August 5,1965
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July 17, 1965 Saturday
We left San Antonio at 8:45, after a brief stop
at Sis's for a lawn chair.
The trip to Odessa was uneventful. We stopped in a roadside park outside Sonora and had lunch. We got to Dick and Dot's about 4:30. Had a good visit with them. Rick is so talented on that piano! He's a nice guy, too.
Had a good fried chicken dinner with Dick and Dot. Really enjoyed our visit.
I read a whole book, Henry Reed, Inc., to the children on the way today.
July 18, 1965 Sunday
Up and away at 9:15. Had a real good breakfast,
said our good-byes, and started.
The drive today was mostly hot. At noon we had lunch at Bottomless Lake State Park -- pretty, but very warm. The boys found some pretty rocks.
We got to Hyde State Park, New Mexico, about six. Beautiful canyon -- delightfully cool. In fact, the kids were in shorts and really were hopping around.
Enjoyed a good night and morning in a beautiful area.
July 19, 1965 Monday
Up and away by 8:00. The boys enjoyed the chipmunk,
squirrels, robins, jays, and assorted animal life that was in camp this
morning. In fact, we all did.
It was cold enough to go into long slacks and jackets this morning. We really liked this area!
We crossed over into Colorado and got into the Rio Grade National Forest. Ate lunch in a camp ground I would have willingly stayed in -- Aspen Glade Campground. Beautiful! Then we drove to other areas and looked around; one, the Truijillo Meadows Reservoir. We had to unhitch the trailer and go check. The road was "Unsafe for Motor Vehicles". It was pretty, but the road was pretty bad for a trailer -- and the mosquitoes were terrible. We ended up in the Elk Creek Campground. Again, beautiful, clean, and great. Had an outdoor supper and roasted marshmallows. Slept 11 hours.
July 20, 1965 Tuesday
Billy got up at five this morning and fished a
couple of hours; then he rousted us out of bed. We were really
sleeping! We went to bed at 8:30 and got up at 7:30. After breakfast we
broke camp
and took off for another one. It took us all day as the men fished
along
the way. At noon we were in a beautiful spot along the Conejos and stayed
until two. The men fished, Bobby and Billy also hiked, and Barbara and
I played games and read and slept. Then we drove on to the Great Sandunes
National Monument. It was raining cats and dogs and Bill and I
had a cleanup
job to do -- we broke the glass around our light in the trailer.
Had supper at eight so the canned peas, spaghetti and meat balls, and fruit tasted good. There were some mosquitoes tonight, but it wasn't too bad.
July 21, 1965 Wednesday
Up and away to the visitors center by eight. We
had "fancy" rest rooms here -- electricity and running water. After the
outdoor privy types we've had for several days, these were a delightful
luxury.
We looked over the displays at the visitors' center; then we drove to the parking lot and went to the Great Sand Dunes. We had to take off our shoes and cross a couple of blocks of running water before we approached the dunes. We carried our shoes and took turns carrying our snow slide wing. As it turned out, though, we didn't use our shoes again until after we recrossed the water. The sand on the dunes was clean, cool, and delightful to the feet. Because of the rain last night, it had a slight hard crust that, I'm sure, made it better walking. But the snow wing just wouldn't work! It bogged down and refused to go.
We spent a fun hour running, rolling, and digging in the sand. It was great. Then we hiked back to the parking area, changed into clean clothes, and headed for Del Norte to stock up before going back into the mountains again.
In the sand dunes part of our time was spent watching a family make a home movie. The part we saw consisted of someone in obvious distress crawling through the sand. Someone came up with a full canteen of water, took a big swig and then poured the rest of the water in front of the poor boy. Great histrionics! We applauded when the scene was over, and the two actors stood up and bowed.
We went to Creed and then left civilization and paved roads and went into the Upper Rio Grade Primitive Area. Our first look at fishable waters was the Road Canyon Reservoir, and the lake was too pretty to pass up. Are we glad we didn't!
We parked and Billy, Barb, and Bill decided to "wet a line" while Bobby and I hiked. We laughed and teased saying the Barbara, who had done no fishing before right now, would probably be the one to catch the fish -- and that is what happened! She had a beautiful twelve inch rainbow before sundown -- our first edible trout!
Bill began talking to a Mr. Townsend from New Mexico. He had a pickup with a boat on it. Mr. T. needed help driving his pickup and getting his boat in the water. Bill helped him.
Bobby's and my hike was up quite a bluff to the base of a rocky cliff.
