#11 UNITED STATES AIR FORCE ACADEMY

The pipe organ

VERY MOVING

The Alter

The back wall

The outside, A masterful design

#10 BISHOPS CASTLE

Glass roof

Main Room

My Bride

The Dragon. actually breaths fire

From the Road You can google Bishops castle and learn much more

#9 DOWN TIME and BUFFALO

After leaving our idyllic overnight side of the road campsite, we travelled northwest across the big sky country of Montana. Again cattle ranches that stretch to the horizon with a lot of steaks and hamburgers waiting to be processed.

We are amazed at the amount of water being used for irrigation across the west, huge irrigation wheels covering hundreds of acres pumping millions of gallons of water are continually pumping to keep grass growing. Yet it seems that on many of those ranches most of that grassland is not being used.

We have been on the road for three weeks and seen so much nearly non stop so we found a nice campground in Missoula MT and settled in for the weekend.

Monday we are back on the road on a scenic drive towards Glacier National Park. we stop at a old mission built in 1890 and marvel at the artwork. The painter was a cook who had no training in painting but completed all the murals and frescoes in the church in just 13 months. There were about 50 of them and they were quite beautiful.

Further along the road we find the Nation Bison Range a 18,500 acre preserve for wildlife.

Before settlers moved west in the mid 1800's there were a estimated 20-30 million buffalo across the great plains, in just 20 years they were near extinction. There are now about 1/2 million in the U.S. and nearly the same in Canada. The drive through the preserve is a 19 mile dusty gravel road with some grades of over 10%. We were rewarded with close up encounters with elk, pronghorn antelope, bald eagle and lots of buffalo. On 2-3 occasions we waited while the buffalo took their own sweet time crossing the road. We decided not to try to hurry them.

We stopped early and planned for our day tomorrow (Tuesday) into Glacier National Park.

On arriving at the GNP visitor centre we learn that the Going to the Sun road through the park is still not opened yet but expect it to be soon, as of July 6 there was still over 30 feet of snow on the roadway. We explore the trails and falls in the lower park and find a campground for the night.

#8 MORE FROM PIKES PEAK

Limestone surrounded by granite

A hole through the mountain

Unique formation

More of the same

OOPS sorry

#7 Pictures Pikes peak and Garden of the gods

Images from Garden of the gods

Top of Pikes peak 14,410 feet

#6 Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks

So, how many magnificent mountains can you see or how many spectacular waterfalls or beautiful lakes or cloudless deep blue skies can you see before you get tired of them. We don't know, haven't even got close to that point and we still have lots to see yet.

Driving across Wyoming we see cattle ranches that must be tens of thousands of acres. Fields with at least that many cattle in them and buildings and towns are few and far between. Just like most of the west there are always snow capped mountains in the distance and as we approach we begin a long uphill climb into the mountains and then a series of switchbacks to the top and then the downhill run that can be several miles until you break into a valley. In the valleys you find a city or town and smaller farms and sometimes industries to support the local resources. Leaving the valley you climb up through the mountain again until you reach the high plain and continue on your journey.

The Grand Tetons are a series mountains with more than twenty peaks over 10,000 feet and several over 12,000 feet the highest being 13,804 feet. At that height they are all snow covered and the snow melt create dozens of fast flowing streams the provide water for the numerous lakes and rivers that start in the park, the most notable is the Snake river. We stop at a turnout atop a glacial moraine and enjoy a bit of lunch and a panoramic view across Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons.

The drive from the Tetons to Yellowstone National Park is only a few minutes on Hwy. 89 and we quickly find ourselves beside the roaring Yellowstone River as we head towards Old Faithful.

Old Faithful is one of over 500 geysers in the park and as its name suggest it erupts fairly regularly. We waited about 30 minutes and watched as the steam became thicker and short quick eruptions of water boiling up 5-6 feet and then with a roar she blew about 90-100 feet up for about a minute then settled down to a small plume of vapour to start again. Even though we had seem it on TV lots of time and many pictures it was still something special to witness in person.

