Go West Ol' Man Day 9, August 13

 it's off to Philmont  this morning to visit HoME.  Visited the new scouting museum and impressed what they had done there.  Felt good to be back but very quiet - all the crews are back and now it's a scattering of full time staffers and some seasonal.

After that, we picked up Gus and headed to Taos. Weather was great for a day of just walking around the old town.   Had lunch on the patio of a local restaurant and Gus got all the attention. 

The drive over and back was very nice - two lane all the way and really nice to views of the hills and mountains. I don't think I would be pulling the camper along that hiway anytime soon, but we saw several that were.  

Tomorrow we head to Grants NM.  Staying at the Junkyard on 66 Brewery.  I liked the sound of the place was the reason.  Have had great stays at the Harvest Hosts.  Here are some pictures from today. 

PSA for troops heading to Philmont next year. The gal the runs the Ponil campground here in Cimarron now offers rides from Denver and Colorado Springs for scouts going to Philmont Scout Ranch. She purchased a 15 passenger van and has pick-up/return service, provides dinner, camping sites, breakfast and then out to the ranch, then return service to their departing airport. Any of my scouting friends might want to check it out as I think she might cheaper than the competition. Their contact info is found here - https://ponilcampgrounds.com,

Nap time!

Tooth - never tire of seeing it

Tooth of time bear

Gus thinks something lives there

sunrise

the Riveted Rover

Ponil Campground

Go West Ol' Man, Day 8, August 12

We said good bye to the St. Vrain State Park and hit the road for Cimmarron NM.   Not a lot to see today along the drive - the mountains are cool to see, but after driving through RMNP, it's hard to compare seeing them from afar when you see up close.  

I was wondering how the F150 with the 2.7 Ltr Eco-boost would do in the mountains. I can say that it performed well. Granted I run at 65 mph whne pulling the camper, but even heading up and over Raton Pass (elevation 7200) it did great pulling the camper.  Gas has been between 3.89 and 4.19 a gallon so far. Cheapest was at Wally World yesterday at 3.85.

Tonight we are staying at Ponil Campground in Cimmarron NM.   During the summer and up until Philmont closes down, a lot of workers live in their campers during the summer while working at the ranch.  Full hookup (sewer, water, electic) so happy we get to shower. They have washing machines for 1.25 a load and dryers as well!  Can't bitch about that at all.

Tommorow going out to Philmont Scout Camp.  Just to see it - did 6 treks total with scouts there and 1 HH trek in Socorro NM for a total of 7.  Deb was here there last two with the Venture crew, Ben did 2 with me as a scout and then 1 as our ranger.  Can still remember meeting him on top of Baldy Mtn that morning.  Another day, another lifetime it seems.

Anway, we head out to the Philmont tomorrow and then over to Taos.  Got my Grey Wolf ball cap to wear tomorrow, who know who you run into.

Sunrise at St.Vrain

Ponil Campground for 2 nights

Go West Ol' Man - Day 7, August 10

 Mostly driving today from Hot Springs over to St. Vrain State Park.  The park is actually located within the city of Longmont CO.  Drive was pretty boring as far as drives go - lots of straight, some curves, and some longer climbs.  Gas  was 3.89 to 4.19.  Speaking of gas, here in Longmont, they show it at 5.99 at the interstate ramp, but go three blocks down the street its 3.86.  Should mention that we rolled by 1000 miles on the trip so far. Go Figure

Full hookup for two nights here at the state park. really nice with several smaller lakes that the campsites around.  Today was laundry day so we have clean clothes again. Yea!

Clouds

they sure look like fire ants!

Lake where camp by

flower on a thistle

Hot Springs campsite.

WASH-TV channel dry

Wash-TV channel wash

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st. vrain campsite map 

Go West Ol' Man, Day 6, August 9

 Whee doggies is it windy here!  had to bring the sunshades in due to the winds.  Gusts were up to 30 mph and talk about dusty!   But that was last night and today much calmer and cooler - cooler being 90 instead of 100+.

Got a tour of the farm with the owner Deb and her god daughter Laura from Switzerland.  Strange thing is Laura's parents are somewhere traveling in Mexico i think but they don't know for sure.  And she is staying with Deb. Nice kid, speaks great english - typical 13 year old girl.  Pics from the farm with pigs, chickens, goats, cows, sheep, rabbits, dogs, horses, and stray cats.

Then headed to the Mammoth exhibit.  That was way cool.  Here is a link https://tinyurl.com/4nyc29p7.  If you are in the area, don't miss it. They have found 60 mammoths in the mammoth pit.  The cool thing is, the museum is built over the pit which is over 190,000 years old.  

After that excursion had some lunch, grabbe Gus and headed into town to visit - drumroll please - a yarn shoppe!  Deb picked up some buffalo fiber.  After that, we hiked around a local park and then stopped for some ice cream.  Good stuff and the place was packed with bikers.  When they came outside, they all loved Gus.  Needless to say, he got his share of loves.

Picked up some ice, a 4 piece chicken dinner (winner winner chicken dinner), stopped by the HH folks to say good bye and bought some of their maple pork sausage and bacon.

Laura and her adopted pup

feed me the carrot

some say carrots?

Love me som carrots

this one was not for dinner

Mammoth exhibit

these are still the real bones! 

More bones

comparing the two mammoths

Would thought my sister was around

Mural on the ice cream shoppe

Go West Ol' Man - Day 5, August 8

 We only had about 130 miles to travel today so we took advantage of that and slept. The drive over from our campground to the Harvest Host (HH), The Black Hills Farm Life, with TuTara Farm and Ranch was pretty smooth. Took the back hiway over to avoid the traffic - think we had 3 cars / trucks pass us. Coming the other direction, lots of motorcycles. They were lucky and had the tail wind and we fought the headwind all the way over.

Pictures are from this morning and then at our HH site.  The hills are "black" looking as they trees are so thick and from a distance, the hills do look black.  That said, where the land is flat, there is nothing to stop the wind blowing.  We had a 20 minute wind storm this evening and we worked to get the aweings up and secured. Just as soon as it arrived, it was gone.  

Tomorrow we get a farm tour of the HH and will pick up some fresh breakfast sausage links. Plan to hit the Mamoth exhibit along with the fossil museum before things get too hot (was 102 this afternoon here).  But hey, it's a dry heat right?

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Go West Ol' Man - Day 4 - August 7

 Our first thing to do today was climb Notch Trail ladder to the the top.  The climb was not as bad I thought it would be. Thought the going down the ladder was tough as you could not see the step that was below.  The views were great and was surprised how much you could see. Lots of pictures from there.  The link below shows a couple climbing up. I was not about to try videoing us going up.  

CLimbing notch trail

Next stop was the Door trail and it did not disappoint.  This was ground level walking, no stairs or steps to speak of. Its interesting how the different area have different types of soil composition.  You can tell where there has been more water on the ground vs what the higher places.

Our last stop was the Fossil Exhibit trail. It was a shorter tail but showed where different animal fossils have been located. Was interesting to see where what animals were found in relation to where we standing.  

Badlands Hotel and Campground

Notch Trail