This really isn't much of a camping area -- no trees at all, but it is cool -- even in the hottest part of the day.
The trout Barbara caught has renewed everyone's enthusiasm for fishing!
July 22, 1965 Thursday
Road Canyon Reservoir
Knock a log out of the house! Mr. Towsend took Billy and Bill fishing,
and Billy caught four; Bill three -- but the size! They were from ten
to fourteen inches. We had five trout for lunch, and four for super.
Delicious.
All rainbows. The meat is very pink and very delicious.
This afternoon Bill and Barbara went out, but they had no luck. Billy caught another one -- getting his limit for the day, and they were all beauties.
This afternoon and also this morning, Bob and I took hikes along a stream. We saw lots of trout -- but they were all fingerlings.
The afternoon hike was fun, but we got our feet and shoes wet and muddy. I'm glad we both have a second pair.
While traveling, I read the children The Twenty-One Balloons. Now we are reading The Moon Tenders and Borrowers Afloat. The children were too tired, though, to be read to this evening.
July 23, 1965 Friday
This morning, while Bob and I took another long
mountain climb, Barb and Bill went out in Mr. Towsend's boat and Billy
fished the bank. Billy and Bill caught one each; Barb caught two.
Then, just before we said our good-byes to the Towsends and pulled out, Billy caught his first "brookie" -- a beautiful little (about eight inches) brook trout. All the way to the next site, Billy bemoaned the fact that he could catch only three more fish before he reached his limit for the day. He turned his first one loose at Rito Hondo, our stop, because he didn't want to have to stop fishing too soon. The imp -- he doesn't know they just may not bite all the time.
About four he caught and immediately cleaned another brook trout. At five the wind came up and it began to get rather cold. However, Barbara took the folding chair down to the lake and started fishing with Billy.
Barb caught one, Billy, two. About six they got cold and came up for supper -- that wasn't ready because Bill was taking a bath.
Supper was good, sleeping was wonderful. It rained during the night.
July 24, 1965 Saturday
Slow star this morning because it was raining,
and it was just too good to sleep. We ate breakfast, fixed the trailer
for traveling, and took off for the Gunnison.
We got to the Gunnison about eleven, did our washing, ate lunch, stocked up an groceries, and called Les's friend in Denver. she has not heard from Les as yet. Sooo we took a vote with the kids as to whether we would go back "in the backwoods" for more fishing and camping, or head for Rocky Mountain National Park. They all voted to head for the park. We're hoping for some snow and horseback riding.
The road is good and paved all the way. Paved -- lovely word.
We stayed in a National Forest Campground near Dillon, Colorado, called the Tenderfoot Campground. It was a beautiful area. We all enjoyed our night here.
July 25, 1965 Sunday
Up and breakfasted by nine. Had to hike up in our
camp area to where a little blue Nebraska mustang had gone over a bump
and into the river. The car was in up to his front wheels, and it was
standing
rather on end. A wrecker will be needed to pull him out.
We left this beautiful campsite and proceeded on up and over Loveland Pass. On top of Loveland Pass we were in our first snow and used the snow wing. Bobby went down twice and had good slides. I went down once and got a very wet back side. Bill went down once and skinned a knuckle. Billy went down twice and got muddy, and Barbara went down once and really bumped her arms and ribs. But -- it was fun! We're now looking for more snow with a gentle slope at the bottom!
When we got to the foot of the Pass, we noticed a little town off to our right, Georgetown, was all barricaded and there were army trucks in it. Finally we pulled into one of the roads leading to town and a young blond fellow with a badge walked up and said, "The towns closed". We said, "Yes, but why?". It seems the town was flooding and two dams up above were "shaky". Interesting!
As we proceeded, we found some roads closed and some slides had occurred. In Idaho Springs we saw twenty or so old fashioned cars that were all parked. Then as we proceeded on toward Denver, we met more of the cars coming to meet the others. We found our state highway 119 open to Central City; so we went that way. It was a beautiful canyon drive. We saw evidence of why the road was closed for part of the time -- land slides had been pushed off the road and water had been over the road.
We got to Central City and looked it over. Went to the Central City Museum and Diamond Lil Mine. All the commercialism left Bill and me cold. Barbara was only mildly interested, Bill liked the rocks, Bobby liked the whole business.
After Central City we ate lunch in a park in the Arapaho National Forest. Then we drove on toward Estes Park.
Both this morning and this afternoon we were caught in hail storms. They were exciting to the kids, but irksome to the driver. We've been in rain storms off and on all day, too.
