G & B: Colorado is on fire

Colorado is battling intense wildfires all around the state. As of today the area where we camped by Rocky Mountain was evacuated as 20 homes and cabins burned today. The newscast said Hwy 66, which is the road that led to our campsite was closed due to the fire as well as that entrance to Rocky Mountain. That fire had to be within 5 miles of our first campground and had we still been there we would have been evacuated. Also the High Park fire still burns and another fire is outside of Colorado Springs has shut down Garden of the Gods which we were supposed to see later this week. Everything is just so dry. Every campground where we have been have forbidden camp fires and for a good reason. Signs all around alert people of the extremely dangerous fire danger right now. Colorado very badly needs rain.

We have managed to stay out of the path of the fires so far. We spent all day yesterday in Grand Lake, hiking and sitting at the marina/beach. I think at one time we counted 4 golden retrievers at the beach and one of them was swimming around in the swimming area having a blast. Riley loves other golden retrievers. It's like he knows.....

Around 3 or so the wind off the lake picked up and made it impossible to be outside. It was like a sand storm! We drove home and made dinner in the camper, listened to the Beatles on the stereo in an attempt to stay out of the crazy wind. It died down around 10 or so and was back to normal.

Also, all around our campsite there were chipmunks- like 4 or 5 of them running around all the time and I would just lay in the pop top and watch them in the mornings. Squirrels are not that cute I don't think and I don't really care for them, but chipmunks.... chipmunks are adorable and I am a fan of watching them run around playing with each other. I decided to strategically place myself near them one evening to get their photos but they would of course, always run away. Finally I just placed myself by their favorite rock and waited. I guess after about 5 minutes they thought I was just part of the landscape or something because they came out and I was able to get some cute pics of them. My favorite is below of one of the little guys eating a purple flower.

After wringing my hands for two days about this upcoming drive to Steamboat Springs to meet up with Jay and Sarah we took off today at 9 am and made it to Steamboat without one single sweaty palm or racing heart. The roads were 100% less scary than Trail Ridge. As my brother pointed out, "The thing about Colorado roads is that you can actually die. One wrong move and you are flying of the edge of a cliff." That's what I was thinking but couldn't really put into words on Thursday. I didn't even come close to any roads with serious cliffs coming to Steamboat. We just had a serious descent but the van's brakes are killer- no worries there.

Steamboat Springs is a ski town. We have a hotel here and are loving it. We went out for drinks and dinner tonight and it ended with Jay and Sarah riding on a dinosaur with a saddle. This is a "western" town afterall :)