Colorado and Santa Fe, New Mexico

We like to travel "on the shoulder", a few days before and after major holidays so we headed to Colorado a few days after Labor Day. Park ranger apologetically told me that "it's the time of the newlywed and nearly dead". Vacancies abound.

Our first time in Nebraska. It's corny.

We were going to a timeshare in Fraser, Colorado timeshare on Saturday so we had four open days before check in. Mike serviced trailer brakes in Des Moines but the trailer braking system was only working intermittently. No GM dealers in rural western Nebraska nor in eastern Colorado could fit us in so On Star representative found us a large dealer in Denver. Mike was not towing a 5th wheel into the Rockies without trailer brakes.

RV Park nearest the GM dealer was in Aurora. It appeared to house mostly working people, not tourists like us. Apparently housing around Denver is in short supply and expensive. The eastside of Denver is working class unlike the super up-scale ski areas. No registration person was present so we asked a man waiting with us when to expect to check in. He told us she'd be back shortly and that he'd had a drug overdose and almost died on this very picnic table awhile back so he quit using drugs because he had a wife and daughter. He said that this RV park had a lot of drug dealing. We took a hasty walk after dinner but then we skedaddled to a Colorado state park on the west side of Denver as soon as GM service would allow. After the state park we enjoyed leisurely altitude adjustment in The Pines at Meadow Ridge, a spacious timeshare with an outdoor pool open year round.

 

Railroad ties hold up rock face in a booming Colorado casino town.

Affluent young male tourists flock to Colorado. 

Add a Casino. Old Folks arrive with the young by the busload.

Eisenhower Tunnel beneath the Rockies

When we ascended into the Rockies our air mattress sprung a leak.  

Happy Jaguar Club Gathering

Elk 

Aspen not in Aspen

An eagle we noticed thanks to a potty stop in Rocky Mountain National Park.
 

Chilly in high altitude of Fraser, Colorado in early September, 2016

Pristine hike high up in the Rocky Mountains

Young Nick, computer programmer and photographer from Florida hiked along with us.
We both agree that New Zealand is a choice spot.  

Ski Patrol developed for Military 



Vale

Dusting of snow sends us to lower elevation.

Garden of the Gods is fantastic in Colorado Springs, Co.

 



We strolled in the Garden of the Gods.

 

Rock Climber

 

Zebulon Pike

Mike was proud to drive Pike's Peak.

Pike's Peak is only open during certain hours and a toll of $12 per person or $40 per family vehicle in summer.  

"Up on Cripple Creek she left me." is a song lyric. We stayed together. We took a tour of a gold mine. We expect a mining boom after election. No more bonds or environmental impact analysis required.    

Cripple Creek Gold Mine Tour Guide was a miner.

 

Wild Burro in Cripple Creek

We headed to Santa Fe, New Mexico but promised to return to Colorado for the entire summer as soon as we finish with tour of Canadian Maritimes in 2017 and Alberta in 2018. Santa Fe is an art lover's paradise. Georgia O'Keefe Museum amused me while Mike watched football.

 

 

Santa Fe

Fun Art in Santa Fe

 

 

Georgia O'Keefe was ahead of her time.

 Georgia O'Keefe was unafraid of nudity. sex or giving birth to creativity. Her works express unabashed sensuality. Orgasm is better explained symbolically in her art than in sex education books of the era. Female orgasm has only recently been examined and explained clinically. Flower metaphor is best explanation.

I look forward to returning to New Mexico every fall or any fall.