On the Road to Creede/Vis Great Sand Dunes

Sixteen miles down the road is the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

When you are about 10 miles from it,this is what you see. It is so amazing here in the mountains to see these big sand dunes.

Where I am standing is a creek that usually runs all spring and summer. It comes from the snow melt and has barely dried up. It is about a half mile to where you start climbing up the dunes.

I don't know if you can see the people or not, but there are some at various distances up the dune. The ones on top have climbed a mile and a half. It is kind of like Mt.Rushmore, you could just sit and look at the dunes and try to imagine the formation of them.
The park is very nice,has rv parking, showers (if you played in the sand), picnic tables.

ProRodeo Hall Of Fame

We went to the ProRodeo hall of Fame on Thursday and is it nice. This is Casey Tibbs and is of course in the hall. The museum is well worth the money ,5 dollars per person and put together very well.

They have wonderful sculpturs all over the place. What was fun we knew several of the people that had been inducted. One of the men worked on the race track as an out rider when John was still riding. He was a saddle bronc rider. Then one of the men quit rodeoing and became a horse trainer and John rode for him.

It is divided up in sections as you can see, very easy to find whoever you are looking for. Marilyn said she only recognized the bull Bodacious and Don Gay, but enjoyed the whole thing.

What a statue behind us! I didn't get who he represented, but we had fun posing.
By the way this museum is in Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs has a lot to see around it. We've been here a week and still didn't see everything. Next time when we come thru.

Pikes Peak

This was taken from Garden of the Gods

Entry into the park .... shocked us how much it cost to get in $35 per car. Marilyn, John and I voted against it as we are going to take the cog train Wednesday. But Bill said he wanted to go (and he was driving, so that canceled our votes) so we went. We were all glad we did, was worth every penny.

About half way up ..... getting cooler

Loved this rock formation


I'm looking for the rest of my pictures and I see they have escaped me. So will publish this and go hunt for them and share them later.

Garden of the Gods

I mentioned before about my love of rocks, so you can imagine how I felt about this place. I don't have room for all the pictures I took (you're probably saying thank goodness!) but will share my favorites.

This one isn't named, but loved the shape of it.

Balanced Rock and has been this way for thousands of years.

Up in the right hand corner is called camels kissing. I didn't realize it, just thought the hole in the rock was cool.
Coming up next is Pikes Peak

More of the Air Force Academy

We spotted this maple tree as we were leaving the church. My first thought was how beautiful it was, then my second thought was .... we need to be heading south.

The visitor's center is put together very well, has some interesting facts. The school was started in 54, finished in 58. The students went schooled at Lowery AFB in Denver.

These turkeys were just strolling across the hwy, a big flock of them. Suppose to be lots of wildlife on the base.

Here is the stadium, don't think it showed up on the last blog.
Next is Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak

The Chapel @Air Force Academy

We went to the Air Force Academy yesterday and as you can tell I was taken by the chapel. It is really breathtaking. Beautiful outside, but inside it is very plain, so plain in fact that is what makes it so stunning. I know that doesn't make sense, but when you first go in it, the first thing that strikes you is the peace that surrounds you.

The organ was BIG, wish I could have heard it.

The alter background was marble and just invited you up to have a talk with God, I should say listen to Him.

Downstairs was the Catholic church and on the backside of it was a Jewish and Buddhist place.

I thought I got a picture of the stadium in here, but can't find it. The parking for the stadium was kind of plain, no pavement at all, it was like parking out in a big field with twine separating the rows.
The academy is big. I believe it has 18,7oo acres and had a lot of wildlife. Next time I will show the rest of the place.

