Into the Mountains

We had a relaxed start today, leaving Colorado Springs at 10 am. We headed south toward Canon City, and began to enter rugged mountainous area. After stopping in Canon City, we decided to skip the trip to the Royal Gorge Bridge, as we found that it was a tourist area and would cost us over $60 for the visit. The boys did not want to pay this, and said that we were seeing enough just driving through the area. Not being a fan of tourist traps, I had no problem with this.

We stopped in a park in the middle of Canon City for a picnic lunch, which brought back a flood of memories of the trips my family took when I was a child. Town parks were also the most common resting places for me on my three bike tours. Got our usual frisbee workout afterwards.

After leaving Canon City we headed west to Salina, and drove through Wildhorse Canon, following the Arkansas River. This area is as ruggedly beautiful as I remember from my bike trip in 1986. I wouldn’t want to live here, but I sure do like visiting!

At Salina we turned north and drove to Buena Vista, where we will be staying for two days. We are in a valley at 8,000’, surrounded on the east and west by 14,000’ peaks. We will be rafting on the Arkansas River through this valley tomorrow. The river is flowing extremely fast, and the water level is still rising, so the rafting will be quite a ride. The only concern I have is the temperature – it was 60 degrees with a very strong wind this afternoon! We’ll just have to take whatever weather God gives us tomorrow.

We had a good time after supper reading and discussing the Bible together – something I have not been good at doing with my family. The boys chose 1 Timothy to read, and there was plenty to talk about!

We all thought about Amy as she had the first of four nights performing in the Stevens Center in Winston-Salem with her dance studio. I hate having to miss this, but there were no other options. Best wishes, Amy (and my other "daughters" Cara, Morgan and Elizabeth)!

(I finally got some photos loaded from the first couple of days of our trip - see the link under "Photo Galleries" on the left.)