Cheyenne Mountain State Park, Colorado Springs, Colorado
The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern. ~ Proverbs 29:7
The lure of the white water grabbed hold of us and wouldn’t let go! We haven’t been white water rafting in ages, and if I’m not mistaken, the last time was the River of Death excursion in West Virginia. We were there with Blaine’s brother and sister-in-law, Brian and Barb, and a few others we knew. We were excited! The water was pretty high, so it promised to be a great ride. But then, we discovered that they didn’t put a guide in your boat. The guides paddled along in kayaks and screamed demands at you, like which side of the giant boulder you were supposed to steer around.
Blaine was elected to sit in the back, and had to not only figure out how to steer us, but command us, and rescue us too. Just like a real captain! In addition, they didn’t seat us properly, and every time the heavier side of the boat went down into the water, it launched me out of the boat! As I recall, I went swimming at least three times. Brian and Barb took a dive as well, at least once that I can remember.
And they didn’t give us the proper life jackets for an easy rescue. In the past when we’d gone, not only did we have an experienced guide inside our boat, but our jackets buckled between our legs. That way, if/when you have to be rescued, your jacket doesn’t come off over your head. And it’s a true fact that the smallest person in the boat can pull the largest person out of the water and into the boat. But not if their life jacket’s coming off over their head. Good grief! What an experience! But we learned a valuable lesson – – if you’re going to surf the white water, make sure the guide is inside the boat!
Pretend the guy in the back is Blaine. : )
Today’s trip was nothing like that. Sorry, if you were hoping for more drama.
The wood map, not the gift shop, silly!
We’re wearing our first pair of shoes for the day – water shoes.
because those two with their backs to us were part of the group of boats we were in.
We didn’t have to do that.
And I’m very sad to say, there are no pictures of our trip either. ☹ I found a couple of pictures of other trips similar to ours today to share, just to give you an idea.
They checked us in and loaded us (masked of course), onto a bus where we were regaled with all kinds of cheesy and humorous tales and jokes for about 10 minutes.
Just add masks . . .
Then we unloaded and were given our assignments. There were four of us in our boat, plus Carl, our guide. Carl’s not Carl as you’d think. She’s a young, petite, she, from Wisconsin and studying there to become an RN. She’d like to work with Doctors without Borders at some point in her career. There was a whole lot more talking that transpired during our 3 ½ hour, 10-mile course, but I’ll not bore you with the details. 😊
She’s very conversant, as were the two in the front of the boat, a mother and twenty-something son who’ve done a lot of international and domestic traveling. They were on their way from their home in California to Tennessee, to drop him back off at college.
With all that yakking going on, you’re probably wondering how we made it down the river in one piece, but Carl had us practice executing her commands before we hit anything rough, and she was able to carry on a conversation while navigating the river, so we were in very good hands.
She even drove us into a few fun, splashy holes so we could get drenched. 😊 We got to see the Royal Gorge Scenic Train go by right beside us, which was fun.
We saw it again when it made its return trip. However, on the return, we all ignored it in favor to staring at two Bighorn Sheep standing on the rocky canyon wall slope along the river – – I’ll bet they weren’t 20-feet away! They just stood there on the rocks and watched us float by. How cool is that?!?!? And now we can say that we’ve seen all the big critters Colorado has to offer, except bears. We didn’t think we’d see sheep!
Our ride today took us underneath the Royal Gorge Bridge we walked across the other day.
Most excellent time! Whoooo Hooooo!!!! Group paddle Hi five!
We were back to the parking lot by lunch, so we ate a quick bite, then drove to historic Canon City. We eventually discovered this is pronounced ‘Canyon’ because of the squiggly line over the ‘n’ that looks like this ~ .
It was mid-afternoon and we were craving some parlor ice cream. There’s only one place in town. New owner who bought the place in July – in the middle of a pandemic”, he said. But he said he’s been doing pretty well, so that’s good. No samples allowed though, due to COVID rules. ☹ Still, we indulged in some wonderful ice cream – strawberry for Blaine and blackberry cobbler for me. Yummy!!!
Second pair of shoes – sandals.
For driving and walking around.
Once we finished that up, we drove the Shelf and Gold Camp roads home again. This time, we detoured on a Jeep road in an area called Dinosaur Flats. Sounded promising, but yielded nothing except an area designated for target shooting.
We have no idea what that is. Kinda looks like the entrance to a ranch. . . .
Do you know what a baby turkey is called?
You’ll never guess in a million years!
Poults!
And a group of turkeys?
A rafter.
Weird names those turkeys have! lol!
The final stop of the day? Blaine wanted to check out a stop on Gold Camp called “Eagles Nest”. We thought it might have some hiking, but there were no signs to help you out. Still, we managed to find a trail that went up. Seemed appropriate for an eagle nest.
Guess we shoulda brought our hiking sticks . . .
But as you can see, the daily afternoon clouds have moved in.
About half way up, Blaine said we could turn around if I wanted because we were sans hiking sticks, but by then I was determined to finish. Going up was the easy part.
In the background is the Gold Camp Road.
He makes a good show of it, but he didn’t actually climb up. : )
Going down was a whole nother story! I slid most of the way and my backside was filthy by the time we returned to the level part, but we got some good pictures out of it. And some exercise, which is always important when you eat like we do. 😊
Tomorrow should be magical.