Jun 9 2014

Prospect Park, Colorado Green Belt

There are a few notable things about this park.
This campground was great for it’s location, close to Denver, Golden, and Boulder. There no fires allowed, the campers are too close to each other anyway.

There are 6 washer and 6 dryers that are clean and the dryers only need 1 cycle…which is soooooo nice!

It also backed up to the Green Belt, which is the best thing a city can do for it’s people! It was funny though because when we got to the campground I took Roux on the “pet walk” which was kind of a bummer and I was thinking “this parking-lot campground SUCKS!” But then I noticed there was a gate open at the end, I’m nosy so I checked it out.

There are cute little bunnies everywhere!

It turned out to be an awesome park with a fishing pond, walking trails, soccer field, playgrounds, restrooms, and a river.

An even funnier thing that happened was while Jacob was taking a nap, Roux and I went to the park for a walk. I figured we could just walk around the pond and it would take us back to the campground. We were strolling next to the river for a good 45 mins. and I kept thinking, “ok, the turn around should be coming up soon.” Some runners passed us and then slowed for a cool down so I asked them how far was the trail. Their response, “uh we don’t really know but it goes from Denver to Golden.” So I was like, “OMG, I would have been walking for sooooo long before I realized that, my dog would have wanted to kill me!” We all had a good laugh at my expense….ah, good times!

So over all this campground was a great choice for it’s proximity to the major cities and the lovely park behind it.

Jun 7 2014

Prospect RV Park in Wheatridge Colorado and a day in Golden

Our drive from Clayton Lake was a long one, but we have an audiobook to keep us focused.
The clouds moved in and we caught a little rain, which wasn’t too bad considering one of the towns we drove through had multiple tornados touch down.
So many things to see…mesas, windmills, animal-crossings, outcrops, “points of interest,” and rain

I believe this was in Huerfano County, it was off the interstate and we didn’t stop to figure out what it was…so I googled it! But I couldn’t find the info when I went to post this. I believe it said that it is an ancient volcano and it’s all alone so the Spanish named it Huerfano which means “orphan.” So it’s an ancient orphan volcano!

Jacob bought Slap Bracelets to remind him of things to do before we leave a campground.

After we set-up, we headed over to the closest grocery store for some quick-meal items for the next few days, cause there’s no fire allow here either.

The next day we went into Golden to write up a few blogs before going to the Geology Museum at the Colorado School of Mines.

While I was hard at work Jacob went off on his own to get a hair cut….and it’s super duper short.

The Geology Museum was fan-freaking-tastic! They have so many specimen on display, I was in awe and I took a lot of pictures! I didn’t realize how many minerals are found in Colorado, these Mountain-people are so lucky!

This one’s famous, it made the cover of a Mineralogy textbook. That’s not the version I had in school, mine was like old and decrepit.

Rhodochrosite, pictured above and below, is the Colorado state mineral, I didn’t know it could be found inside of stalactites…mind-blowing

Jacob is such a trooper, I know that’s not his thing but he pretended to enjoy it.
When we got out of there, the sky turned dark and scary. We looked up and saw people floating in the air from the mountain, so the weather couldn’t be that bad!

So we walked a few blocks to a farmers market.

After a quick bite to eat we headed over to Coors brewery for a free tour.

We finished off the day in Golden with pizza, beer, and a UL win!

Jun 7 2014

Clayton Lake State Park in Clayton, NM

Clayton Lake State Park is a state park of New Mexico, United States, featuring a 170-acre (69 ha) recreational reservoir and a fossil trackway of dinosaur footprints. It is located 15 miles (24 km) north of Clayton, close to New Mexico’s border with Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas. The landscape is characterized by rolling grasslands, volcanic rocks, and sandstone bluffs, set on the western edge of the Great Plains. The park area was a stopover point for travelers along the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail. (Wikipedia)

The sites along the way were pretty much the same as the day before.

Roux just chill’n, wondering why we’re going so slow.

These massive windy energy harvesters (LOL, patent pending on that name) are everywhere here, it’s very smart since it is freakishly windy.

And suddenly the horizon began to change…

UGH, HUMANS!

And then there was a 15 mile stretch of highway off the interstate that had me thinking “man, I hope this isn’t the wrong way!”

The temperature was mild with no humidity when we arrived. There was nobody in the visitors center and there was no place for camper check-ins. Thankfully I had the reservation site # and there were only 7 sites that we could see anyway, so it wasn’t hard to find our spot.

Our site had a terrific view of the lake. The lake is surrounded by rock cliffs and has a rocky bottom. There were a few people fishing, they said they had caught several trout. Unfortunately for Jacob you need a New Mexico fishing license.

After settling in, we headed off on a hike to see dinosaur tracks which are located on the opposite side of the lake from the camp sites. There are tracks from a variety of dinosaurs, tail marks, and fossilized mud cracks and tidal ripples. We saw beautiful plants, rabbits, deer, and tumble weeds.

We had the whole place to ourself. Wouldn’t ya know right as we were leaving a herd of geology students were head our way. We were so happy to have been able to view the tracks alone.
Jacob unfortunately had an encounter with a pretty vicious flower. It got him good!