Thursday

We're all settled into our beautiful wooded site at Mountaindale RV and Cabins just a bit south and west of Colorado Springs.    The day we arrived was beautiful....sunny and warm and we enjoyed our happy hour outside.    We're here for a week and I think yesterday will be the best day, weather wise.    Dave is outside right now unhooking the water hose and turning off the hydrant in expectation of very low temps. tonight.   Couple that with high winds and possible snow and I'm very glad our propane tank is full (so we can run the furnace as long as we want) and a fragrant pumpkin pie is baking in the oven.   We'll be happy and cozy in Beluga until this storm blows over.

We have lots of "friends" here.   Deer wander the sites and are often found sleeping next to motorhomes or picnic tables.   I guess we're using their homes and they are gracious enough to ignore that fact.

Lots of birds everywhere.   We've been "told" about bear frequenting the campground also, but haven't seen any.   I'd like to keep it that way.

This afternoon we did a bit of exploring around the Canon City area.   We walked along the Arkansas River, enjoying the rushing water, the beautiful fall colors and the still blue skies.

The historic area of town looked very interesting and we'll come back to have a walk around next week.  Perhaps after our train trip through the Royal Gorge on Saturday.

The highlight of the day, however, was our discovery of Skyline Drive.   We passed by it's somewhat hidden but very interesting arched entrance as we searched for the train station. 

After we found the station and got the information we needed for our Saturday's reservation we turned back to pass under the arch and see where Skyline Drive would take us.

drive through this arch to access Skyline Drive

The arch and the one way ridge top road were built by inmates of the Colorado State Penitentiary in the early 1900's.

stones from all 50 states were used in its construction

I loved this drive!   I can't believe I loved this drive because it travels along the very narrow razorback ridge of limestone  (called a hogback) with steep sides dropping off 800 feet on both sides. 

one narrow lane wide

Perhaps it was because the road was one way and I didn't have to worry about where we would have to pull off if we met someone coming the other way...perhaps it was the novelty of seeing the road stretch ahead along the ridge line and the highway below.  I enjoyed the ride immensely.

you can see our bad weather approaching in the distance

At the top we stopped to view an excavated area of dinosaur footprints embedded in the cliff face.   The trackway was discovered by a local resident in 1999.

the march of rounded shapes are the bottom of traveling dinosaur footprints embedded in the sand before this area became an uplifted ridge.

It's time for bed....the slow internet has made the posting of this blog a long process and it's late.   Stay tuned.