Road Trip!

Have you ever been to Paris? Paris, Arkansas that is. That is where we went on our recent road trip-to Mount Magazine State Park. This is the lodge where we stayed. It is on top of Mount Magazine, which is the highest peak in Arkansas.

It is pretty, rustic, and very scenic.
All of the rooms off of hallways like this face the beautiful Petite Jean Valley.

The lobby is made with huge logs, and has high ceilings and rustic lights.

There is also a massive stone fireplace, which we enjoyed each evening.

We saw beautiful sunsets..

..and a bright, colorful sun rise.
Our hikes took us down shady paths through the woods,
into bright clearings with blue skies.

The panoramic views were spectacular..

..and although not yet peaked, the fall colors were sure pretty to this Texas couple!

There were lots of patios. Off of this one I found a very special garden..
As you can see, it was created by Master Gardeners.
The Pineapple Sage was sooo pretty! (wish mine looked this good!)

I loved the way they marked each plant..with rocks! And believe me-there are enough rocks up there to mark plants for a very long time!

I would have never know what this grass was without that plant marker. It was so unusual!
The night before we left there was a big storm. We woke up to FOG! The usual gorgeous view from our balcony looked like pea soup!
The fog did however make for a really pretty drive down the mountain side.
This deer didn't seem to mind our stopping to take a picture. I would go back to this area anytime. The fall colors (even though the area was seeing some drought conditions) were really pretty. The spring wildflowers are suppose to be amazing. The temperature is always 10 degrees cooler, so summer wouldn't be a bad time to go. And the pictures of winter are simply beautiful. (not sure how one gets up those windy roads in winter though!). I put this area on my "return to" list!

Mountains, Texas heat and a Surprise visitor

We have been on our annual
"Rocky Mountain High" camping up in the Rockies near Crested Butte. It was beautiful as usual..and cool!
The wildflowers up in the mountains have yet to
peak, but the flowers in town were breath
taking!
It was a good trip, with lots of hikes, fishing, campfires and oh my goodness stars at night!
The special treat this year was meeting up with our daughter! (Love that hat Jen!)

Before we knew it our week was over and we said goodbye to Jen, and headed back to the Texas heat. Thanks to a very caring young man, the flowers looked good despite the terrible heat! (Thank you so much Travis!)
The time outside these days is spent watering or mowing-not relaxing. The temps have been over 100 for 31 days now, and there is no break in sight. The high Thursday is suppose to be 110. That is actual temperature, not heat index. It's Texas-we always have hot summers, but not quite like this. It hasn't rained in...well....I don't remember the last time it rained. All of Texas is in drought conditions now. We are on water restrictions now as the lakes are going down fast. So, we sit inside these days looking over the garden. As we watched the birds, we noticed a surprise visitor..
All the other birds flew away when I went out to take this picture. I think we have a run away. He (she) didn't seem very scared of me so I know this little one is pretty domesticated. I have plenty of seed and water for it, but I hope it will just visit and find it's way back home soon.

Hope your summer is going well..and is cooler than mine! :)

Leaving Spring at home....

For a few days last week we left the spring like weather behind and headed for a family get together in Colorado. No spring here yet...but lots and lots of SNOW! This is the house we rented in Breckenridge.
The house was in a very picturesque setting and so convenient to the gondola for those wanting to get to the ski lifts.

The first day we got there it was clear, but the next evening it started to snow quite a bit--and by Friday things were really snow covered.

Hubby and I are not skiers...
..but we sure enjoy taking care of little snow bunnies!
More fun in the snow came from snow mobiles! Have you ever ridden one? It was soooo much fun. I was a little nervous, but it was not hard and the scenery was breathtaking!
Hubby and I go to Colorado almost every year, but only in summer. We have never gone in winter, and we have never seen any snow but Texas snow-- so this trip was quite an experience for us. Not only did we get to be with our kids and grandson, we got to experience the mountains we love so much covered in beautiful white snow. It was hard to say goodbye and come home.
But we left winter behind and came home to "almost Spring" in Texas. More daffs were blooming, the tulips were starting to appear, the pansies looked happy and recovered from our harsh cold spell--spring is certainly on the way.