Denver Mint & Capitol

Somewhere in those buildings you see is the Denver Mint. I wish I could have taken a picture of the outside of it, but due to circumstances beyond my control, I couldn't. I had checked on the internet when the mint was open etc., and it said reservations was recommended. But I thought, heck here it is school has started we probably won't need them. When I picked up brochures, it said reservations highly recommended. So went on line and sure enough, it was all filled for the time we were going to be in Denver, so expanded and couldn'tget in until Thursday and had to drive from Monument. It did say you could walk up early in the morning and try to get in. So Friday morning John and I got to downtown close to the mint, and found a parking place about 2 blocks away. By the way it was pouring down rain and had been ever since the night before. We walked up to the ticket booth and sure enough no one crazy enough but us was there. The rules were, (luckily I had read them) no cameras, purses, bags of any kind (you get the idea). John had to take his boots off, as the alarm went off when he went thru. (There are metal arches in his boots) The tour was great, had a great tour guide, he offered all sorts of info. He said that they loose money making the coins, like it takes 28 cents to make the quarters, but the paper money (which is not made there) it takes about 25 cents to make it. Last year they made a quarter of a billion dollars which went towards to federal debt! If anyone is ever near a mint, take the tour (be sure and make reservations!)

The capitol is very nice, the guy who drew it up is the same one that did Texas's. A lot of construction going on. Their legislators work 4 months and make 30,000 dollars a year. Unless they are on their death bed, they are required to be in the chamber to vote.

The wood around the door frames came from Arkansas and was hand carved. I believe it was ash.

One interesting thing they had was the circled of presidents. The last 7 have been painted by the same man.
All in all a very wet but rewarding day.

Aren't They Grand!!

I just never get tired of looking at this great sculpture. It is just mind boggling to see (again) how long it took and how many men worked on it.

John and I went up one afternoon. It had rained most of the time we were in Rapid City, but finally cleared up the day before we were to leave. Anyway we went up and spent about an hour and a half wondering around the place and then just sitting looking at the faces.

Washington was picked because he was the first president. Jefferson was picked because of the La. purchase (one of the reasons), one of the reasons Roosevelt was picked was because of his stand on saving the land for parks, and Lincoln because of the civil war and how he guided the country thru it.

Fitting background for that good looking guy!
Let me know how these pictures turn out, as I changed cameras and the pixels (or however you spell it) is quite a bit more. I chose the small for size of the pictures, instead of medium.

Black Hills of N.Dakota:T.Roosevelt NP

The Teddy Roosevelt National Park in Medora, ND is very different from the black hill of South Dakota. A lot more vegetation and water. This is the Little Missouri River flowing thru the park. A lot of interesting about Teddy at the visitors center. I didn't realize he was moved into the presidents office after some McKinley was killed. Then he was elected after that term. Anyway there is a 32 mile loop thru the park, with several pull outs. It was a beautiful day to drive thru.

You don't see all this green in the badlands of S.D.

This is one of several herds of wild horses in the park. As you can see there are several colts. They looked in good shape.

There are about 350 buffalo in the park, like the horses this is a small herd. But unlike the horses they do not look in good shape. Very poor looking. They were not bothered by all the cars stopping taking their pictures. It was a fun day and as it turned out our last pretty day. A cold front came thru with rain (not enough) and wind. The high was 58 on Monday and today was 60 and suppose to be 38 tonight! Yikes it is time to move south ...... which we are tomorrow to Rapid City.

Enchanted Highway, ND

If you are ever going west on I-94 take exit 72 and travel 32 miles south down the Enchanted Hwy. Starting 1991 a man had a dream to make the town of Regent famous. So came up with an idea of creating these sculptures. The first one you see is geese in flight. You have to stand awhile at all of them to take in just how big they are; 110 feet tall and 156 wide is the dimensions of this one

This one called fisherman's dream was finished in 2006. IF you are a fisherman, will recognize all the fish.

Pheasants on the prairie is the name of this one and was created in 1996. Male is 40'high and 70' long

The family is the name of this one, created in 1991. The man is 45 feet tall and is held up by 16 telephone poles. By the way all the land was donated to put these sculptures on. Guessing the land donated for each piece is from 1 to 3 acres. Well worth the time to go see them. Best of all, in the town of Regent is a little place that has the best ice cream .... try the Swiss Chocolate.