Not In Our Graves Yet: 2016 Labor Day Weekend

It's really hard for me to believe that we have been in Colorado for almost two years now and believe it or not we still like the place! We love that we can head out in almost any direction and find new and interesting things to see and do.

Because my parents liked to travel and go so much when I was a kid, I was fortunate enough to see a lot of the southwest including the southwestern parts of Colorado. However, I never went to the southeastern part of the state. Mark's parent didn't travel much but they did travel to the southeastern parts of Colorado because his dad's parents lived in South Fork, Colorado for about 5 years. Mark's grandfather had emphysema and his doctor told him that he needed to be in a dryer climate so he and Mark's grandmother left Texas and moved to South Fork in the mid-60's.

So when we were thinking about what to do for the long Labor Day weekend he said that he would like to go back to South Fork and see if he could still find any of their properties I thought it sounded like a great trip. So we got out the maps to see what else we could do in the area and since I had never been to this part of Colorado before we were both ready to explore.

We decided to stay at home on Friday and not try and leave town with the other 700,000 people doing the same. The traffic was jammed up all over the highways and we were happy with our decision to just stay put for the evening. We got up bright and early on Saturday and were on the road by 7 am. heading south to Alamosa. There isn't much to see or do in Alamosa per se but there was plenty to do in the immediate area.

First of all: The Great Sand Dunes National Park

This place is really amazing. Both Mark and I have been to White Sands and Monahans Sand Dunes and I have driven by the Imperial Sand Dunes on my way to San Diego. I guess what surprised us the most was the height of this things. They were just huge. They are the tallest dunes in North America- the tallest is 755 feet tall.

Those little dots on the dunes are people climbing to the top of it.

If you look very carefully you can see Mark in the orange shirt in the center of this picture. That's how big this place is!

More people who are on the dunes looking like ants.

Next stop: Zapata Falls

This is a waterfall that is a little off the beaten path but it it was about 12 miles away from the dunes so we decided to go see it. And after a really long rocky road up the side of a mountain we got to the parking area for the trail that led to the falls. The trail to get to the falls was only about a half-mile but it went straight up. And when we thought we got to the falls we discovered that you had to hike through a river another 500 yards or so and go behind a rock face to reach the actual falls.

I had only packed one pair of tennis shoes and I didn't want to wear wet smelly shoes for two days so I stayed behind and let Mark take the hike to see them. He took pictures of them but there was so much mist and spray from the falls that none of the pictures turned out haha.

Final stop for the day: South Fork, Colorado

Mark had really great memories of the times that he spent with his grandparents while they lived here. He remembers catching a state-record brown trout in the river on a cane pole with his granddad close by giving him instructions on how to land the big fish. He remembers eating "the best corn dogs and drinking the best chocolate malt on the planet" that his grandmother made him at the malt shop that she owned on the main highway through town. He remembers going to "help" his granddad with the big road maintenance machines that he drove during the winters to keep the roads clear. But he mostly remembers the property that they lived on. They owned a log cabin, a second home that they built a few years after they moved to South Fork and the malt shop that they owned and he wanted to see if he could find them after all of these years. Well, after a *few* dead ends and some calls to his dad we found all three properties.

The Malt Shop his Grandmother owned


It is still called the Malt Shop after all these years

Here are the two homes:


This was the second home that they had in South Fork

This was the log cabin but it looks like they have covered up the original house

Mark was very happy that we took the time to look these places up and it certainly took him down memory lane. However both of these properties are up for sale and land that they are on has not been kept up and they didn't look anything like he remembered. I guess it's just like the old saying, "You can't go home".

After dinner we went to find the cabin that we had booked for the night that we had found online. You know how that goes: You look at their pictures, you read the reviews and you keep your fingers crossed that you have booked a decent place to stay. Well, we couldn't have been happier with what we ended up with. We stayed at Riverside Meadows Cabins. They are located right on the Rio Grande river about 3 miles outside of town. The owners were so nice and the facilities were outstanding. We already have plans to return here soon to spend a nice quiet weekend at their cabins.

The cabin we stayed in

Our room

Fire pit outside of our cabin

Rio Grande River

On Sunday we got up bright and early and headed towards Creede. Let me tell you, that is some of the prettiest country we have seen in Colorado.

We wanted to do the Bachelor Loop road which basically goes from Creede, up into the canyons above it, to where all of the abandoned silver mines are located. But on our way through town, we discovered that they had the street blocked off because they were having their annual Soapbox Derby day and we could get up to the Loop until it was over. So we watched the kids and their racing machines and waited until the event was over.

The Derby didn't take that long so before we knew it we were up on the Loop looking at old abandoned mines. Some of them are from the late 1800's and some are from the early 1900's. I can't remember how many of them there were but I know we stopped at 3 of them. All I can say is that the people who worked in those mines were some kind of tough people!

We ended up at the Last Chance Mine. It is a fully operational mine that is open to the public. We took a tour of it and really enjoyed see what the inside of a 100 year old mine looks like. I can safely say that I have no interest in becoming a miner. Now or EVER. I can't imagine not seeing daylight for months at a time. They said that the miners would go in before dawn and leave after dark. Day after day after day. NO thanks.