Rocky Mountain High-2010

These are the Ruby Peaks high up in the mountains of Colorado. This is where we spent a week. It is where we found peace and tranquility. It is where we found simple joys from nature. It is where I would still love to be.
We camped at Lake Irwin which is outside of Crested Butte, high up in the Rocky Mountains. We have been coming to this campsite for 30 years. It has changed over the years--we think the word must have gotten out as it was pretty crowded this year. We can remember when there were always open campsites. That is no longer the case. You have to reserve your campsite in the winter. But, who wouldn't want to come to the cool air and get away from life for a while!
One of the things we love to do while camping is to hike. This is Judd Falls, one of the many water falls we hiked to.
Another thing we like to do is fish in the lake. We catch and release our fish, so our technique makes fishing a little more challenging, but we had great luck and caught quite a few fish that were released back into the lake. And then, there are the flowers....
oh my goodness how beautiful are the wildflowers! I took many pictures..let me show you just a few..

These are Gentain or Monument Plants. We see them every year, but what was so interesting this year-they were blooming! They only bloom every 10 years, so we felt pretty lucky to see them.
The buds and blooms are not very showy, but put them in a big meadow and they really stand out!





Of course we saw lots of columbine, Colorado's state flower. We camp pretty high up (10,000 ft) so we have columbine all around.


These are called Sky Pilot. You smell them before you see them. No, they don't have a wonderful sweet fragrance-they smell like a skunk!
The meadows were full of these alpine sunflowers. They are always one of my favorites. There are so many yellow wildflowers in the Rockies I couldn't begin to try and identify all of them. And because they cross pollinate-they are hard for even the experts. The nick names for the yellows up here is "DYT" --"Darn Yellow Things!"
This is a ferny-leafed white flower with a very distinctive spicy sweet smell. It is named Osha and looks very much like our Queen Anne's Lace. It is everywhere! I saw one meadow that looked solid white because there were so many of these pretty flowers.
This is called Jacob's Ladder. I wish I could have gotten a better picture for you-it is such a sweet little flower. You can't tell, but it is a very light blue and usually grows under trees and other plants. I never see them in lower elevations, only up in the mountains.
This is an Elephantella, or Elephant Head. It is really an unusual plant with little flowers that have the look of a tiny elephant head.
There are a lot of Scarlet Paintbrush (which look like our Indian Paintbrush here in Texas) in Colorado, but this is a Rosy Paintbrush which is very hard to find. I was so excited to come across quite a few of these on one of our hikes.

There are so many other wildflowers we saw: asters, lupines, daisies, wild geraniums, sneeze weed, cow's parsnip, chokeberry, wild roses..oh I could go on and on. As you can see, I was very content and happy to just sit in the middle of a meadow surrounded by all these happy flowers.

John Muir once said "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves." How very true this statement is. Our cares did seem to fall off, and we find a peace in the mountains like no other. Thank you Colorado, for your streams and rivers; for your beautiful lakes; and for your cool weather and spectacular flowers. We do indeed find a Rocky Mountain High and can't wait to come back again soon!

Rocky Mountain High...

...but not in Colorado. Not this year. We were not able to take the time to do our annual camping trip to Colorado this summer, so to satisfy our need to be in the mountains, we decided to take a short trip to Red River, New Mexico. We were only there 2 days, but we managed to fill those 2 days to the brim! Come with me and I'll show you what we did...
We drove the "Enchanted Circle" which was a beautiful drive that took us to Taos. Loved the old buildings..
and really loved the neat shopping that was there!
Right outside Red River, we took a 10 mile (round trip) hike up to Lost Lake (yep, it was really 10 miles!)
There was even a little bridge to help us cross the creek. It was a great hike, but boy were we tired when we got back to the car!

We did a little fishing..al-

though only 1 of us was lucky enough to catch a fish!
And of course, I found lots of flowers !
Flowers always grow so well in the cool mountain air.
Umm..

poppies!
These flowers were in town..
And these were only 2 of the many flowers we passed on our hike.
It was the perfect get-a-way! If I can't be digging in the dirt, being 11,000 feet up in the mountains really puts in smile on my face!

Our daughter and future SIL are in town this weekend for wedding planning so I will be away from blogging for a few days. I hope everyone is having a good summer, and if you live in an area (like ours) that is experiencing terrible heat, be careful out in the garden!

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees." John Muir