Pulling out of the campground now, in route to MO.

Just pulled into the KOA here. We’re going to set up camp for the night and then run out to hit an ATM and get some diner. I think tonight is going to be a fairly quite night for ourselves.

Ingrid and I are leaving Lone Duck now and heading on out to Salina, KS for the night. Then we’ll move on to 6 days in the St. Louis area.

I want to thank all the DML members who were here in CO for making this a great trip. I would love to do this again.

We arrived at Royal Gorge Bridge and Park, in Canon City, Colorado just after 8PM. Too late to go out on the bridge but the security guard told us of a scenic lookout that had a great view of the bridge.

Hanging 1,053 feet above Colorado’s wild Arkansas River, the Royal Gorge Bridge is the world’s highest suspension bridge and a legendary feat of engineering renowned the world over. Built in 1929 for $350,000, the cost today would easily exceed $15 million.

One of the most massive gorges in the world, the gorge was created some three million years ago when a trickle of water first began to slowly carve a canyon out of the solid granite bedrock. Today that trickle is the raging Arkansas, one of America’s longest rivers. And the masterpiece it continues to carve at a rate of one foot every 2,500 years is the Royal Gorge.

The Royal Gorge is considered a world wonder often referred to as the Grand Canyon of the Arkansas River. Yet it’s unlike any other canyon. The width at the canyon bottom is no more than 40 to 50 feet, while the top measures only a few hundred feet. Photos don’t do this justice, this is a BIG hole in the ground. The views down from the area we were standing was just awesome.

While driving down CR-123, we passed by a gate that we just had to get a photo of. Since we are in CO to attend the DML National Meet, the gate marked Dakota Hideout, on Dakota Lane, was just about a perfect close to the week. Here are a couple of photos of Mike’s Dakota by the gate.

Earlier this afternoon, Mike, Ingrid and myself saw this guy and his family leaving the reservoir. Later on, we came up on them driving on a flat tire so Mike and I stopped and asked if the needed some help. As it turns out, he ran over an old rail road spike and punctured the sidewall of his left rear tire. He had bought his truck used and wasn’t aware that he didn’t have the right size lug wrench for the lug-nuts on the aftermarket rims installed on the truck. Luckily, Mike had a 4-way with the right size so we gave him a hand changing the tire.

The second cache was Eagle’s Hideaway (Traditional Cache). Ingrid decided to search for this one with Mike and I. Walking through the field, we passed several cactus and signs of Elk in the area. Ingrid found the cache with little effort but between the black flies and the mosquitoes, we were getting eaten alive, so we quickly returned to the truck to continue on.

Today is the last full day of the meet and most of the group has already started to head out. Jon and Ed had a plane to catch yesterday and Adam and Jackie have started their trip back to Canada. Korey and his family started their trek home and even Tom has already split. Jason & Norah had plans with his parents so that just left Mike and us to go explore for the day. Since we hadn’t traveled southwest of the campground, it was decided we would head in that direction. We traveled down CR-67, through the Casino town of Cripple Creek and mining town of Victor. At point CR-67 became a dirt road and we turned off onto another dirt road CR-861. That came to a dead end at a reservoir which appeared to be quite a popular area for camping, swimming and boating. There was a gate that prevented us from going any further so we turned around and headed back to CR-67 to continue on it. CR-67 wound down through a series of switchbacks into beautiful Phantom Canyon, along a path that used to be a railroad line, passing through old 19th century railroad tunnels that were chiseled through the hill sides. The road pretty much paralleled the river, which cut the winding canyon, with the road crossing back and forth across small bridges and through rock formations. I found some humor in a bridge sign that listed a 38ton weight limit for tandem tractor trailer trucks, because I seriously doubt one could ever make it that far down the road from either direction.

While in the canyon, the GPS showed two Geocaches that were along the route so we decided to check them out.

The first was The Phantom (Traditional Cache)

Because of the think brush, a stream that need to be crossed to reach the cache, which was on the side of a fairly steep hill, Ingrid stayed with the trucks while Mike and I searched for the cache. Mike quickly found it.

We Found the Point B (Traditional Cache). The second cache today that was missing it’s listed travel bugs. After hiking for what seemed like miles through the wood to get this cache, we hiked back to the trucks and decided to go retrieve my tripod, which I accidentally left on the side of one of the trails yesterday.
Unfortunately, the spot where I left it was a lot further out than we thought and it took us quite a while to get out there. Since we had 8:30PM dinner reservations at The Black Bear Restaurant, we had to rush back quickly, arriving at the restaurant at exactly 8:30.

Ingrid had changed clothes, in the truck, while on the way and I quickly changed in the parking lot while we were waiting for the rest of the gang to arrive. The restaurant, while expensive, was excellent and if we ever are back in the area, it’s a definite “must do again”.

Mike, Jon, Ed, Ingrid and myself decided to go out and hit a few more Geocaches in an effort to pick up a travel bug for Jon to take back to NY. Tom and Don went to pick up Tom’s truck and get Don’s front end taken care of. Jason & Norah had plans with his parents. I think Adam and Jackie had some shopping plans and David and Jan were hitting Cave of the Winds.

We dropped Missouri Mike off in the Woodland Park Travel Bug Hotel (Traditional Cache).

While on the way over, I missed a turn and decided to take the next. I made the turn, followed by both Mike, in his Dakota, and Jon in the rental Jeep. It was then I realized, it wasn’t a street but a sidewalk. A right turn onto another sidewalk and back to the street we missed a block earlier. Hey, I got us there, LOL.

This cache should of had about a dozen travel bugs in it, but all but one was missing and that was going in the wrong direction for Jon. We’ll have to hit another for Jon.