An Update and No. 71: Have a Picnic

No. 71: Have a Picnic and a Fire Update

First the Hayden Pass fire update.

We are breathing easier.  Literally and figuratively. After a week of smoldering skies and whiffs of campfire smoke, the fire is mostly under control and the smoke has been washed away.
We had rain. And lots of firefighters.

The stats for today (Thursday July 21) are 16,414 acres burning or burned. It is still slowly spreading but mostly into the wilderness area. 

There are 589 people working the fire today. 

Fifty percent of the perimeter is contained. I don't think it will ever be 100% until it snows because the back of the fire (away from me) is in wilderness area that cannot be accessed. That just gets to burn until it snows. Or rains for a while.

It is hard to comprehend just how much area is affected.

Maybe these pics can give you an idea:

                          *

From the highway

And a pic from the dump, across the river. 

These pictures are the "under control" version of our fire. 

So, life returns to normal. Or as normal as it gets here at the Western outpost of Green Acres. 

Now, on to  No. 71: Have a Picnic.

To escape the smoke, I visited Liddy's house about 2 1/2 hour west of me, across the Continental Divide, in Lake City.


I love a picnic and my friend Liddy is a pro at them. She learned from the best, her mother. Growing up I have some great memories of picnics with Liddy's family. 

And so we picnicked. At the American Basin near Handie's Peak outside of Lake City. The American Basin is known for its wildflowers and this trip did not disappoint.

We had sandwiches, adult beverages (not for the driver...this was a Jeep trip that required 4 wheel drive) and Oreos. What could be better?

Liddy, me and the picnic basket.

Braids must be my picnic hair do.

                      

Liddy's darling daughter, Emma, who was also our fearless driver,

with her pup, Milly.

Jake, Liddy's Westie, checking out the picnic offerings. 

             

And wouldn't this have been a great pic if someone hadn't accidentally 

put the black and white filter on their phone camera?!

All those flowers behind me....o well.  

The flowers were gorgeous. There were tiny white butterflies everywhere. The dogs frolicked. The people frolicked. There were waterfalls and baby Big Horn Sheep. It was a glorious day. 

                                  

A little waterfall

                 

See why it's called a basin? 

                                 

Wildflowers...

                                 

and more wildflowers....

Mama Big Horn Sheep with Baby (Not So) Big Horn Sheep

            

Fluttering butterflies all over.

No. 71 has had its basket emptied.


* photo by Lauren Murray...thanks! Lauren!

Let's Take a Drive

Let's Take a Drive through the Mountains…

Still trying to get myself together after being gone for a week.
Also trying to get my hands on some pictures from brunch and dinner so I can do posts.


In the meantime, I had to take a little drive today to Cañon City to pick up license plates for Bunny's car. Colorado prefers to see you in person at the county courthouse to get your license plates rather than having them delivered to the dealer like they do in Texas.

Cañon City is about 50 miles away from the cabin and the area is home to 9 state and 4 federal prisons including the Super-Max Prison or "Alcatraz of the Rockies".  Residents there include Unabomber Ted Kazinsky, World Trade Center bomber Zacarias Moussaoui, and Sammy “The Bull” Gravano. 
Such illustrious neighbors I have!   

Bunny behind bars.

 There's even the Museum of Colorado Prisons which has daily tours and special evening prison cemetery tours. The girlies and I have been to both. We even learned how to "witch" for bodies in the cemetery. (Grave dowsing)  Lucky me, apparently I have a real knack for finding bodies underground.

Belle and friend tip-toeing 

through the graveyard.

But today I wasn't interested in prisons, dead bodies or seeing the Royal Gorge which is Cañon City's other claim to fame.   Just needed some license plates and I managed to get in and out of the county courthouse in about 5 minutes.  (Yea, imagine that.)

And then because it was a beautiful day with hardly any one else on the road, I decided to document the drive. I go through the Big Horn Sheep Canyon and it is stunningly beautiful and a little bit dangerous. On the way to Cañon today I was redirected to the far side of the road because of a rock fall clean up. Nothing new, last month I had to maneuver around a dinner table sized rock in the middle of the road. The Arkansas River is on one side of the road, the mountains on the other. Big horn sheep like to graze along the shoulder. 

So come along with me from Cañon City to the cabin.

 Heading West 

 It's all stunning.

 That's the Arkansas River on the right.

One of the premier white water rafting areas in the U.S.

 Rock fall on the left. I prefer it when the rocks stay 

attached to the mountain.

 These are all taken in the 50 minutes it took me to 

drive from Point A to Point B. 

I love how the clouds change as I drive.

 Or how the clouds disappear….

 The Arkansas is also a fly fisherman's dream.

 It's interesting that these are all in order- 

so as I go around corners, 

the sky view changes.

 Back and forth between menacing clouds 

and friendly clouds.

 And just past this curve I came upon

some big horn sheep.

 Rather than drive off the road into the river,

I turned around and got out of my car. 

 Those silly sheep tried running up the mountain.

 I still got their picture. 

 Then back on the road.

And finally almost home.

Thanks for coming along.  Hope you enjoyed the drive. 

UPDATE:  So glad I did this drive yesterday because….
This is the photo Bunny took this morning right before she turned around and said "Forget this, I am NOT going to school."  On the same road.  Fortunately taken before she got to a point of no return. 

Taken about 7:30am and it hasn't stopped snowing yet.

Nor will it for a while.

Maybe Mom should have checked the weather forecast before sending her youngest off to school

Six to eight inches forecast between now and 4pm. 

Oops.