Estes Park was crawling with people 1 It looked like Grand Central Station on a Saturday. We gassed and watered up and headed for a campground.
The first one we tried, a new one called Moraine Park Campground, was full. The second, Glacier Basin, was almost full. We found one place, but on learning that it was underwater last night, we moved to another.
We went to evening church services in the open amphitheater, and about half way through the rains came again. As there were only 43 of us, we all moved up under the overhang with the young Baptist preacher who was giving the service. 'Twas fun.
We came home and had super; then went back to hear a ranger lecture on the tundra. It was with slides and was most interesting, but before it was over, we were all quite cold.
We tried before the talk to call sis, but her line was busy. After the talk there were too many people waiting for the phone.
We would still like to get in touch with Toni and Les if possible.
The rest rooms in Glacier Basin are nice, clean, modern ones -- we are really back in civilization again. in fact, there are more people around us here, I'm sure, than we have on a comparable block on Wayside Drive.
It was cold tonight, but we all slept well.
July 26, 1965 Monday
Up and breakfasted early this morning so that we
could go on a ranger-naturalist conducted hike to Alberta Falls. It started
at eight and only lasted 'til nine. The Falls was .6 of a mile up a
very
well defined trail. Our ranger, Mr. Delong from Iowa, was most
interesting
-- as was the hike, view, and weather. the sun is shining beautifully
this
morning, but the rain is still much a topic of conversation. This has
been
a very wet July, our ranger told us.
After the hike, we went to the Morain Park Visitors Center to see the museum and check on contacting Toni and Les.
Then we came back to the trailer and had the last of the rainbow trout. After cleaning the dishes and resting a bit, we went up Trail Ridge Road. We took the snow wing and found some real fine places to use it. It was great -- but the climb back from each ride was quite tiring.
We went up Trail Ridge Road to the ranger station on "top" and came home -- tired!
We went to Estes Park to get a chicken to fry, but we ended up with hamburgers. I fixed rice and gravy and it certainly tasted good!
We rested about an hour until time for the ranger talk. It spattered rain off and on all evening. I'm glad it didn't rain on Trail Ridge Road! The scenery was wonderful.
At 8:30 though, it was sprinkling some still, we went to the ranger talk. it was about mountains and glaciers, and was very good. Ranger Olsen was most humorous and informative. We really enjoyed him.
Bobby fell asleep before we got very far in the talk -- one tired boy he was!
No one, as a matter of fact, needed rocking to sleep.
July 27, 1965 Tuesday
Slept late this morning -- no one made me get up
until 7:30! We ate a substantial breakfast of corned beef hash and eggs
and went to Bear Lake to meet
a ranger and hike up to Nymph
and Dream Lakes
under Hallets Peak. This
ranger was born in Boerne, Texas, and had his
first seven years of schooling at Alamo Heights. He was red handed and
very interesting. He ask questions rather than making statements.
At Dream Lake we left our ranger-naturalist and hiked up to Emerald. It was quite a climb -- over big boulders and through one small snow field. The path was rather muddy, too, but it wasn't sticky-type mud.
We took a few pictures at Emerald and then started back in something of a hurry -- Bobby and Barbara had one o'clock dates with a couple of horses.
We ate lunch (Bob needed no urging today) in a hurry and got the family over to Glacier Creek Stables where Bob and Barb, riding Major and Aie, started at one o'clock on a two hour ride over Rocker Mountain. They looked quite thrilled to be going!
While they rode, Bill and I slept and Billy fished.
Oh, yes, I changed my shoes and socks. Coming back from our Emerald Lake trip, I was walking along the base of a snow field and fell through the snow and even though just the bottom of my jeans got wet, my feet were soaked!
When Bob and Barb returned from their ride, they had several tales to tell. The lead horse "spooked", throwing one of the guides. The woman riding behind him also fell off. Then it began raining and Bob, not realizing his raincoat was a ponch-type tried to put his arm through the hole and then could find no other holes for his head and other arm. Barb finally explained it to him.
Bob's comment when he got back in the car was, "Gosh, that was fun -- but I didn't like it!". He explained that he did like it all but the rain.
When we got everyone loaded back in the car, we went down to Estes Park to get a fryer (everyone is hungry for chicken). We also got a half gallon of vanilla ice-cream, brought it back to the trailer, and the five of us had no trouble eating it. Consequently, we didn't want a very early supper.
