We are doing fine in Colorado!! This is the land where adventures never cease 🙂 And the variety is a rather impressive line up:

Mesa Verde

Our first national park 🙂 the cliff dwellers are a mystery. I didn’t know that they lived on top the Mesa most of their settlements existence, only moving below the cliff in the last 100 years (1190s) before migrating south in 1300. I tried to imagine scaling those cliffs to work in the flat fields above the dwellings. Wow! 

Another interesting note-because of the danger of falling rocks, the Spruce Treehouse Dwellings (pictured) are no longer accessible. 

Silverton Durango Narrow Gauge Railway

We enjoyed the fresh Rocky Mountain air with a side of cinders as we chugged along the Animas River.

The rainbow in the released steam was brilliant.

The hamburgers at the Grand Imperial Hotel in downtown Silverton were delicious and huge! Can I just say how much I love Silverton? It’s such a neat town nestled between such huge mountains. Gorgeous!

Wolf Creek Pass

I love this view! And CW McCalls famous “Wolf Creek Pass” trucking song doesn’t hurt this experience either… We eased down the other side and were thankful we didn’t have to deal with a run away truckload of chickens…:)

Great Sand Dunes National Park

We had planned to visit these Tuesday, but Monday morning we spotted them from the main road and thought if we were that close-we’d check it off the list. Note to self: being able to see something in the distance here is not the same as at home.

We flew into the park, dashed barefoot across the COLD stream and jumped in the sand in front of these impressive formations. I mailed the postcard that boasted how many acres are in the dunes without writing down the figure-but I think it said over 30,000. Wow

We ran back for Farren, and spent the next miles squashing mosquitoes and liberally applying anti itch cream. Persistent creatures.

And we looked neither to the left nor the right, because we had a train to catch.

Pikes Peak and the Cog Railway

The Cog was a welcome change from the cinders from the day before. We rolled up the steep summit at 10 mph and returned 8 mph. It was steep enough that the change in our 2 car train was equivalent to a 3 story building!

The view from the 14,115 ft elevation was the clearest I’ve seen. It wasn’t difficult to see 200 miles to the fields of Kansas. 

Considering our earlier experience with “America the Beautiful” (the singing road in Tejaras, NM) We noted with interest that the view from the Peak inspired the penning of those beautiful words.

New Horizons Ministry, Cañon City

We spent the night in Cañon City, and were given a tour of the different faces of the ministry. We met a nanny and her 3 month old, toured the “behind the scenes” organized sorting of donations at the thrift store, and favorite part- “subbing”. This beauty took us up on Skyline Drive, where we enjoyed a birds eye view of the city while watching the sunset. Thank you Audrey, for giving us such a memorable experience!  Blessings to you as you continue to serve!

This last week went so well, but we faced some questions with reports of a critically sick relative of one of “my girls”. There were several mornings I woke up to early morning texts and thought “this is the report that will make us decide if we are rushing home for a funeral.” We gave our itinerary, again, to the Great Physican, and felt His Peace in the beautiful evening sky on the most critical day. 

With hearts filled with Praise, we rejoice with each report of progress being made. We continue westward.

To be continued…

See you down the trail, 

Kendra

Bonus pics:

Found this along Main Street in Cañon.

Farren Foto: Garden of the Gods

Balance Rock, Garden of the Gods