Our final big jaunt this year was to Colorado for a reunion with dear friends in Monument, then onto Pagosa Springs for adventures in southern Colorado.
The ladies stayed with Donna while Mike and the guys stayed elsewhere and spent the four days hiking and sight seeing around Colorado Springs.
Jim loves the red rocks and took many pictures of them.
Our first trip with the Divas was to Pikes Peak, traveling on the cog railroad. And yes, I did whiff the oxygen when we got to the top.
We traveled on this train up, up, up to 15,000'
We could have walked out onto the clouds! Also, there was a gift shop on top as well as hot donuts!
Another trip was to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument where petrified tree stumps such as this one have been preserved and protected.
Our last evening was spent eating out and planning the photo book we will dedicate to Barb.
On we traveled to Durango
where we boarded a bus to Silverton and trained back to Durango. The train pulled right into the middle of Silverton!
Here we go on a thrilling three hour ride in an open car, all the better to photograph the steep cliffs we passed through.
In Mesa Verde National Park, Jim hiked to Balcony House, one of the cliff dwellings built centuries ago.
Pagosa Springs
Chimney Rock
Pagosa Peak as seen on a four hour tour through the San Juan Forest which surrounds Pagosa Springs.
On this Jeep tour we drove through a ghost town called Pagosa Junction. Pagosa means "healing".
We also drove on reservation land.
And saw elk! Note the alpha male.
This was our view from our back porch where each morning we watched hot air balloon launches.
And on our last day we watched a festival of many balloons being launched.