Bob and I decided about six to take a little hike, and we had gone only about three campsites down the road when I heard someone call, "Mrs. Brooks". It turned out to be Rowena Rodgers whose husband, Keith, works with Bill out at Kelly. Small world!
After supper (chili, it was cold and I had hamburger older than the chicken), we went to the ranger's lecture. Then we came home and went to bed. Oh, yes, we called sis tonight. It was good to hear her voice, but I was sorry to hear Toni and Les are still in San Antonio. Toni is still trying to find a job.
July 28, 1965 Wednesday
Up at 7:30. It seemed quite a bit colder this morning;
so I fixed old Bob his pancakes. He ate 8, so I guess he liked them.
All
of us did, as a matter of fact.
Then we packed a lunch in a back pack and drove to Wild Basin.
We hiked in to Ouzel Falls -- a six and a half mile hike there and back. We really enjoyed it, even though we got rained on some. Billy caught a cut throat trout -- a new kind for him. He was quite thrilled. We dressed it and brought it along.
When we got to Ouzel Falls and settled to eat, the rains started. We ate rather hurriedly and then got spattered on off and on during the rest of the hike back.
We were pretty tired when we returned to our little trailer! Barb and I stayed in the car while the men and boys bathed and put on clean clothes.
Tomorrow we're off for Denver.
After supper bill and the children went to the ranger talk, but I just went to bed and read.
July 29, 1965 Thursday
Up, breakfast, and broke camp. We went into Denver
and first we went downtown, parked the car by the mint, and ate lunch
in
a cafeteria. Then we went through the mint -- most interesting trip! We
saw pennies and quarters being made.
After that, we went to the Denver National Museum. We spent the rest of the afternoon there. The children thoroughly enjoyed the visit. We heard a talk by to young men connected with NASA in Houston. They told us about what the space program hopes to do in the next few years.
Since we didn't leave Denver until so late, we had to take an alternative campground to the Eleven Mile Reservoir we were headed for. Billy was disappointed. He's eager to fish again.
As it was, we didn't eat supper until eight, surely did taste good!
This was a beautiful campground.
July 30, 1965 Friday
Colorado Camp -- Pike National Forest
Billy worked hard this morning getting us all up. He's eager to get
in his last day of fishing.
Though it wasn't so cold this morning, it was wonderful sleeping, and we simply didn't want to get up!
However, we had breakfast and started by nine -- hope to be at our new camp by ten or so.
I started another book with the children -- Gone Away Lake. We're now reading in three; that one, The Dark Horse, and Dark Frigate. The children have enjoyed the books, as usual, but we haven't read as much -- I've wanted to watch the scenery too much. So far we've read 21 Balloons, The Moon Tenders, and The Borrowers Afield. We're working on three more.
We got to Eleven Mile Reservoir about ten-thirty. We came up on the Colorado side rather than on the National Park side, I'm sorry to say. The campgrounds aren't so nice. however, we nestled our trailer in among the rocks and fixed a pretty nice place. Deciding it was too hot to fish, Billy conned Bob into climbing a mountain with him. I took a picture of them up on the top.
Barbara and I stayed in camp and fed the ground squirrels and wrote and read. Bill climbed at least part way with the boys.
In the afternoon Bill and Billy fished, but the wind was high, and the fishing was poor.
We ate supper at the reservoir and then went back to the campground closer to Colorado springs (South Meadows Campground) -- 24 miles. We found the campground temporarily out of water, but we had enough in the trailer.
We bought half a gallon of ice-cream on the way in and ate it at camp.
July 31, 1965 Saturday
Up, breakfast, and away for Colorado
Springs. The
weather is most un-cooperative -- very gray and drippy. We've decided
against
going up Pikes Peak today --
couldn't see a thing anyway.
It was 9:30 before we were on our way this morning -- just too good a day to sleep.
Actually, this remained, all day -- a drippy experience. We went right out to the Air Force Academy, hoping to see the 11 o'clock review, but it was rained out. We enjoyed looking at the visitors center and seeing a short movie on the academy.
After that, we came back into Colorado Springs, serviced the car, washed clothes, and ate in a cafeteria. This took most of the afternoon. Then, since the rain just wouldn't let up, we decided to pull anchor and move on to the Royal Gorge and points south.
On the road out of town we saw the May Tropical Museum advertised, and Bob seemed to want so very much to go; so daddy took off for their site. Bill and I stayed in the car while the children went through the museum.
I finished The Dark Horse while we were driving out of Colorado Springs. Now we're reading Gone Away Lake, and I'm about ready to start The Coriander.
