Meeting a Fellow Blogger in the Mountains

I was happy to receive a message on my phone that a blogger who lives in Manhattan was going to be visiting Breckenridge, Colorado, for a week and asked if my husband and I had some time to visit.  She wasn't sure how far away we were from that pretty ski town but we told her it was totally doable and set a time and date. I was a little worried that she would feel a bit of a headache and tired from the high elevation--NYC is at sea level and the town of Breckenridge is at 9600 feet (2926 m), and gave her some high altitude hints and told her to take her first few days easy.   We set off for our visit by driving west on Interstate 70 up into the Rockies!  I always love the view you see in the photos above as we approach the Genesee area. (All photos and collages will enlarge when clicked on)

The drive up is always beautiful, especially when the mountains are still snow-capped.

When we drove into Breckenridge I saw that the gondolas that go up to the ski lodge were not moving.  We found out that this was a shoulder season between winter and summer activities at the lodges so they were on a break until later in June.

 

Pat on the left, Carol on the right

Here we are! Carol Zwick of the blog "Buttercup Counts Her Blessings" and I was meeting again after quite a few years!  It was so good to see her and we had a lot to talk about.

We had lunch together at a local bistro in Breckenridge and we then decided to take a drive over scenic Hoosier Pass into Fairplay.   The pass is located on the Continental Divide at the northern end of the Mosquito Range, at an (elevation of 11,542 ft (3,518 m))

We went to the town of Fairplay, located in South Park, at an elevation of 9,953 feet (3,034 m). We were told not to miss their dramatic new sign at the junction of US 285!  The sign gives homage to the fact that the town was founded during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush days.  The town was named by settlers who were upset by the generous mining claims given to the earliest prospectors and promised a more equitable system for its residents

We visited the South Park City Museum in Fairplay. I love this outdoor museum that consists of actual Gold Rush era and pioneer buildings that have been restored and preserved. There are forty-four authentic buildings filled with over 60,000 vintage artifacts that were donated by local Coloradans, and that portray most of the economic and social aspects of boomtown life. Seven of the buildings are on their original sites; the others have been moved from abandoned camps and ghost towns in South Park.  We were told that soon another building would be added to the museum--a county jail!  I've blogged about South Park City Museum before--click here.

The gold and silver mining aspect of the South Park area is shown in many exhibits...

...as well as what everyday life was like during those times from 1860 to 1900.

I could have spent hours examing all the authentic vintage artifacts! Each building has displays!

There are also displays about the Native Americans who once lived and hunted in South Park. The displays above are arrowheads and spear points found in the area.

After our visit to the South Park City Museum, it was time to drive Carol back to Breckenridge. We returned over Hoosier Pass, enjoying the mountains vistas until we reached her hotel.

It was a wonderful day in the Rockies!  We enjoyed seeing Carol again and catching up on New York City news, and I know she enjoyed seeing a part of Colorado she's never visited before and learning some Colorado history at the South Park City Museum.

What is new around here? This past week I enjoyed wonderful birthday celebrations with my family! My husband and our youngest granddaughter and I all have birthdays in early June, so there was lots of cake and lots of fun.  My roses began to bloom on my birthday--always a pleasure to see, and it is the baby fawn season! Aren't they cute?

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The Rocky Mountain Land Library

The first time my husband and I drove through South Park, I fell in love with this beautiful pastoral area in the heart of Colorado. A grassland basin at 9,000 to 10,000 feet elevation, it is surrounded by 14,000-foot peaks of the Mosquito and Park Mountain Ranges. The Platte River headwaters are formed here and the river gently rolls through the valley. Native American Utes and Arapahoes hunted the abundant wildlife in the area. The term South Park was first used in the 1840s by hunters and trappers who traversed the Rocky Mountains. In 1859, the discovery of placer gold in the streams of the valley during the Colorado Gold Rush led to an influx of prospectors and miners. By the 1880s the area was known for its mineral springs, hunting, fishing, and grazing land for cattle. In 2009, South Park and the area around Fairplay were designated a National Heritage Area by the U.S. Congress for its distinctive landscapes, historic structures, recreational resources.

