Celebrating "Colorado Day" in Leadville, Colorado

We're way behind in getting travel posts published because we were having way too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

August 1, 2023

August 1 is the date that Colorado became a state in 1876, so it is designated as "Colorado Day." Since we're living in this state for a month, it seemed fitting that we celebrated with the locals. So we planned a Colorado Day driving north towards Leadville. While we didn't stop on the outskirts of town at Turquoise Lake, the glassy views sure tempted us. We'll be back on another day with our kayak.

We took a series of gravel roads to travel nine miles west of Leadville for our Colorado Day hike. As our bumpy road took us up in elevation, we couldn't see the mountains because of all the trees around us. After traveling in areas where the trees have been decimated by fires and beetles, it's nice to drive through a healthy forest.

Our destination for Colorado Day is inside the Mount Massive Wilderness in the San Isabel National Forest. It was 56 degrees when we started the trail, but it didn't take us long to warm up with our hiking.

This trail is rated as "strenuous" because of its steepness. It's just a little over a mile to the lake, but we went up 876 feet in elevation. It's like being on a stair-stepper for an hour as we went up and up.

We didn't see any wildlife, but we found some fun places for them to hang out. While Denisa wasn't keen on going into dark caves, Mark seemed to relish the opportunity.

We were on the Windsor Lake Trail, and it finally got less steep once we got to the upper plateau. We had beautiful views since we were in a bowl surrounded by mountains.

We're glad that we knew that the first marshy lake was not our destination, because we would have been disappointed with the hike.

The next lake was our destination. When we finally got to Windsor Lake we were not disappointed!

The water is so clear that we could see every rock on the bottom. We have wandered into another of God's wonders!

The big mountain behind the lake is Massive Mountain--the second highest in the Rocky Mountains. At 14,429 feet, it's also the second highest in the state of Colorado.

We thought it was interesting that another mountain in this area is Oklahoma Mountain. While we weren't completely sure which peak was named Oklahoma, our mountain identification app indicated that it was someplace close. While admiring the surrounding mountains, we hiked half-way around Windsor Lake before the marshy wet ground stopped us. 

While the steep hike up was hard, sometimes the steep hike down can be even harder. You seldom hear of anyone falling up a steep mountain, but it would certainly be easy to fall down. We had to stop occasionally to take in the wildflowers that were still blooming on August 1. Orange paintbrushes are more common in the Oklahoma and Texas prairies, and their blooming season was over long ago. We love the pink color of the paintbrush flowers that last all the way to fall in the cool high-altitude mountains.

Speaking of flowers, we also found an abundance of blooms in an unusual place--the public bathroom near the visitor center in Leadville. A local artist was putting finishing touches on the new paint job before the upcoming Boom Days. At the chamber office we got information about this weekend's festival, as well as Colorado Day.

We had read that the Healey House had free admission and a guided tour in celebration of Colorado Day. The tour included the white three-story house built in 1878, and also the tiny log cabin right beside it.

We were glad that we hiked in the morning, because it started raining as we began our house tour. The Healey House has served as a family residence, a school, a hospital, a boarding house, etc.

But today it had been restored to the period somewhere between 1878 and 1900. Our tour guide pointed out that it was built before trains brought more people to this mountain. So every piece of furniture had to come up the mountain on a wagon. The fact that the large figurine sitting on the piano made it here on a bumpy wagon ride might indicate that it was made of tough stuff--just like the pioneers that settled here.

During its days as a boarding house, meals were served on a white table cloth, with cloth napkins. But this was in the days before automatic washing machines. So each guest had a unique napkin ring. After each meal they rolled up their cloth napkin and put their unique napkin ring around it. They would use the same cloth napkin for a week until the next wash day.

Charlotte, our tour guide, talked fast in order to tell us the most stories possible during our 60-minute guided Colorado Day tour. 

Right next door we walked inside the Dexter Cabin. While it looked like a simple pioneer cabin from the outside . . .

it was lavishly decorated on the inside. Mr. Dexter was one of the original millionaires made rich from the gold and silver mined in these mountains. He built the ultimate "man cave" where Leadville's elite came to play poker in the 1800s.

It was a great tour into the past of Leadville, and a great way to celebrate Colorado Day. On the drive back to the motor home, it rained and hailed on us. They really needed the moisture in this part of the state, so that was another reason to celebrate on Colorado Day in Leadville.

More of God's Wonders at Cottonwood Lake

We're way behind in getting travel posts published because we were having way too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

July 31, 2023

Just a few miles west of Buena Vista, along a gravel road that leads deeper into the mountains, is one of the best mountain lakes to kayak in this area. We headed to Cottonwood Lake early in the morning, knowing that in the afternoon winds and lightning storms could interrupt this tranquility.

