We may have spent a day too long near the biker bar! Jason dressed himself and went out to enjoy the morning reading.The Hrabes arrived late in the evening so we headed to St. Elmo in the morning to explore the ghost town. St. Elmo is know for its plethora of hummingbirds and chipmunks.Here is the group: Orville, Jason, Cathy, Claire, Melinda, Benjamin and Jonah. I was missing (behind the camera)!Here’s a photo of the town of St. Elmo. There is one business in operation, the small general store.We found this property and it was on the market (a few years ago, maybe 40 or 50). I believe it may still be available. It does need some TLC and a little yard-work though. It is for smaller people.Jason, Claire, Benjamin and Jonah posed on the bridge crossing the waterway running through town.Benjamin is feeding the chipmunks across the street from the mercantile.Jason also fed the little guys. They could put a LOT of seed in their cheeks.We decided to make a side trip to another ghost town up the hill, Tincup. Unfortunately the road to Tincup got progressively worse and was a difficult 4WD to say the least. We turned around and headed back to town. I did ask directions to a place we previously visited but the guy I was asking was from Arkansas! We headed down the road in search of a picnic area.We found this abandoned home after we passed a private lake. There was a nice, clear and cold stream running though the area so we lunched beside the stream while getting our feet wet.In the morning, we decided to take a hike to Brown’s Creek Falls, along the Colorado Trail. It was a steady climb up to the falls, a distance of about three miles, each way. We got passed by horses and pack llamas. There were two separate groups of horseback riders heading to the falls. It was probably easier than hiking. We passed one backpacker who had hiked almost down to the parking area before she realized she had taken a wrong turn about a mile and a half back up the trail where she had left the Colorado Trail. She had a good walk back up the mountain in the heat and was not a happy camper.The falls were running and gorgeous. Melinda and Benjamin are about to jump across the span to the other side. The water runs over a cliff to her left and it was a little too dicey for me. Ah, to be young!Jason and Claire had fun in the creek. One of the horseback riders fell into the pool to the right and got pretty wet. It was kinda funny, but I felt sorry for the horse. The pool was between four and five feet deep and we spotted many brown trout in the creekThis is the flat section of the trail leading up to the falls. Mt. Antero (at 14,269 feet) looms in the background. We were all pretty tired when we reached camp and sat around the campfire and talked into the evening.In the morning, we headed down to the local goat farm to pet the baby goats and purchase some cheese (goat cheese of course). We were going to get some ice cream, but we determined we would have to mortgage our house so we took a rain check and waited until we got into town.We stopped at the first place in Leadville that served ice cream and took a break.After walking the downtown, we headed up into the mining district to explore. We found this mine car alongside the Rails to Trails bikeway.Jason is on the Rails to Trails. There are a LOT of bikeways in Colorado. And a lot of bike shops. And a lot of very expensive bikes!The colors of the mine tailings made for a very beautiful scene. Here we are about a mile up a dirt road just east of town. There are mines everywhere, some are obviously abandoned, some are not. Jason found a couple of bricks from one of the mining operations, probably dating to the late 1800s. We will transport them back to Georgia for him since they won’t fit in the overhead!We had about an hour to use waiting for the Leadville, Colorado & Southern Railway to enter town so we took a drive up to Turquoise Lake. We could see Leadville down in the valley below (not in this photo). Leadville is at an elevation of a little over 10,000 feet.This is Turquoise LakeJason and I waited for the arrival of the L C & S Railway to enter town. These guys were cooling off at the front of the train. It was 87 degrees, even at this elevation.Cathy waited in a little different location, by our truck.The Hrabes headed on to Denver so we headed to the bike park in Buena Vista. Jason was very cautious but slowly picked up speed.Here he is trying out the hills and jumps. It was a pretty neat play area for the children of Buena Vista.He is starting to concentrate on making a jump . . .You can see the determination in his eyes!He did it! He got into the air!Confidence leads to mistakes. He entered this turn a little too fast . . .Ya gotta know when to stop. Crashing is a good indicator that you are tired.Cathy and I had company in the shade. This guy hung out with us for the duration. It may have been the shade, or just the pleasure of our company.
Travelling with the Schinglers 