(Some have said they can't see the pictures..... to follow a link, click on the underlined text then go below it and click on the link)
We jumped into our time managing River Spruce for the summer with both feet. Our 1st big project was to plant a butterfly and hummingbird garden. (We can’t have hummingbird feeders because of the bears, so we decided to plant flowers instead) It is going to be a memorial garden also. We had a lot of fun doing it and it turned out beautiful. It took most of the month of June what with all the rain we got. We were beginning to feel like we were living in the Pacific northwest. But the rain was great for all the plants we put in all over the property, not just in the garden. It’s great having flower gardens again. That is one thing we miss living in the RV.
We jumped into our time managing River Spruce for the summer with both feet. Our 1st big project was to plant a butterfly and hummingbird garden. (We can’t have hummingbird feeders because of the bears, so we decided to plant flowers instead) It is going to be a memorial garden also. We had a lot of fun doing it and it turned out beautiful. It took most of the month of June what with all the rain we got. We were beginning to feel like we were living in the Pacific northwest. But the rain was great for all the plants we put in all over the property, not just in the garden. It’s great having flower gardens again. That is one thing we miss living in the RV.
This is a link to pictures taken over the summer at the cottages. Lots of wildlife, the new garden and flowers. Also pictures and a short video of a bear that came visiting and the paw prints he left one night opening a car door. Yes, they can open doors! Pictures of River Spruce
Jim’s big project for the summer was painting all the picnic tables and wooden Adirondack chairs at each cabin. We also got a beautiful cedar swing so everyone could sit by the river. It kept him busy but we were able to take time to go up into the park . Here are pictures of our 1st drive up Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. (RMNP webpage) Trail Ridge is the highest continuous highway in the US and is only open during the summer. Check out the snow along the road in June and you can see why. Pictures of Trail Ridge Road
All the rain and the record snowmelt did cause some concerns about flooding, so we reinforced our river banks with sandbags. The Big Thompson was really raging until the middle of July but it never went out of its banks, thank goodness!
Once the mountain streams calmed down Jim had lots of opportunities to hike and fish up in the Park. He took many guests up to introduce them to fly fishing and we also had lots of friends and family that came to visit. Our granddaughter Allie came the end of June and our grandson Holden came the end of July. Holden lives in central California so the mountains, rivers, trees and flowers were an eye opening experience for him. He’s coming back for the summer next year! We played tourist with kids, mini-golfing, riding the tram ( Built in 1955 here is some Tram history and webcam images) and riding in go-karts and bumper boats. Pictures of our summer visitors
Holden got to hike a lot with his Grandpa and learned to fly fish. They went to the Alpine Center at the top of Trail Ridge Road. It is the highest visitor center in the Park system at almost 12,000 feet and the drive up there is a white knuckler if you don’t enjoy heights. We went several times our other visitors over the summer. (Info on the Alpine Visitor Center and webcam link)) Pictures of the Alpine Center
Here are links to places we went over the summer:
It was a very busy summer but lots of fun. The hardest thing was getting used to all the traffic and the crowds. Downtown every third store is either a taffy, ice cream or T-shirt shop but every Thursday there was a great farmer’s market in the park. So Becky braved the traffic and the ever elusive hunt for a parking place to go to her favorite stand. It was a local farmer where you could fill up a big bag with anything at his stand for $10! It was awesome having all those fresh veggies.
We finished up the 1st of September. Wendy and Shelley took this video of the property after we left River Spruce video. And of course we saw a few elk this summer, mostly up high but in September and October they come right down into town. We missed seeing these but thought you would enjoy it.
Going to go fishing ……….
