All Aboard

 

I like Canon City Colorado. The town has several attractions: A really nice city park with ducks and swings and the Arkansas River, the farmer's market with the entire community shopping (we bought 9 ears of Colorado Corn), a big house (aka prison) and the Royal Gorge Railway. Carl said let's take the train through the gorge, and I agreed it sounded very relaxing. We took the sky dome car, so we could look way up at the suspension bridge and the crazy people swinging out over the gorge. It was very smooth and scenic.

The next morning I liked Canon City more. We went for breakfast and got greeted with a table of bikers (Harley). We pulled up a chair. The cafe owner offered free breakfast to anyone who would sing along with the tunes. It was a fun day. The Harley's are off to Bishops Castle south of here, where a guy who hates the government has been building a castle for years. We're off to New Mexico, come full circle.

Salida Showdown

Salida Colorado is quintessentially mountain. There's the Arkansas River running though it, a bar with the requisite Harley riders in it overlooking the river, kayakers surfing a wave right under the bar windows, everything painted bright colors, and dogs. The town conflict, I feel, is over dogs. Everyone has one. There's the design painted on the water trough planter to evidence that. There's "first aid" bowls of water left out by the merchants. But on the other hand, there's the nasty signs about dog doo. Did you know it endangers your children's lives? For that reason, along with others, I am sure, no dogs are allowed in the park. I made sure to take Daisy on the wrong side of the tracks to do her duty. I am not part of any commie plot to inflict the young of Salida with my dog's germs!

Just north of Salida is Mount Princeton Hot Springs, with three options: hot pool, swimming pool, or creekside pools. Oh yeh, and the superslide. We woke up our day there, and it was good, but still not as good as Challis.

I can't breathe!!!!

The drive starts out with this blissful Arapaho Reservoir view at Grand Lake, Colorado.

Then you enter Rocky Mountain National Park, and before you know it, there is no oxygen. The road climbs into the alpine ecosystem, devoid of trees and oxygen at 12000 feet.

There are other things, though, like breathtaking views, snow, alpine flowers, elk, pica, and white knuckle drop offs down the mountain that were always on my side of the vehicle. I had several panic attacks and a slight headache from the altitude.

Worth it? You betcha.

How many pools is enough?

 

Here at Hot Sulphur Springs Colorado, they have 24. I started out thinking I was going to soak in every one of them. I discovered that 24 is too many. After 9 pools I was rubber. They ranged in temp from the low 90's to hotter than hell and in size from a one person pool to a family of 20 pool.

The pools are built on the side of a hill, capturing natural healing mineral waters and lots of scenery. Aside from the springs, not much is happening in this town in the Rockies. We could not find an RV place. There was a little Wildlife Park next to the pools, but all the places except the camp host were taken. We drove into the small town, and I stopped to ask the sheriff where we could spend the night. There was nothing but US Forest Service parks about 20 miles away, and I wasn't sure we would want to drive after soaking.

I walked in and visited with the state trooper, who asked a local while I reviewed the FBI's ten most wanted posters. He said we could stay in a rest area ten miles down the road. Meanwhile, Carl was outside talking to the lady trooper who suggested we just become the park hosts next to the hot springs for the night.

What a deal. We even had electricity since we were the hosts. We made up our own rules. No rowdy behavior after 10 pm, no more than 5 dogs per site (it looked like one of the sites might have too many), definitely no cats, and we were off duty if anyone should ask.

Daisy had a great time hunting for things that were moving in the lush grasses. All is well in Hot Sulphur Springs Colorado.

Down home in Downata

 

Here in hot spring heaven, south of Pocatella Idaho, where hot springs are more numerous than high school football rivalries, we got down with the locals in Downey.

This place is most popular with families who bring the kiddoes to soak themselves silly in three super slides and a waterpark. As far as a hot springs goes, I don't rate it up there with Challis. Too much like an amusement park.

But I do love the fact that when you walk a quarter mile away, you are in the middle of Idaho grasslands. And I loved morning aerobics with the locals. They spotted me right away as a "camper". I was the only outsider in the class. But they were very friendly to me, and if I ever move to Downey, I will come every M W F to water aerobics in a warm pool with the locals over 70.

Paradise at Challis

 

What a place. South of Salmon Idaho is a town called Challis. Near there, on the Salmon River in the 1890's a family started making pools to corral the hot springs and running a little spa. It is still owned by the family today.

God made this place, with the rocks on one side and the Salmon River's cooling breeze on the other, just for you and me. There's a really hot pool, and then there's one about body temperature. Both have gravel bottoms so the mineral water perculates up through the bottom and keeps the water clean and warm. A hot springs with no Chlorine is a thing of beauty. At 9:45 pm when the owner said closing time, the pool was filled with about 50 people, lots of kids being watched by adults. The water was so dark if one had gone missing, no one would have seen. Everyone was counting heads continually.

In the morning though, the place was serene and quiet. In the hot pool, we met the guy who had been running his blender on a picnic table next to his Ford Taurus and his tent. He's a professional hot springs junkie and told me about a great book on all the best soaks. What's in his blender? Broccoli, Kale, Whey, Strawberry something....three times a day. He has prostrate cancer and this is his cure.



I'm working on a watercolor. That rock wall just inspired me.

Halcyon days

 

Were you ever as lucky as these guys? Summer days spent camping at the lake, staying out till the sun went down, cold and freezing in the water but not wanting to come in? Then you probably lived near Flathead Lake in Montana, a pristine glacially formed 200 acre lake that wins awards for water quality in addition to scenery. The Montana brochure said not to miss sunset there, and what a sunset it was.

I took so many photos; it was so hard to stop clicking. And there were no bad ones. All the time, while I was clicking, there were the kiddos, playing till the last minute, mothers calling them from the campsites in vain.