Summer of 2011

Cheung Family trip to Colorado

Day 4

The next day (6/28) the first stop was the Florissant Fossil Beds.

Many years ago, a volcanic lahar encased the bottom 8 feet of
a redwood forest. This allowed the wood to fossilize into stone.

Unfortunately, the original excavators used dynamite, and that broke up the
the fossilized wood. They had to then stack it back onto the stump
and used metal bands to tie it back together.

A sample that we briefly held and then put back into its place.
It looks just like wood.

This century plant was blooming near the visitor's center
It blooms once every eighty years!

We then visited a private fossil site where you can pay a small
fee to find your own fossils.

We found some nice ones.

We found a place to make a quick lunch stop. We had some nice picnics outside.
The weather was warm, but very dry. This allowed you to cool off very quickly.

Next stop: The Molly Kathleen Gold Mine we stopped at in 2002.

We were advised to borrow winter coats from the tour company. We
would later find out that was a good move.

We rode a tight doubledecker elevator down to the mine. It reminded
us of the trapped Chilean miners.... Brrrr.

Our tour guide showed us all the interesting equipment used.

We even rode a small mine train. It was cool to chug along with a air powered
engine.

We even tried our hand at riding a bike on the rails 8-).

That night, we stayed at the Colorado Lodge in Salida.

We had a good breakfast there the next morning.

Day 5

On this day (6/29), we had the longest drive of the trip. It was about 5 hours from Salida to Cimarron. The initial plan was to take the Black Canon boat tour when we arrived, but we made the reservation too late, and decided to take an easy day instead.

That night, we stayed at the Pleasant Valley Cabins. It would be the most rustic of accomodations of this trip.

There were several hummingbird feeders out front.

Out back, there was a beautiful fast stream.

Many of us used this slow day to catch up with a nap.

That evening, dinner at Asii, a local Thai place in Montrose. It was very good food.

That night, we had a campfire by the river. It would turn out to be one
of the most magical and memorable nights. I started the fire with
a match and some twigs, we roasted marshmellows and made
baked banana desserts. We could see the stars overhead.

Stephanie was spinning her poi, and the kids were playing with
glowsticks. It was a great evening.

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