Colorado trip, Third Stop

After leaving theMesa Verde area, we drove through Cortez and up into the mountains. Had a picnic lunch in Delores at a really fun playground and park, still yet again holding onto our food so it wouldn't blow away!! Stopped for a short search for a geocache that we couldn't find :-(




And then I was rewarded with my main reason to visit this area: the San Juan mountains!














Into Telluride for a little time to play in the river. The water was cold - straight off the mountain snow - brrrr!!!!!!




Rocks for our tumbler:









And then down into Ridgeway, to stay at Ridgeway State Park. Have I mentioned before that this is my favorite State Park?

We met up with friends again to camp here. This area has a lot - walk-in campsites with shade, yet views of the reservoir and mountains, (oh yeah, the carts to wheel your stuff in and out and the flush toilets, showers, and dishwashing facilites are nice too ;-), the reservoir beach (a bit cold this time around) with lots of sand for playing and the primo playground, Ouray is only 10 miles away - with a big hot springs pool (which we skipped this time - next time for sure!) and nice shops to peruse. And of course the views! Okay, I'll stop gushing now.

We found a few more geocaches here. Very fun way to encourage the kids to hike longer, and to learn a little about navigation too.


Searching for caches:










Ahhh - a cache!!!!
Cactus flowers:










Here I felt like we should break out into song........ the hills are alive.....














Amazing.




















Another geocache:

On top of the world? A USGS marker.

The view from our campsite:In case you didn't know, I'm also a bit of a yoga nerd. So here is my fun yoga find for the trip, sculpture of crow and headstand in Ouray:

Playing on the beach and playground in the sunset:






















I love sunset pictures, both of people and landscapes.









Campfire pictures:













A last camping day of playing on the beach, building dams!

After that, we went our separate ways, ending up in Grand Junction for a night at a hotel. Then home the next day, with stops at Rifle Gap State Park for lunch and fishing, Summit County for more fishing (and a nap for me), and then to Beau Joes for mountains pies. Yummmmm!

PS If it looks like my kids wore the same clothes the whole trip, they pretty much did. They occassionally put on cleaner clothes, but seemed t ogo back to the same ones after a while. I usually let them pick, unless we are going somewhere like a restuarant, then I ask them to put on clean ones. AH well.

All in all, a long trip, but so worth it. Next camping is a whole month away!

Next folder is May 2003, KY: