Case #1
Last year we went to Southern Colorado over Labor Day. We had a great trip and one of the places we visited was the Last Chance Mine in Creede. The owner of the mine said that he was going to have a whole new portion of the mine opened up for the tour "in the spring". Mark really wanted to see it again so we planned on going again this past weekend. On the Thursday before we left Parker, I called them and asked if they were open and whether or not the new portion of the mine was open and I was assured that it was, including the "Amethyst Room". Well hot diggity dog! That's exactly what we were wanting to see.
So we made our way down south again. When we arrived in South Fork (conveniently around lunchtime) we stopped by his Grandma Graves' old malt shoppe. She owned this place about 50 years ago and it is still in business! When we were there in the fall it had already closed down for the season so we weren't able to eat there then. But it was open and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to have lunch at his grandma's shop. Mark had hoped that they still had the corn dogs that she was so famous for but there was none on the menu. But we did share a chocolate shake that Mark said was "nearly as good" as the ones his grandma used to make.
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| At the malt shoppe |
So up the mountain we went. When we got to the mine and were checking in, the guy who owns it asked if we were first time visitors or repeat customers. We explained that we were repeat visitors and we specifically had come to see the "new room and the amethyst room". He said,"thanks for coming again" and took our admission fee. So the tour goes on and is exactly the same as it was in the fall. And then he started leading us out of the mine. When we realized that the tour was over we asked him when were going to see the new additions and he sheepishly said that he wasn't "quite ready for that this summer" but "it should be ready by the end of the summer". I was completely gobsmacked (good English word) and I told him that we had called earlier in the week and had specifically asked whether the tour of the new cave and the amethyst room was open and I was reassured that they were AND reminded him that we had specifically stated that we were there to see the new rooms when we checked in with HIM!!! I asked him why he didn't he didn't tell us that it wasn't part of the tour and he just shrugged his shoulders and walked off. Grrrr. I don't believe we will be making another trip to the mine.
Strike 1.
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| It says Danger Keep Out |
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| Not quite sure what all of these mannequins were doing at the entrance to the mine |
Since that was a bust we decided to go see some dinosaur tracks. We had heard about this place called Picketwire Canyon that is supposed to have the best dinosaur tracks in Colorado. And since we were only about 2 hours away we thought, why not? So I got on the computer and looked up what we could do. It stated that to get to the tracks it is a 5.5 mile hike into the canyon and that they do NOT recommend doing it in the summer. BUT there was an auto-tour that you could do if you had a 4X4 vehicle. Well guess what? We have one. So we drove over to the National Park and asked the Nice Ranger Lady where to start the tour. She just laughed and said that all the tours were over for the spring but we could sign up for one of the ones in the fall. I must have looked pretty stupidly at her because she started talking very slowly when she was explaining that the auto-tour was a tour that you are guided through the canyon by the Park Ranger using your AUTO. Um.... I thought it was auto like you did the tour yourself. I guess maybe I thought it might have said Ranger-guided tour or some crap like that. But at this point I guess I was grasping at straws to make this trip worth while.
Strike 2.
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| Creede Colorado |
However, all was NOT lost. The lovely Ranger Lady suggested that we go see Bent's Old Fort that was about 6 miles from the Ranger station. We have seen the sign for Bent's as we have driven along I-25 but had never thought to go to it. We have been to The Fort, a restaurant in Denver, that is built to look like Bent's Old Fort so we decided to give it a go. I mean we had to do something, anything worthwhile to save this trip. So we headed over to Bent's Old Fort. (Click on the words Bent's Old Fort for more info if you're interested) Well, we would say that this was a win for 2 reasons: #1 is was open and #2 this place was pretty interesting. The tour guide we had was really funny and he didn't just tell the history of the place; he also dropped little anecdotes about life in the fort and about the people who lived there.
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