The children enjoyed May Tropical Museum -- they saw the largest and smallest beetles in the world, tarantulas, fox bats, walking sticks, butterflies with their tongues out, and beautiful, beautiful butterflies. They seemed to think it was worthwhile.
We left there (still in the rain) and ended up at a commercial camping spot -- with hot showers!
I fed the family, took a shower, and read The Coriander to the children until 10:30.
August 1, 1965 Sunday
'Twas just as hard as ever to get up this morning.
It was cold, but not as cold as some other mornings.
We had breakfast and went to the Royal Gorge. We couldn't take the trailer across the bridge; so we walked. It was quite an awesome sight!
Then we took the Angel's Walk and the inclined railway down to the bottom of the gorge. Great!
Then we started off for Canyon City to stock up on some cherry cider before heading for another fishing spot.
We bought our cider from an interesting old Italian who really praised his cider and poo-pooed some others. He was interesting. We bought our best apricots from him, too. Delicious! We finished all our cherries today -- just have 'cots and plums now.
We ate lunch at San Isabel Lake and Billy started fishing it. We found a beautiful spot and setup for the evening. About four Billy and Bill, who had gone out to meet and fish with him, came in and suggested we move 35 miles down the road to another Lake with a Colorado State Park attached to it. I rather hated going, knowing we would be out of our last Colorado National Forest campground -- and away from the coolness.
We went on and spent a nice (and surprisingly cool) night at Martin Lake.
August 2, 1965 Monday
Despite the chill in the air, Barbara and I put
on shorts, knowing what was to come later on this day.
We ate breakfast, let Bill fish just a shade more, and started on.
One delightful side trip of today was our trip to the Mt. Capulin National Monument. We looked over the exhibits at the visitors center at the foot of the mountain and then drove to the rim.
There was a mile long self guided walk around the rim of the crater that we took. The climb at times had Bill and me puffing, but we enjoyed it very much -- many of the plants were pointed out as well as some interesting facts about volcanoes in the area. it even told us some about early "bad" men in the area. Bobby was most interested in the lady bugs we found by the hundreds on the plants near the highest part of the crater rim, and Billy liked the markings of the flow of the lava that we could see at the foot of the mountain below us. From our 8,000+ foot altitude, we could see five states at one time; New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The plains below us looked the way they do from an airplane -- all patch work quilt and interesting.
We stopped on the highway outside the park to let the boys get a sampling of lava rock. Billy felt the area we stopped was mostly basalt.
we ate lunch on the Texas line and then journeyed on to Palo Duro Canyon for the night, stopping in Canyon City for some groceries.
We got the groceries and were camped in Palo Duro about six. The sun was too high and the weather to hot to start supper; so Barbara and I took baths and washed our hair while the boys explored and climbed and Bill read. Before supper everyone had had a bath. Billy climbed one side of the canyon wall -- quite a climb!
Palo Duro was most interesting -- right out in the middle of flat prairie you come upon this amazing eroded canyon area -- very beautiful at sunset. Quite hot by nine this morning.
August 3, 1965 Tuesday
The men and boys let Barbara and me sleep until
7:30 this morning -- something of a record.
We ate breakfast and left Palo Duro. It was beginning to be quite hot. As we left the park, Bill ask the children if they'd like to see the museum in Canyon's West Texas State College. Needless to say, they wanted to. So we went there first.
It was a good museum. Bill had to blast us away from it.
We ate lunch in the trailer park under the trees between the two halves of the highway -- on the divider in the middle. Then we drove on into Anson and to Iris and Oscar's house. I read a whole book, Mr. Popper's Penguins to the children today and started Henry and the Paper Route.
It was good to see Iris and Oscar and Uncle Jess and Aunt Eula, who came over from Olney to see us.
August 4, 1965 Wednesday
Until about three today we stayed at Iris's and
talked with her, Uncle Jess and Aunt Eula. Then Jess and Eula left for
home, taking Billy with them, and a little later, we left, pulling the
trailer. I finished reading Henry to the children as we drove over to
Uncle
Jess's. The ride was sleepy and uneventful.
The visit with Uncle Jess and Aunt Eula was fine. We thoroughly enjoyed them, and I know they enjoyed the children.
August 5, 1965 Thursday
We enjoyed a good breakfast and morning visit
with the family. Billy fished and caught two catfish and three perch --
thanks to Uncle Jess's tank. About 9:30 we took off for home...
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