We only saw three other kayaks and SUPs this early. The water looked like glass, reflecting the mountains around it.

It's hard to show in a photo how big the mountains that surrounded us were. You can't even see the cars parked on the edge of the lake because they were so tiny in comparison to Sheep Mountain.

The water was perfectly clear, and we could see the fish swimming beside us.

While it was nice to row all around the edge of Cottonwood Lake, we had to say that our favorite area was where the river grass starts infringing on the west edge of the lake.

The grass formed mazes that we followed to see how far they would lead us deeper into the mountains. Sometimes we were led by a duck who was quite surprised to see a boat in this section.

The ducks seemed quite calm when we approached their secret passage very slowly.

We were going very slowly because the water was quite shallow and we didn't want to hit the bottom. It was surrounded by grass and willows, and we had a fellow kayaker warn us of the moose. Sitting low in a kayak and surrounded by tall shrubbery, it is impossible to see a moose eating willows just a few feet away. The kayaker was surprised last year when he startled a moose, who charged towards him and his kayak.

So Mark decided to look over the tops of the greenery around us, hoping to spot a moose. Our kayak is stable enough to stand up, but we rarely do. That's because the movement of the back passenger standing up will sway the front passenger side to side in such a way that it surely feels like she would be dumped overboard. In other words, it makes Denisa scream. That would scare the moose away. The truth is that even if we did capsize, we were in less than 6 inches of water.

In these shallow inlets, we got a close-up view of the Colorado lake fish swimming right below us.

Most of the inlets end in a beaver dam, and we're always amazed at their engineering ability.

Back on the big lake, we took another opportunity to row all the way around Cottonwood Lake because it was such a beautiful day. We have wandered into another of God's wonders! We did notice that clouds were starting to build in the blue skies, so it was time to get the boat off the water.

More boats were arriving, and the water was getting more choppy as we dried off the kayak and bid farewell to Cottonwood Lake.

We still had plenty of daylight, and we were getting used to the idea of being in one place for an entire month so we could explore it more thoroughly. So we decided to drive further down the gravel road that led us to the lake. We found lots of disbursed camping sites in the national forest, and a no-hook-up campground that looked very nice. We also saw a sign that indicated we were in a wildlife viewing area. We were right below Sheep Mountain, and the sign said we were supposed to see mountain sheep here. We decided to just hike a little ways to look for wildlife, so we didn't take any water with us. We also didn't have a trail, so we headed straight up that mountain in a heart-pounding elevation gain. But that quickly gave us more views of Cottonwood Lake from above.

While we found plenty of sheep poop, we never saw any mountain sheep on Sheep Mountain. We were trying to find an alternative way down to avoid that steep incline, when we found a gravel trail. We followed it, even though we didn't know where it was leading. We only knew that it appeared to be going down in elevation, and that's the direction we needed to get back to the pickup.

We hiked through a canopy of aspens as the storm hit. We had seen the clouds building earlier, and they delivered some lightning and sleet on this last day of July. We were glad to be a little lower in elevation with some tree cover during the storm.

Our gravel trail took us a couple miles out of the way, but we eventually made it back to where we left the pickup parked. We were wishing for some water on this longer-than-planned hike. Note to self: NEVER leave on a hike with Mark without water because it will always turns out longer than you think. We somehow managed to find more of God's wonders than we planned at Cottonwood Lake!

A Good Long Day at the Chaffee County Fair

We're way behind in getting travel posts published because we were having way too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

July 29, 2023

While we were hanging out at Buena Vista for a month, we were looking for festivals or celebrations in the area. While we didn't find a festival for the first weekend, we did find the Chaffee County Fair. The fairgrounds are on the west side of the neighboring town of Salida, with a beautiful view of the 14ers on the west side of the rodeo grounds.

Saturday was "Kid's Day" at the county fair, and we went early to watch the events that were organized for the kids. We should have taken pictures of the greased pig contest for the youngest group of children, because they were adorable. This older group was more focused and had more pig-catching skills.

While Chaffee County is popular with tourists, many of the locals live on farms and ranches outside of town. These kids knew how to catch a pig, and the $50 prize money was a great incentive.

Another activity was the lawn mower race that wound its way through a series of cones. The trick was that the driver was wearing a blind-fold, and only had the advice of the passenger in the cart to get them through the maze. Lots of the cones were knocked down on that race course.

We also watched the contest to see who could unfold a frozen tshirt the fastest, and another to see who could pick up the most marbles with their toes from an ice cold tub of water. A local bank hid coins in a big pile of wood shavings and that was another popular kid's day event. After enjoying the county fair, we spent the middle part of the day exploring the town of Salida. The town is situated along the Arkansas River, and this is a popular place to cool off on a Saturday afternoon. Salida is in the valley, at an elevation around 7,000 feet so it does get warm here. We saw lots of people tubing down the river that meanders through town and along the popular River Park.

