Colorado Day 6

Monday, August 3rd

Heading South into the town of Tin Cup, Colorado...

(From the other direction) Driving North into the town of Tin Cup...

On Monday morning we packed a picnic lunch and headed for Mirror Lake.  It is a beautiful lake about 3-4 miles east of Tin Cup, nestled among the mountains.  Several times when we have been there in the past we have seen Mountain Goats up in the mountains surrounding the lake.  We did not spot any this visit.  The kids had a fun time throwing and skipping rocks into the lake with Popee and Uncle Ernie.

After driving to the lake we found a picnic spot near an abandoned (falling down) old one-room log cabin on the Cumberland Pass road.  We stopped to eat and explore a little here before heading further up Cumberland Pass road.

Eric took Silas out to get a closer look at some Beaver ponds, dams, and a large hut.

About 3/4 of the way up Cumberland Pass road my Dad's check engine light came on on his Trailblazer.  The road up to the top of this Pass was as rough as we have ever seen it.  We stopped on a small turn-around road and parked.  Eric, the kids and I walked along this road for awhile.  It was a steep drop off to one side and a mountain up the other side.  We saw an abandoned old mine down the edge and some gorgeous views of the valley and Beaver ponds below.  It actually was VERY steep and made me nervous when any of the kids or myself got within a couple feet of the edge...

In the picture below we had the kids sit near the edge and I took this picture looking down at them.  You can see the green and blue areas behind (below) them.  Those were some of the Beaver ponds that Eric and Silas had hiked around earlier, after we had eaten our picnic lunch.

There were some beautiful flowers growing way up there on the mountain.

Popee and the girls stacked up these rocks along the road where we stopped driving up the Pass.

Another beautiful view below as we drove north back into Tin Cup.

Below, Tin Cup Town Hall and Church.

Later that day back at Holt's Guest Ranch the kids discovered a dead Ground Squirrel.  Yuck.  It most likely was hit by an ATV and wobbled its way off the road before dying.  YUCK!  Silas was insistent though that it was just sleeping.  We kept telling him that it was dead but he began to get upset and VERY adamantly told us all that it was sleeping....

He wanted to show it to everyone.  Below he is showing it to Ernie and Judy's friend, Mike.

And, below he is screaming/yelling as his sisters that it was sleeping.

Finally Eric had to go out, when Silas wasn't looking, and bury the yucky thing in a hole so that he wouldn't be fixated on the "sleeping" creature or tormented by his pesky sisters, who insisted it was dead, anymore.

For dinner that night Aunt Judy and Carol made Chili and homemade Banana Bread for everyone.  It was delicious.  We all ate in Ernie and Judy's little cabin that night.

After dinner it rained for a little bit, then a beautiful rainbow appeared.

After the weather cleared off Dad, Mom, Eric and the kids and I decided we would drive back over to the Tin Cup Cemetery and look around a little more since we were cut short the first night there by our bear sighting in the Protestant Knoll.  On the drive over we all were on wildlife watch... I spotted some deer, and then this critter right in town, in front of the Tin Cup Town Hall, walking slowly down the road.... a Porcupine!  We couldn't get in front of him without scaring him away, so I got some pictures from the back.  It was big and very fluffy.

Back at the Cemetery, Phoebe decided to stay in the Trailblazer with Popee and Nanee, while Eric, Sarah, Silas, and I wandered around the Cemetery.  We headed straight for the Protestant Knoll again.  Eric and Sarah saw one deer around the Knoll but nothing as exciting as the bear or moose from the first night there.