Mount Rushmore

On July 9th Jeff, Maxine, Todd and I took a nice road trip to see Mount Rushmore. Wow! What a majestic place to see. We walked around the mountain and then went back to our hotel and had dinner, then came back for the evening ceremony.

The evening ceremony made the trip. Opening with the "Pledge of Allegiance", then the singing of "Oh Beautiful" as we watch a video of our country to the lighting of the mountain. It is so moving and patriotic we were all in tears. At the end of the ceremony, they asked all veterans to come up to be honored. It was amazing!

After the ceremony we took the walk around the mountain again to see the amazing sights. In my opinion it is better at night.

This is the view of the entrance into the mountain. Each state is represented by its state flag and the date it was entered into the union.

We had a wonderful time at Mount Rushmore. It was so refreshing to see and feel the passion and pride of our country. I would encourage anyone who has not seen the mountain to go. It's worth the drive!

The Long Afternoon Drive

Fourth of July weekend, Todd, Jeff, Maxine and I took a drive into Estes Park to see the wild life. Jeff and Maxine had not seen a Colorado "In the green" Summer.

We hiked to the top of the park were we watch four men ski off the mountain in the snow patches. As you can see, there is not much snow. We saw deer, moose, and elk. Everyone was having such a great time we never turned around, and ended up spending the night in Steamboat Springs.

In Steamboat we enjoyed a great Mexican dinner on the roof top as we watched the fireworks. This was the first time I have never packed for a road trip. We stopped and picked up the basics like a toothbrush and toothpaste to make it through the night. A wonderful trip that was greatly needed but unexpected.

Our First Backpacking Trip

The last weekend in June, Todd and I took our first backpacking trip into the Raweah Wilderness. We hiked in on Saturday in the rain about 5 miles spending the night in a meadow where we saw a deer and 4 bull elk.

The next day we hiked about 3.5 miles into Shipman Park, were we ate some snow and turned around to go pack up camp.

On the way out of the meadow Todd and I jumped this creek were he hurt his foot and then later on the trail I ended up hurting mine. So...Todd and I limped the 5 miles out off the mountain to the truck. On the way home we went through a drive through for dinner because we both could not walk and spent the rest of the night with ice on our feet. Just another adventure and great memories.