Summer vacation #2 in Pagosa Springs Colorado!

After a great time in Destin, we returned home for a mere 10 days before we hit the road again. We stayed a night on the way in Clayton NM where we saw one of the few places where the public can see remarkable dinosaur tracks! We arrived in Aurora and enjoyed an evening with friend Bill and family. They took us to Red Rock Amphitheather which was beautiful, then out to lunch in the quaint mtn town of Morrison.

Said our goodbyes and headed to Westminster, just outside of Denver to see Uncle Mike and their gang. We had a great grill out to celebrate Tones birthday with salmon and shrimp kabobs! Sunday we headed to Eldora for a beautiful hike to the "lost lake". We had some showers during the day, but that didn't dampen spirits. It was actually a beautiful walk in the rain. Headed down to Boulder for a walk along famous Peal Street Mall, then dinner at Efrains for Mex food!

Monday we headed to Pagosa Springs where we had a condo waiting for us. They had some local wildfires going on, but we got lucky that the roads were open for our travels. We settled in and got oriented. Tues morning we awoke to hot air balloons right in our backyard! We decided we'd do a hike that day-- and lined up a Gravity Mtn Bike tour for Wed and a River Rafting Trip for Thurs. There were also some world famous hot springs we hoped to get to.

The hike was great-- we headed up first for a wonderful view, then along the river trail where everyone enjoyed the beautiful scenery and played around the river. When we got home, we rented bikes for Kelsey and me (boys had their own) in anticipation of the next day's ride.Our "tour guide" was a Brit named John, in his 60's -- who drove us 17 miles uphill along a forest road. He dropped us off there to allow us to ride downhill the way back. Kelsey was pretty uncomfortable with the gravel road and the downhill ride, so after about an hour she hopped back into John's van and rode down with him. The boys and I went ahead and did the run- it was beautiful scenery, and quite an adventure!

Thursday we did a rafting trip. With water levels low, we had to bus out to the Rio Grande (yes the same one that runs through Texas) about an hour and half from our pickup. It certainly wasn't whitewater rafting like the kids hoped for, but it was a beautiful and pleasurable trip led by Nate and Jake.  We got our first taste of rafting, and hope for more another time.

We had enjoyed afternoon thunderstorms every evening, which kept us from seeing the Hot Springs, but we got lucky on Thurs- skies looked clear, so we headed over. Wow, that was such an interesting spot! Natural mineral hot springs have been developed into 23 different pools of varying temps- it's kind of like a resort. We brought a picnic dinner and enjoyed exploring the springs. The picture shows the kids walking a "bridge" to get to one of the pools, notice the natural formations from the mineral deposits.The next day we started our road trip home-- back to work, school, and all the demands of life. What a great trip! Love the cool temps, the scenery, the mountains-- we'll definitely plan a return trip.