Fossils, Cripple Creek, Burros and Surprises!

I've been slacking. . .because. . .there's too much to put.  The last few weeks have been crazy! I've done so much.  For example, this all happened (Part 1) in ONE day a few weekends ago.

We started our trip on a scenic drive through some park/wilderness.  Where there were TONS of dirtbikers and I got a little jealous until we came to the river. . .

. . .the beautiful South Platte river where we stopped for a break and I FOUND GOLD! Yup, it's true.  I "panned" for gold with my hand and found some flakes and according to my internet research, which is very valid, it is real.  I may have a slight case of gold fever now.

Then we drove to Florissant and stopped at this old homestead of some famous lady who helped found Florissant's National Fossil beds and ran a ranch and the general store and raised a family and owned land all on her own, basically, although she was married several times but her husbands died or went away.

Since it is off-season nothing was open so I looked through the windows of the house and Linda took my picture, unknown to me, from one of the windows on the other side of the house.

Then we ate some yummy Chia seed pudding. . .which is my new favorite thing!

All before we made it to the National Fossil Monument Park place.  Now, I had been very skeptical because ALL other fossilized forests and petrified wood places I have been to have been tiny pieces of wood that are basically nothings.  However, I went because Linda wanted to go and thought it wouldn't be bad to see another stone or two BUT I was so surprised to see REAL HUGE petrified/fossilized trees!  It was so cool! 

They look tiny in pictures but they are just as big as redwoods. In fact the signs say they are petrified redwoods.  There used to be 20-30 of them but back in the day the "pioneers" cut them up into smaller pieces and took them home as souvenirs, so now there are only about a dozen.

This used to be a giant tree that people cut up and carried away. Now it just looks like a rock - like the rest of the "petrified forests". 

Then we saw this done rock park - which is supposed to be like a mini half dome.

On our way to Cripple Creek we saw a large herd of mountain sheep.  There were a lot of them.

This one had the biggest horns.

This is now Cripple Creek.  Which is full of cute houses and old buildings that I have a ton of pictures of - to many for this summary of a day.  So you'll just have to visit to see them for yourself.  It's mostly a casino/gambling town but still has a working gold mine that you can tour which would be fun to do sometime - now that I have a case of gold fever.

All over Cripple Creek are these signs of burros that say "Burro at Large".  Linda and I couldn't figure out what the signs were for .  I assumed that they were jokes since the town had large bronze-looking burro statues all over the place.  Then I talked Linda into driving down Shelf Road - a 4-wheel drive road that the lady in the Welcome Center told us was do-able in a car.  We went around a corner and there they were. . . .

The herd of burros strolling along the road.   Eventually they stopped and ate and drank water on the side of the road.  So naturally Linda and I assumed that they were someone's donkey's who happened to be free-ranging.  Note the one on the far left crossing the road. . .

. . .as we drove past he decided that I looked friendly and thought he'd stick his head in the car through my open window.   Anyways, we came home and read up on the town and discovered the burros are really wild - descendent's of the original miners donkey's who used to keep the miners company.  Now the town feeds and waters them and they're like little citizens just like everyone else.

Driving down shelf road we came around a corner and Linda screamed.  Scared me half to death since once again I was paying more attention to a motorcycle in front of us than I was at the scenery. . .I really need to get a motorcycle if I'm going to end up staying here in Colorado, cars are so limiting. . .so Linda screamed and scared me all for the window in the rock. 

This is how I spent most of the hour 1/2 drive down shelf road, hanging outside of the car.   Linda did great for her first car trip down a 4-wheel drive road.  The road was very narrow - one lane - and had a cliff on one side and a drop off on the other - hence the shelf part of the name.   She was a little nervous about on-coming traffic but thanks to her prayers, all the cars came where there was plenty of room for two cars to pass on the road.

It's time for baby cows!  The end of Shelf road is open range so we saw lots of cows.

Going around a corner on shelf road.

The shelf.

Where we came from.

Then we ended our day driving down Ridge Road.  A road down by Royal Gorge that goes along the top of a ridge with drop offs on both sides.  If you'd like to experience it from the comfort of your home there are several youtube movies of people driving down it. 

And that concludes a brief overview of a weekend - day with Jenica. 

Part two of this particular weekend was waking up at 5:30am to a surprise visit from my parents.  We then spend the day with them exploring El Dorado Canyon Park, shopping, drinking excellent Chai in Nederlands, and spending time with Wheezer. 

THE END!