Colorado (Part 2)

9/25/26 - In the morning, I went to a great farmers market in Woodland Park (the town where we are staying). I bought veggies, fruit, bakery, beef, and a new wallet.

In the afternoon, Pat and I went to the nearby Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center.

On the way, we got a close-up view of the mule deer that hang out by our RV park. They like the new grass the town in trying to grow next to the road.

We attended a wolf feeding. The wolf rescue currently has 14 wolves (and other animals) in large, wooded enclosures. The feeder told us a lot about the animals and how severely their populations have gone down over the years.

The fox houses (and bridge) were construction masterpieces!

The Silver fox (aka Black fox) is a "melanistic" form of the Red fox

9/26/26 - We drove ~1.5 hours south towards Canon City for our Royal Gorge Railroad trip.

We enjoyed an excellent lunch in one of the Vista Dome cars

The train took us through the Royal Gorge (formed by the Arkansas River and about 10 miles long) before reversing course. We stood in one of the open-air cars most of the way back.

Our next stop was the Royal Gorge Bridge, which the train had gone under. We took a cable car across the gorge and then took the pedestrian bridge back.

Pat was inspecting the cables that hold the bridge up! The river was ~1000 ft below us.

Our final adventure, before heading back to the RV, was to drive Skyline Drive.

Skyline Drive is a one-lane road "above" Canon City. You can see the steep drop-offs on either side in this picture. Canon City was below and to the left.

9/28/26 - We got up early to drive ~45 minutes to Colorado Springs in time to visit the Air Force Academy Visitor Center before seeing the cadets line up before lunch. Unfortunately, the information I had was outdated! A new Visitors Center had been built outside of the gates. After learning this, we drove to the new location and found out we could apply on-line for clearance to enter. My clearance came through within 10 minutes...Pat, the Air Force Veteran, never received his clearance!!! We were very disappointed.

The Visitor Center was very good and we got a good overview of the 4-year program despite never stepping onto campus

We stopped into Bass Pro Shop before heading back to the RV. By then, it was starting to drizzle so we stayed inside.

9/29/26 - We took the scenic route to Denver. I noticed we were driving near Red Rocks Amphitheatre, so we stopped.

Red Rocks Amphitheatre is built so cleverly into the rocks that it was invisible until you walked into it! I was surprised to learn that it opened in 1941. Downtown Denver is circled in the background.

We spent about 3 hours at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. We enjoyed the space and wildlife sections the most.

At 2pm, we showed up for our tour of the US Mint, which in Denver makes circulating coins, uncirculating collectors coins, and medals. The tour guide was very good and there were a lot of displays describing the history and equipment. Unfortunately, all the operators were on break during our tour so we didn't see the machines cutting and stamping the coins.

Cameras were not allowed inside. I thought this item in the gift shop was pretty cool.

Our final stop in Denver was the Colorado State Capitol building.

Another gold dome. Most unique: the steel-blue paint on the next level below.

9/30/26 - We had planned to ride bikes down Pikes Peak (14,115 ft) but we cancelled several days prior due to 95% chance of rain. That came true and we spent all day inside.

We leave 10/1 for our next stop: near Great Sand Dunes National Park (still in Colorado, south of where we currently are).