We took what is called the Yellowstone grand Loop, stopping at Geyser Basin where dozens of small geysers bring their boiling waters up to Firehole Lake. Further along we hike a trail to Artist Paint Pot where dozen of mud holes boil up in different colours created by minerals in the earth. Further to the west we followed a trail to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, not quite like the other Grand Canyon but still pretty impressive with upper and lower falls and great lookout spots.

Every campsite in both parks were full and camping is not allowed in any other location so we headed north into Montana and stopped at a pullout in a valley. About midnight the moon dropped below the mountains and the star show was really something, reminding us of our trip to Newfoundland about this time last year.

In the Book of Psalms 19:1 it reads "The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky proclaim the works of His hand". We sure see the work of His hand wherever we go.

#5 July 1 to July6

We spent the night at the Gunsmoke RV park just west of Dodge City and very happy to have power to run the air conditioner. At 0800 the temp was already 85, we were told that it normally does not get that hot until later in July.

Dodge City is a place of cowboy history, legend and lore so of course we had to visit boot hill. Contrary to popular belief Wyatt Earp is not buried there. The hill is the final resting place of the towns poor, strangers and those killed in a gun fight. They were buried in their clothes with their boots on and so the name Boot Hill.

Still standing is the original 2 cell jail, a school, church and a replica of a street as it was in the 1880's.

Travelling westward we several times crossed the Santa Fe trail where for 50 years from 1822-1872, thousands of wagons crossed the plains to the west, so many, that the ruts made by the wagons are still visible in many places.

As we moved west the temperature dropped down into the 90's and by the time we reached Colorado Springs it was 87.

We had long heard of Pike's peak and arranged a trip up the mountain on the cog railroad to the summit at 14,110 feet. The ride up takes 90 minutes and the temp at the top was 42F and a pretty good wind made it feel like we were home in December. We we glad we wore long pants and a jacket. What a change from the heat of the last two days but the view was well worth any discomfort we felt. We could see for miles out across the plains to the east were we had just travelled and across the mountains to the west and north.

The views of mountains ,the lakes ,the forest and the plains inspired the poet who wrote the words of the song "America the Beautiful" after visiting the peak.

We spent the rest of the weekend with Diane's cousin Doug and Beverly Freeman in Colorado Springs. On Sunday we took a drive through Bear Creek State Park, about a 20 mile drive through unique rock formations, waterfalls and forest. We thought it was really nice until we visited the "Garden of the Gods" the next day. We think it should just be called "God's Garden"

There are hundreds of incredible rock formations and the road winds and twist up the mountain and around boulders that are bigger that house's and of different types of rocks. It is truly a unique and spectacular place.

On Tuesday Doug took us to Bishop's Castle, a place built by one man, starting in 1969, he has worked at it for 42 years and likely will never finish it, it has turrets, towers, huge rooms with stained glass a glass peaked roof, and a fire breathing dragon on the top. He is building a moat around it and he has moved huge stones and beams with pulleys and belts and all manner of ways he has invented himself. Quite remarkable.

After leaving their home we stopped at the United States Air Force Academy. to visit the most unique chapel We have ever seem. It is actually 4 chapels in one with the largest protestant one on the main floor and a RC, Jewish and Buddha on the lower level.

In the main chapel there is a plaque on the front two rows that reserve those seats for POW MIA's What a nice way to honour those still missing.

Wednesday morning we went to Rocky Mountain National Park. The highway goes to 12183 feet (3713 M) . The views are incredible and changes around every curve (and there are lots of those) in many places there is still as much as 8-10 feet of snow but where the ground is bare the tiny flowers and grasses have bloomed. There is only as few as 6 or a maximum of 12 weeks growing season at this attitude. We saw several herds of elk, numerous waterfalls, lakes and mountain peaks.

The trip around the park took nearly 12 hours and from the park entrance to the nearest town the elevation drops about 5000 feet in 30 miles so we coasted to our camp site.

For some reason I can't post any pictures now but will get them on ASAP.