COLORADO RIVER AT NORMAL

Since arriving to Island Acres, we watch as the Colorado river rise, putting everyone on alert to flooding.  They feared that the Day-Use area would be the first to go under and then maybe a couple of our campsites.



Then at one of our sister park, the berm broke away while a park ranger was checking for stability, causing for an emergency shut down to any trails along the river banks.  The park ranger was safe and was able to pull himself back up.

Now that the snow run off has stopped and the rain being sporadic, we finally are seeing the Colorado River for what it is, with a constant motion and ripples.  Rocks and boulders are starting to appear once again.  Rafters are back out having a good time. 

water rushing over the rocks as they show their appearance

Great Blue Heron perched on a rock in the Colorado River

The Island where bears have been known to cross over and come over towards us.

Unfortunately the River still continues to claim a lives.  In one incident a down tree was across a big portion of the river, causing many to divert.  Not knowing if the tree was the actual cause of the drowning or not, authorities decided not to take any more chances.  So calling in the bomb squad, clearing the area, the tree became an instant debris field, which has now been cleaned up.

With the river going back down to normal, we have been told that bears will cross over in a couple of sections, so I wonder if I will finally get to see one?

TRIP TO THE ROCKIES-Part Three

After a somewhat restful sleep at Lake Dillon, we got up and headed out.  I slept ok, but Brian was worried about me, so he didn’t sleep very good.  Anyways when we woke, the temp had to be near 40 degrees and tearing down camp became very cold on our hands.




In our haste the night before, Brian accidentally spilled what coffee grounds we had, so we had no coffee to help warm us up until we got to a gas station.  After fueling the car and our tummies with hot coffee, it was time to adventure on back home.  My breathing went back to normal and the wheezing had stopped-but I still felt low key and low energy-but I wasn’t going to give in.

As we headed westbound on I-70 the temps slowly warmed up.  It was time to shed the jogging outfits and put on shorts, and finally put more than coffee into our bellies, oh and of course-feed Leah.

We made a stop at a rest area that also was the entrance to the Hanging Lake Trail.  We had all good intentions of hiking on this trail.  However, first sign we saw said no dogs allowed on the trail!  Well that sucked, for we obviously could not leave her in the car either!  So the trail would have to wait for another time….We do understand why and the reasoning why dogs are not allowed on the trail, and therefore will by by the rules.

So back on the Interstate heading homeward bounds.  Next rest stop and pull off was fascinating to us.  We discovered where they put in for rafting on the Colorado River and was fun to watch them get ready to head down the river.  This was called Grizzly Creel Rest Stop.



We had to laugh at this one poor guide.  He was trying to get those on the right side of the raft to start paddling-and all they wanted to do was wave at us while I took their pictures.  The river guide had to do everything from keeping them from going in constant circle with no help from his crew mate!  It was funny, and they did finally headed downriver-in the right direction.

Next stop was back to Rifle where we picked up a pizza and headed towards Rifle Gap to rest and eat.  After a rest, we headed to Rifle Falls where we finally was able to hike a little and even taken our little girl with us.






Wished we would have grabbed our flashlights our of the car.  We knew there were some caves, but not sure how far they really went in and without flashlights and having Leah with us-we didn’t explore any farther than the entrance to the caves.

After walking a while, I was once again feeling not so good and it was just time to head back home.  I think with the elevation I may have developed a sinus infection.  We will do this trip again, when we have more time to allow are bodies to adjust to the elevation.  It’s trip well worth and hope that others enjoy the beauties of the Rockies as we sure did!

TRIP TO THE ROCKIES-Part Two

After turning back around at the Georgetown exit, it was time to head towards Breckenridge, where we will try to find us a camping spot for the night.  The descend downwards was a long haul and the road construction made it even harder-specially to truckers.  We actually had one trucker just ahead of us that had to use the runaway ramp.  We think he was having more engine trouble than brake trouble.
We couldn’t help but laugh at the signs on the Interstate that stated something like this:  “Lost brakes?  don’t take the exit, the road ascends just ahead…”  I know it’s really not funny, but just sounded funny.  The other sign that caught our eye was:  “Truckers don’t be fool, descend for another (number) of miles.”

We decided that we will have no trouble taking our  motorhome through the Rockies.  the worst descend for us will be in the heart of Denver-or so we are told, but I think we will be just fine.  So now comes some fun time…..

