The San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado is a very cool place to road-trip. Compared to the packed tourist hot-spots on I-70, The Valley is relatively quiet and undiscovered. (Don’t wait too long to visit though; word about this awesome part of Colorado is spreading!) You CAN go for a…
Travel Quiz – What can this strange sight be? A photo shopped alligator in Colorado? Fake snow at a gator pond in Florida? A Colorado gator in his natural environment? A real photo? Had I labeled these A – D the answer is….D! On Highway 17, 15 miles north of…
Climbing the Great Sand Dunes What a magnificent sandpile! Forever shifting and changing in the wind but always staying in the same place. Hiking the dunes is unique as there is no trail. Everyone blazes their own. Rising almost 800 feet above the valley floor the dunes are easily accessed…
Hot springs in winter … wherefore art thou? Travelers have numerous reactions to hot springs in a region. Some seek them out. Others happen upon them any time of year and are happy to spontaneously try them out. Others, like me, enjoy them seasonally. I like contrasts. Cold winter days…
With a goal of having a science learning experience (SLE) in the San Luis Valley (SLV) and in a quest to answer, ‘What am I going to do for fun today?’ I drive south on 285 over Poncha Pass and into the SLV. My interview with camels was in two…
Potatoes. Mashed, hash-browned, French-fried, boiled, foiled (as in baked), souped, roasted, saladed, totted, Augratined or chipped. How do you like potatoes? Perhaps your taste leans more toward European styles like latkes (potato pancakes) or gnocchi (Italian potato pasta). Ah, how the world loves potatoes. But, do most people know how…
Something new is brewing at the Sand Dunes Pool and it isn’t coffee! Smack dab in the middle of the San Luis Valley, a mile below the surface, Mother Nature continuously ‘brews’ purified ground-filtered water. Then, through the age old human practice of well digging, this perfect water is piped…
Enjoy both at Great Sand Dunes National Park! Families are often torn between beach and mountain vacations. Problem solved. The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve provides both from mid-April into June. Because of higher-than-average snowpack and heavy spring rains, this year that time has been extended into July….
Peaceful Luxury We all hope, for ourselves, and everyone else, for a joy-filled journey through life. However, recognizing the unreality of a smooth road without bumps and potholes, or life’s unexpected twists and turns, it is nice to know that places exist for us to pursue some of our joys…
Fast furious and frenetic, yet gracefully choreographed, are my words for the evening out-flight of the Orient Land Trust bat colony. As day yields to night, the voices of the 25 of us gathered at a fence above the opening of the old mine shafts—now the bat caves—are hushed as…