COLORADO, Medino pass, Royal Gorge Anniversary

[Scott39]

UPDATED 8/5 COLORADO, Medano pass, Royal Gorge Anniversary

Well my wife and I, decided to spend our one year anniversary down in Florence Colorado right by Canon City Colorado, which is by the Royal Gorge bridge where we got married.

We first got a bed and breakfast to stay in for 2 days, it was really nice, and 20 feet away from the river, No camping this trip.
And of course I had wheelin on my mind for part of our trip.:smiley_drive:

We settled in, and then went and rode the Royal Gorge Dinner train through the Canyon, which we could look up 1000 feet above and see where we got married one year ago !

It was raining so hard in Canon City, the streets had about 2 feet of water in the gutters, stores and restaurants were flooding.

Check out the Stacks on this truck!

The water was going higher than the stacks on his truck, and the cool thing was, I was haulin A** right behind him spraying everybody. To bad we didn`t get a picture of the teenager`s standing on the corner putting there arms up wanting me to spray them with water, so I did, it was great!

The bridge 1053 feet above. We got married just to the right of the bridge in this pic, at the Lodge on the cliff.

 

[Scott39]

A few photo`s from our wedding last year at the Royal Gorge.

We could look right down in the canyon, and from our bed, we could look right at the bridge, very cool!!

The train from last year, This is looking from the patio we got married on.

Who says you can`t put your Harley in the Lodge?:victory:

And some riding on the bridge after the wedding, only a few people on the bridge, because it rained real hard earlier.

The next day, my wife and I did the Sky coaster over the canyon, what a super rush!!

It is incredible, and you should try to visit it, atleast one time in your life.

Now on to the trail report.

 

[Scott39]

On to Medano Pass Via the Great Sand Dunes.
We almost ran over this lonely critter, I saw it when I turned around after missing the turn off for the pass.

My wife and I putting out a fire still smoking that some jackA** left burning.

Heading up after putting out the fire.
The trail starts climbing high, thats the way I like it.

 

[Scott39]

And some more. The trail also gets narrow.

Lots of water crossings, and the vegetation was really green from all the rain Colorado has received this year.

 

[Scott39]

Can you see the deer peeking over the log at us?

This is a different deer.

On to the sand dunes.

I had to put my truck in 4 wheel drive on this sandy road, it kept wanting to dig in when it was in 2wd.

Nice little tear drop trailer in the sand dunes campground, I would love to have one of these, or build my own.

On our way back to the B&B, 2.5 hour drive.

 

[whistle pig]

Real nice Scott. Were heading down that way in 2 weeks for a little four day camping trip. Our plan was to stop off at the sand dunes over night and then on to Mesa Verde to check out the indian cliff dwellings. One question, is there anything fun for kids to do at the sand dunes? It seems a plastic snow toboggan plus a large sandy hill equals major fun! Would that even be allowed? Thanks for the pix

 

[Larry]

Great pictures Scott. Congrats on your wedding and already 1st year anniversary.

I live down the road from Canon City (Pueblo West). That was indeed a heck of a storm we had last weekend. Oh yeah, my father in law retired from that there Safeway store after 30+ years of service.

 

[Scott39]

Real nice Scott. Were heading down that way in 2 weeks for a little four day camping trip. Our plan was to stop off at the sand dunes over night and then on to Mesa Verde to check out the indian cliff dwellings. One question, is there anything fun for kids to do at the sand dunes? It seems a plastic snow toboggan plus a large sandy hill equals major fun! Would that even be allowed? Thanks for the pix

Thanks, check back, I have more.
Yes, I`m sure it is allowed. They do let people ski and snowboard (sandboard) on the dunes.
The camp grounds in the park are not to bad, alittle close for me. I don`t like camping in camp grounds, open camping is the best way to camp.

If you plan on camping in the Sand Dune park, ask to camp up the trail that goes over Medano pass.
The camp spots up there are great, and secluded.
When my wife and I drove by the campsites up on the trail, we were writing the campsite numbers down that we thought would be great to camp at.
That way, when we call the park to reserve a campsite, we have the numbers already written down of what sites we like the best. We wrote them in order of what we like first.

Your jeep will make it up the trail just fine in 4wheel drive in the sand. We came in the back way, it was free, but if you camp there, then you have to pay.