You could easily see that the town of Breckenridge was not only a college community but also a richly ski resort community.  You saw no run down homes, and again all carried the Swiss Alpine looks.
After carefully reading the instructions to the Lower Chrystal Lake, and taking only two wrong turns, we finally found our destination and found it-disappointing.  According the directions and usage guide-it stated “mildly busy”.  To us we would think a few cars, and some hikers-NOT!  The parking lot was over flowing.  We put the car into 4-wheel drive and went just in a little ways deeper into the Crystal Lake area.  Found a camping spot, but wasn’t totally sold on it.
Time to grab a snack and then hike further on up-maybe in hopes of finding the Crystal Lakes and maybe another camping spot.





As we walked, we kept ascending, making our breathing a little labor.  We only went so far and decided that this just wasn’t the spot for us.  time to look at the map and maybe find another camping spot.  It wasn’t quite noon-so we still had plenty of time to find something.

We continue farther down on HWY 9 with intentions of taking a loop cross country on 4 wheel drive.  I knew we would find a camping spot along the way that would be remote and quiet for us.
As we kept ascending up hill we wonder what we were getting ourselves into when we came upon Hoosier Pass on the Continental  Divide!  I was so excited to be on the divide and wanted to explore the area a little.

As we walked around, we found the perfect campsite that would suit us just fine.  It was time to set up camp for the night and hunt down some wood.  Wood finding was easy, for many fallen pine tress were on the ground-dead from the beetles.



Now it’s time to hike up the Continental Divide and be in the heart of the Rockies.  What an awesome experience!!!



The view was so breath taking that I had to stop and take constant pictures.







As we walked, we kept climbing higher and higher, and decided that our lungs and heart needed a rest, so back down to our campsite we headed.  Sure wish we had more time to spend in this area, but we would need our bodies time to rest for the height of the elevation that we were on.



After finishing cutting our wood, starting a campfire it was time to get something to eat and just sit back and relax.  As we are relaxing, I finally realized I had lost my watch.  The watch meant a lot to me, since Brian bought is special for me over 17 years ago.  But I think when I picked up Leah, the clasp must have come undone and therefore was lost at the Continental Divide.  There was no way we were about to climb back up to find it.  So it was a sad time for me…

As the evening went on, my breathing started to get more labor, my sinus completely shut down and my face started to swell a little.  Brian said I was getting paler by the minute and then I started to feel sick.  If I got up, everything would spin.  It was decided that I was getting altitude sickness and we would need to get to lower elevation.  Thinking our camping trip was done and we would head back home, I really felt sad that this had to happen.  Poor Brian had to pack everything back up on his own and we had to head on down.

As we got down to Lake Dillon, about 1000 feet lower, I was already feeling better.  I told Brian I would feel fine if we would spend the night at lake Dillon.  I would rather camp there than try to drive all the way back to our park in the dark.  So we found a nice spot at Lake Dillon on the White
I think if we would have more time at the higher elevation and rested before exploring,  I would not had that trouble.  But we were on a short time schedule…

Part Three will continue on our saga heading back on I-70 Westbound-homeward bound.

A FAMILY SEPERATED

Up early and adam as we started our day on one fine Wednesday Morning.  As we are checking campsites to see who is staying and who is leaving, we started in our B loop; which is the tent area.  One of our tenters comes up to us and said he just seen a cub bear walking on the burm trail.  We asked us to show us where the cub at. 

As I walked up on the burm, sure enough there was a cub walking on the trail as if nothing was amidst.  He did look back once to see if anyone was following me, and then just kept on going.

As volunteer and workers of the state park our first protocol was to get a hold of a park ranger.  Being it was very early in the morning and no park rangers were on as of yet, but maintenance was, we approached the maintenance guy and then he made the necessary phone calls while we went back to track the direction the cub was going.

the cub got chased up a tree at one point by barking dogs, came back down, and once again headed towards our B loop; which was still loaded with a group of overnight campers with lots of young kids.  Not wanting to have the kids chasing the baby, we tried our best to divert the cub away from that area, but he would have no part of it.  He looked at us as if he was in charge, and actually-he was!

 Although the pics are blurred, they are my first pics of  a baby cub!
He’s running away from us and right into the paths of lots of kids!!


