4th of July with Aven, and The Birthday Boy!
July 1st-7th, we travelled to Longmont, Colorado to spend the weekend with Aven. While there we got to celebrate Greg’s 50th birthday, on the 4th of July!
About 8 hours into our trip (near Ontario, Oregon) we came across this fire along the highway (on the side going the other direction). I learned later that the fire was 100% contained the next day, and I believe there was no structure damage.
Here is a nice view of Strawberry Reservoir (SE of Salt Lake City) that we saw on July 2nd as we passed by.
And, here’s a nice view coming in to Steamboat Springs, Colorado later that day.
For Greg’s birthday on July 4th, he wanted to have Rudy’s BBQ for dinner, which is in Colorado Springs. So, we went south for the day.
For our first stop for the day, we tried to go to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (we went there once before and it was a very nice zoo), but we found that we needed to get reservations ahead of time. So instead, we went to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings Museum, east of Colorado Springs. It was interesting to walk through the Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings and interpretive exhibits.
After the museum we drove up to Pikes Peak (14,115 feet in elevation). On the way up, we stopped to do a hike at the Elk Park Trail.
Then, dinner at Rudy’s for the Birthday Boy!
On July 5th, we did a hike at Mitchell Lake. What a beautiful area!
On July 6th we headed back toward home. Near Crowheart, Wyoming, we were treated to some colorful rock formations!
Our next destination was Grand Teton National Park. So pretty!
We drove through Boise, Idaho on July 7th. There was a fire in the Boise Foothills (Claremont Fire). This one was pretty big, 6,600 acres and burned for about a month. Wow! Here is a recent article about it: https://www.idahostatesman.com/outdoors/article316761919.html.
We stopped by Rugged Mountain RV to see the early progress on our camper. We’re very excited that the build has begun! I mentioned to this man who was sanding that this was our camper and he was excited to meet us - he said he has never met the owner of one that he was working on.