Much of South Park's 1,000 square miles is used as grazing land for cattle and horses and other domestic animals...

...and it encompasses a feeling of wide-open skies and vast wilderness that is absolutely beautiful!

Photo credit Rocky Mountian Land Library

Now South Park as a new attraction as nestled in a part of this magnificent valley, close to the South Platte River, is the Rocky Mountain Land Libary  A work in progress, the Rocky Mountian Land Library is a dream come true for husband and wife former book buyers for the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver, Ann Marie Martin, and Jeff Lee. Back in the ’90s, while on a book-buying trip for the store, they came upon Gladstone's Library at St Deiniol’s, a residential library in Wales. That visit was the start of their dream to create a residential library in Colorado — one that focused on people and the land. They always knew they would find a home for their beloved tens of thousands of volumes about nature, the environment, history, literature, western land issues, archeology, and all things American West.

In 2013 they signed a 95-year lease for the 1,500 Buffalo Peaks Ranch, in South Park. Established in 1861 as a sheep and cattle operation, it was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places.  Work began to renovate the ranch, using volunteers and donations.

This short Youtube link about the Rocky Mountain Land Library features Jeff and Ann and their visions for the library.

 

The historic Buffalo Peaks Ranch has already been utilized by the library as an inspiring site for classes, workshops, field studies, teacher training, etc, and there are many plans for 2021.  Fundraising and renovation work continues to help create this future residential library dedicated to nature and the land. There are plans for special libraries across the ranch, including a Native American Library, a Young Readers Library, a River Hut Library on rivers, water & fishing, and one on Ranching History & Practices and the Cook's House library on Food and the Land.

The Rocky Mountian Land Library will be a year-round, residential retreat center and library while also hosting additional programs and outreach through their Metro Denver locations. Visitors from all backgrounds and interests will be able to gain inspiration from the books and the surrounding landscape of South Park.  

My husband and I were hoping to visit the library this past summer, but because of covid shutdowns we had to forego those plans, but we definitely hope to make it a destination when we can travel again.

If you'd like to learn more you can follow the Rocky Mountain Land Library on their blog, Facebook. Instagram, and Twitter.

Meanwhile, I am in the midst of decorating for Christmas, writing Christmas cards, and will begin preparing some favorite holiday treats. Most likely we will have to forego gathering for our traditional family gathering for the Italian style "Feast of the Seven Fishes" I prepare on Christmas Eve, as the Sars-CoV-2 numbers have been worrisome high here in Colorado.  We do hope our grandchildren will be able to visit and see our tree and open their gifts, while we all wear masks, etc., and try to stay healthy as we wait for the vaccine to become available.  I hope you are all enjoying the holiday season--it is still the most wonderful time of the year!

 Stay happy, safe, and healthy!

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Autumn is in the Air!

Thank you, everyone, for reading my last blog post about my reflections on the fifteenth anniversary of  9-11-01. After all these years it is still a difficult day to remember with many emotions and much sadness.  Our community in Littleton had a candlelight memorial service for a former resident, Jason Dahl, who was the pilot of the hijacked United Flight 93 that was brought down that day in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.  At the ceremony friends and neighbors talked about their fond memories of Captain Dahl, and one of the recipients of this year's Jason Dahl Aviation Scholarship, awarded in Jason Dahl's memory, spoke about his dream to become a pilot one day. As the program ended all in attendance sang "God Bless America." It was a very touching and heartfelt ceremony.

As the days pass deeper into September, and the sun lies lower in the horizon, with days growing shorter and evening temperatures getting cooler, the aspen trees in Colorado begin to turn from green to shades of gold and orange. Autumn is definitely in the air!  It is my favorite season, and I'm looking forward to enjoying it as much as possible.