If you want the campsite numbers we wrote down so you can reserve one, I will send them to you.

Down on HWY 17 there is The Colorado Gator farm. We were running late so we missed out, but we will go back to check them out.
http://www.gatorfarm.com/
http://gatorfarm.com/morris.html

Have fun on your trip, Mesa Verde is cool, I was down there about 20 years ago.

 

[Scott39]

Great pictures Scott. Congrats on your wedding and already 1st year anniversary.

I live down the road from Canon City (Pueblo West). That was indeed a heck of a storm we had last weekend. Oh yeah, my father in law retired from that there Safeway store after 30+ years of service.

Thank you. Yep, I waited until I was 43 to get married.:sombrero:
It would be nice to have a good little job in a small town, I`ve been getting sick of Denver for the past 15+ years, now that it has doubled the size in that time, it is a big toilet here.

I use to deliver groceries down to the County market in Pueblo back in 1991-2003.
I like the Pueblo reservoir, I haven`t been there in about 22 years, but I just bought a canoe, and hope to get another sea kayak soon, and I plan on heading that way.

And nice K10 by the way. Its nice to put the Vortec motor in the older Chevys, or any other rig, great engine.
I might be buying a 1990 K5 Blazer with an 12 Valve Cummins in it, the same motor that is in my Dodge.
And the guy did a great install, he wants to sell it to me for $5,500.

 

[Scott39]

Mt. Blanca peak, has one of the hardest trails going up it, taking you almost to the top.
I`m going to try this trail next year in my Dodge once I put aleast one locker in, and 40" or 42" tires.
MT. Blanca peak is the peak to the far left in the pic, the one in the clouds.
The other peak, I`m pretty sure is Mt. Lindsey. If anybodys knows for sure, please chime in.

http://www.traildamage.com/trails/index.php?id=112

Some cool flowers or something, in this pic, it looked like a sea of yellow flowers, and I`m talking acres and acres of it.

Back to the B&B. We will be doing some real camping next week hopefully.
I just bought a canoe in good shape for $140 to go on top of the truck.
Craigslist is great, and by the way, the topper on my truck in the pics, I got it off of craigslist for FREE!

My wife and I haven`t been able to do much camping this year, because we both have had some really bad health problems, and both of us lost our jobs 4 months ago. 2 months ago, I was rushed to the hospital with the worst kind of bleeding ulcer, and the doc said, I almost didn`t make it.
Oh well, we are having fun now, and all is better.:sombrero:

Some geese, and the river right by us. You can fish right outside your room, and or float down the river, I plan on bringing my canoe next time.

Breakfast by the window with the river just outside.

Cool shot of the rig from the second floor.

This dog is hungry!

Our room was upstairs ontop of the garage, the main house is on the right, and the river is on the left. These people are great that own this place.
The other cool thing is, this is there only room, and it is away from there house, so it is very private.

Onto the Bishop Castle, then home!!

 

[Scott39]

Well the Bishop Castle is different, so I will let the links explain it, they do a better job of writing than I do.
This link explains the history of the castle.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06211/709125-37.stm

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=bishop+castle&aq=0&oq=bishop+cas&aqi=g10

Here is some of my pics of the castle. And the drive to get to the castle was beautiful. Some of the most incredible scenery I have ever seen in Colorado.

My wife climbed up to the top into the steel ball. This is about 10-12 stories high.

If you look real close to the top of the cone on the right, you can see a man that climbed up there and out ontop of the cone, CRAZY!

Here is a link to all of my pics of the Bishop Castle.

http://s825.photobucket.com/albums/zz175/Scott95dodge/Bishop Castle Colorado/?albumview=grid

 

[Scott39]

And finally on our way home. We only drove about 600 miles, but I felt we did alot in that 600.

 

[roostercruiser]

congrads look like a good time. i love it down there. gotta love Colorado. we stil need to hit the trail.

 

[roostercruiser]

wheres bishop castle . i never heard of it before

 

[t0mills]

Awesome trip report!! Thanks for the pics!

That Castle is really cool. I wish I would've known about it when I took my trip!


May I ask what your average MPG was for the trip? I just picked up a dodge donor truck. Planning to put a 12v 6BT in my suburban.
I'm hoping it will double what I get with my 7.4L.