We eventually lost track of him in the tall grass brush, so we had no clue as to where he actually was.  Then another one of our campers informed us that there was not just one cub, but two!  They had played hours prior to the chase in front of his camper.

The next question that everyone had…if we have cubs in the park, where is mama?  That kept rangers and us on edge through out the day.  The rangers had to contact the Dept. of Wildlife.  He came out and talked with us about the cub.  At first he thought it was last year born and wasn’t an actual cub-until he looked at my picture that I manage to get.

As the day turned to night, we advised campers that there are bears in the area and to keep their site clean of food.  As we went around later that night checking on the park, and talking with campers, one lady came up and said that there is a bear on the other side of the river pacing back and forth.  We later learned that it was mama to the cubs.  All of tenters were awaken through out the night with mama crying for her babes.
Almost of a week later and other than finding bear scat back near the water treatment area, there has been no more sighting of mama or the cubs.  We hope that somehow they have been re-united and have gone back to their homeland, away from the campground.

So what happen to separate mama from cubs?  We are all thinking that somehow upstream the babes fell into the river, after maybe a bank collapse from the raging rushing water.  They swam went downstream, ending up on the opposite side of the bank and landing near us.  Now if somehow we can get them to continue down river for another 2 miles, then maybe cubs could cross over at the Cameo bridge and get re-united with their mama.  Just so long mama doesn’t cross over to our side in the meantime.

By the looks of the scat, the cubs appear to be eating some vegetation, but they are a little on the skinny side-they need their mama back for proper nutrition.

COLORADO RIVER A RISIN’

The spot that we have chosen to park in for the season here at Island Acres, normally does not allow us any view of  the Colorado River because of the Burm that was built.  But because of it’s rapid rising-we actually can see  the river  from where we sit.

Since the burm has been built a few years back, they have not had a flooding issue here at the park, but then the river hasn’t reached flood stage in a very long time.  They are looking for us to crest at 15 feet above normal.  With this burm-the river shouldn’t flood the campground-but the park rangers are a little nervous-not knowing how much this burm can actually up hold with the river rapidly rising and the rushing flow.  I guess by now, the park would have been flooded at various areas like the day-use,  the B-loop which is the tent area and a portion of A-loop.  So we all are sitting on the edge waiting to see what will or will not happen.
 You can see how close it’s getting to the Burm-this is in the Day-Use area
 This is just before the B-Loop and it’s start cut inwards.
This past Sunday Brian had to go for a special meeting.  I guess with the rising of the Colorado River, very few folks like to come out just up river from us and ride the roller dam down; which causes what they call a Big Surf-like a big wave in California.  If they are crazy enough to try it, then they may have to be rescued.  We as volunteer/worker, may need to assist park rangers where ever we will be needed.   They also briefed Brian on evacuation procedure-only if that should arise….
This is not a person, but a part of a tree that is floating downriver…
Also with the rising of the Colorado River, means road closures.  Yesterday they had to start diverting traffic on I-70, to lighten the traffic load over the bridge just past the town of Fruita & Loma and into Utah.  Now this morning they will completely shut down east bound traffic of  I-70.  That part of the Interstate rides low and when the river rises to the flood stage, debris tends to get trap under the bridge, making water to come over onto the interstate and creating a very unsafe driving conditions.  I feel for the truckers, for I-70 is the only Interstate east to west across CO & UT, now making the drive unto very dangerous roadways, creating truckers to get behind on their loads. 
They also may need to close down the Cameo exit, which is the next exit just past us, again, because once exiting off, it drops downward.  There really isn’t much off that exit other than a power plant, which isn’t in use right now, and a single ranch just down the road a ways.  many folks will take that exit to get back into the canyon where the wild horses are known to hang out.
All of this is caused by 200% snow coverage in the Rockies and high elevation this past winter, and warmer temps right now,causing a fast meltdown, creating flooding  not only in the Colorado River, but other small rivers and streams to go over their banks.
The good news to all of this, is that it eventually lands in Lake Mead; which may finally bring that lake back up to normal pool  level for the first time in years.
This year has been a crazy year not just for us in Colorado, but for others that have had to deal with other flooding in the Midwest,  deadly tornadoes, and raging out of control fires in Arizona.  Let’s just hope that the rest of this summer season gets better and not worse.