The aspen color changes occur in the higher elevations of Colorado first...

..... and then slowly descend down to the lower elevations.  So it is possible to enjoy autumn now, and well into October

Please click on to enlarge

Our summer was unusually warm on the Front Range of Colorado this year, with many days over ninety degrees, so I'm looking forward to cooler temperatures, and yes, even snow! I will miss seeing the delightful hummingbirds that liked to visit a blue salvia plant in my backyard many times a day. I'll also miss the young fawn who was born in my next door neighbor's yard in early summer and who visited us frequently while his mother looked for food. These last days of summer brought cheerful little sparrows who sat on my lavender bushes  and enjoyed eating the flower seeds of the lavender plants. Every season brings its precious moments of beauty!

This is the perfect time of the year to take a long drive to enjoy the scenery.

Our grandchildren have been back in school for almost a month, and weekend soccer games and fall festivals have begun. 

Soon we will be picking out a pumpkin at the pumpkin farm and decorating for Halloween with the grands, rituals that bring back many happy memories from my childhood, as well as my children's childhood.

I'll share Colorado autumn photos in the next few months, and I will also be sharing the wonderful trip my husband and I took to see Glacier National Park in Montana in August. I finally finished downloading and editing almost 2,000 photos that I took on that trip! It was a spectacular park to visit and our drive through Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, on our way to and from the park was also wondrous in its own way.

There is so much beauty in the world and the western states of the USA really have a special charm of their own.

 Enjoy life and enjoy the changing season! 

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An Autumn Drive Over Kenosha Pass to Buy a Bear

This was the sight that greeted my eyes last week as my husband and I drove up US 285 to Kenosha Pass, at an elevation of 10,000 feet.  The aspens were at peak color in glorious shades of yellow, gold, and orange. (All photos and photo collages in this post will enlarge for easier viewing if clicked on)

The immense aspen groves meshed with part of the vast pine Pike National Forest that traverses this area of Colorado.

In this portion of the pass, you can see that the tree leaves were in the process of changing from their normal green to autumn yellow.

Right before the end of the pass, traveling west, we saw a roadside pull off. We parked and found the two above interesting signs there. (please click photo to enlarge)

I also had the chance to walk around under some of the aspen trees...

...and take some close up photos.

We did not linger too long, however, and soon we were on Kenosha Pass again as we were on our way to buy a bear in the town of Fairplay, in South Park.

South Park is comprised of a beautiful flat basin of gently rolling grasslands, lying at 10,000 feet elevation, and surrounded by mountain peaks, some of which are over 14,000 feet.

I took all of these photos as we were driving on US 285, so they are not the sharpest quality, but I wanted to show you the cattle ranches...

 ...and rustic old barns...

...and beautiful homesteads we passed along the way.

There was lots of fall color on the distant mountains...

...with bare, high mountains looming in the background.

It won't be long until the snow comes to this high elevation, and the snow fences were up in many areas to prevent snow drifts from blowing across the road.

We finally reach our destination!  It is the Fairplay Consignment Furniture Shop

There is a large display of recycled tree trunk carved wooden bears, owls and moose outside. I've been wanting to purchase one of these bears, ever since I moved to Colorado, to greet guests at my front door. My husband decided that this nice autumn ride should culminate in the purchase of any bear statue that I wanted! He must have read the sign the bear above was holding  I looked for quite a while until I chose the one that "spoke" to me, and we loaded him into our trunk.

Our ride back was also enjoyable, as we saw all the beautiful foliage again on the way home. We were also relieved not to encounter any rain even though the skies were threatening for most of the day.  Here we are headed back over Kenosha Pass...

...and in this direction, we could see the 73,000 acres Mt. Evans wilderness ahead

Here it is -- my bear! 

I liked him the best, as he was one of the more rustic looking bears in the group. My granddaughter thinks that he looks very friendly! What do you think?