They've added water features to increase the flow in certain areas. It's a fun activity to find a seat on the edge of the river to watch the people that try their luck in the eddies.

The Arkansas River had been channeled to provide a wave-like eddy, and surfers in wet suits lined up to test their skills.

Most of the beginners wiped out quickly on the wave. But seasoned river surfers were limited to three minutes because it looked like they could surf forever on that wave.

Besides having to judge the current and keep balance on that unsteady board, obstacles can come downriver at any time. While tubers usually exit before the surf zone, an occasional tube must be dodged.

The rafts were harder to dodge. In order to continue down the Arkansas River on a longer float trip, rafts must negotiate these big waves.

We watched as rafts full of people went over the wave . . .

and then disappeared into the white water after it.

We ate lunch in town, and then got caught in a rain storm. We have heard of the afternoon lightning storms in the mountains, but they also happen in the valley. This area desperately needs the moisture, so it was a welcomed rain. We experienced the closest lightning strike, and we were glad that we were in the pickup instead of on a hike. While we drove under a traffic light, the pole was struck by lightning. The boom inside our vehicle was deafening, and it wiped out the stop light. We assumed that the storm would cancel the evening activities at the Chaffee County Fair, but we were glad to see that it only delayed the start of the ranch rodeo. We got there as they were finishing the "Cowboy Calcutta," a fund-raiser where people bid to sponsor a team of cowboys that are in the competition. The team leaving the arena just sold for $1,800. If the team they "bought" won, the bidder would win part of the prize money.

The reigning cowgirl queen and princess presented the colors on horseback, and we sang the Star Spangled Banner after we were led in a prayer.

As they rode the flags around the arena, we could see the large wall cloud that had brought the storms to the valley.

While we have been to many rodeos in our lives, we have to say that we prefer to watch a ranch rodeo. While a regular rodeo contains individual cowboys trying to stay on bucking bulls and horses for eight seconds, the events in a ranch rodeo are more complicated. They are team events with a group of five cowboys trying to complete a task using skills that are needed in everyday ranch work. For example, in this competition a single cowboy on horseback enters a pen of ten cows and calves, each with a number on its back. A random number is drawn and announced, and the cowboy must rope the back legs of (in this case #9) that calf in the crowded pen.

He brings calf #9 out of the pen while three other cowboys close the gate. They then hold the calf down and remove the rope while the fifth cowboy runs across the arena with a chalk-covered branding iron to mark the calf.

When the cowboy runs back across the arena to replace the branding iron, and the ropes are removed from the calf, the judge will lower the red flag to stop the timer. The team that can accomplish all that in the fastest time wins that round.

The sun was setting behind the mountains as we watched the rodeo, and it seemed like the cowboys didn't even recognize that they had wandered into God's wonders while they were competing. During the rodeo, we were looking over the crowd hoping to spot Mark's cousin. He has ranched in this valley for years, and we thought they might be at the rodeo. Sure enough, we spotted them near the fence. Their ranch has participated in the ranch rodeo and won it several times. But their best cowboys--their children--have grown up and moved away. So they were spectators this year.

Another competition involved roping a randomly drawn numbered yearling, and getting him loaded into a trailer. After shutting the gate, all the cowboys had to jump up on the bed of the pickup before the timer was stopped.

All the competitions used skills that are needed to run a ranch and manage a herd of cattle. Most of them involved some roping skills, and the help of a good horse. 

It was getting dark and beginning to rain during the last competition. Ten yearlings were numbered, and grouped at the far end of the arena. The announcer drew a random number from a hat, and announced it as the five cowboys on horseback approached the herd. If the number eight was announced, the group had to first separate the calf with #8 on its back and move him past a half-way line in the arena. Then they would try to separate calf #9 and move him to the near side of the arena . . . then #10 . . . then #1 . . . They had to do this shuffling and separating on the far end of the arena while keeping #8 and #9 etc. from running back across the line and joining the herd. It was a limited timed event, and it was amazing to watch the dexterity of the cutting horses in action.

Wow! That was a great rodeo! At the end of the four events, the winning team (and the sponsor that purchased them in the Calcutta) took home the prize money and bragging rights. We thought is was so much more interesting than the traditional rodeo with its eight-second rides that have little to do with actual ranching skills. When does a working cowboy really try to ride a bull? We had read about the rodeo dance, and were glad to find that Mark's cousin and wife were going there too. So the four of us danced the night away to a very talented Justin Wulf Band that played lots of good two-stepping songs.

The 9:00 dance wasn't over until after midnight. Considering that we had arrived to the fair in time for the morning events, it was a good long day at the Chaffee County Fair!