Onward and upward!!!!! Literally! - Day 3 finally.

Last night we searched and searched for a decent place to sleep.  Almost all of the motels looked like they had great potential for bedbugs or worse.  We had all but given up hope when we tried one last place.  I asked at the desk for a double room.  None available but they did have the king size suite available.  It came with a jacuzzi, sauna, sitting room and right beside the pool.  They gave it to me for less than any other room for some reason.  Eureka!  That was nice.

This morning we begin our day bright and early heading to none other than  . . . . . . .

Up, up and away!

View going up the mountain.

Driving up the mountain with sheer drop offs, I heard from a little voice in the back, "Oh what a beautiful view!!!!  Mom, take a picture and send it to Anna!"  This is what I was looking at!

Almost there!

A little bit further . . . .

We made it!

One view from the top.

View from peak inspired the writing of "America the Beautiful".

Going down.

Amazing vantage point along the way down.

After leaving Pike's Peak, we drove a bit to the Florrisant Fossil Beds.  It is an interesting spot were there are petrified redwood stumps.  There is no other place in the world where so many different types of fossils are found. 

This petrified redwood is white because it is mainly composed of silica quartz.

This is petrified wood from Arizona. 

As you can see it is quite colorful.  That is because it is composed of many different types of mineral.

Those were some BIG trees.

Indian Paintbrush with Ponderosa Pine in the back

5 new Junior Rangers being sworn in.

Junior rangers hard at work.

 From the fossil beds we headed south to check out Royal Gorge.

Really neat bridge and cable car.

A LONG way down!

Shortly after posing for this picture with the CUTE cactus, a large chunk of it became lodged in John's arm.  That produced the loudest, shrill cry that I have heard in a long time.  Not something you want to hear standing at the top of the gorge my friends.

We couldn't resist heading into this lovely city, probably because of the name.

The other lure to Canon City was the Holy Cross Abbey.  Unfortunately, it had been sold and part of it was now a winery.  It was very strange because inside appeared to have been left intact with beautiful statues, paintings and crucifixes though it is clearly not a Catholic organization that owns it.  It even retained the donation boxes.  They didn't get a dime from me.

They wouldn't miss this one would they?

Heading to our next destination:  The Great Sand Dunes in Colorado

Not going to get there before dark!

Really proud of their fire.

Trying to fix the computer.  Didn't happen that night.

Hannah's idea of camping . . . . in the car.

HEAT!!!!!!!

Ah, sleeping outside.

So, let me tell you folks, if you choose to camp, please be prepared.  We got there and it was a brisk 45 degrees and DARK!  Of course the stars were beautiful which helped out at first.  Then I realized, oh my! I do not have a lighter or matches and I am not supposed to gather wood around here and I am FREEZING!  Luckily for us we had eaten our first meal out since we left in Canon City - pizza.  So, we had a box to help start the fire.  There was no store for 50 miles around or more.  I felt like a real dummy having to ask a fellow camper, "Excuse me, may I please have a piece of your fire?  I was too stupid to think of bringing firer power of my own."  Claire and Luke got the tent up in the dark in record time.  The boys scoured abandoned camp sites for bits of charred wood and others they had left behind.  We crumpled every available brochure and and piece of paper and sacrificed them all for HEAT!  As I lay in my tent looking at the stars in the sky and occasionally glancing at the bear-proof box where you were supposed to lock your food up in it, I thought it slightly disturbing.  Those bears wouldn't be able to eat my food but we are here in our sleeping bags in a tent available for any creature. 

Claire did however have to get up in the night and came face to face unexpectedly with one of those huge deer I mentioned earlier.  I don't know which one was more startled:  Claire or the deer.

Well, we made it through the night even if it was a brisk 34 degrees and our fire had died.