Friday, October 4, 2013

Golden Gate Canyon State Park



I'm sorry that some of these posts are out of order.  Over the summer, we stayed at some different state parks.  Golden Gate Canyon is close to Black Hawk and Central City.  We were there for about a week.  The first time was about the middle of May, right before Comic Con, and it snowed.  So I only stayed for a couple of days.  But the next time we visited in the middle of July, which is much better.  For being that high, I think I did very well with altitude sickness.

Power only and uneven pad, but look at the view!



We tried a recipe from a camping cook book. 
Split hotdogs down the middle, add half a piece of string cheese and wrap in bacon.  Cook...
Bill came home right as they started cooking.





Yum!


Liam is trying to cook as many mini marshmallows as possible...
 The kids preferred regular hotdogs and then made campfire cones using waffle cones, melted marshmallows and chocolate chips.
Kyla rarely sits still for a picture.  She is savoring this yummy treat!


We worked on the Junior ranger handbook and hiked along a couple of trails.  Gorgeous vistas and beautiful flowers.
















While we were up there, I decided to re pot some of our seedlings.  As an excellent science experiment, we purchased a tiny tray and planted seeds, just to see if they would grow.  Amazingly, what never worked outside in a garden, thrived in our tiny house.  The girls spent several minutes decorating the pots with paint, including Jessica's marigolds.  We left them out to dry and put them next to the RV as outside decoration. 

The next morning, we discovered some severely mangled plants.  The golden-mantled ground squirrels (we learned about them in the junior ranger hand book and laughed when they ate the mini marshmallows and chocolate chips that dropped to the ground --how cute) had helped themselves to our plants.  They ate the marigold flowers and buds, utterly destroying that plant, and the parsley.  They also sampled the oregano (as the scattered oregano leaves testified), but didn't like it and left our catnip completely alone.  Now, our plants stay inside...

Morning after squirrel devastation.  Sigh...






Taking a break during our hike!
All in all, a great place to stay if you are visiting Black Hawk and Central City and want to experience the real outdoors...   

1 comment:

  1. Looks like a Great place to visit, I will have to keep it in mind, when we make our way over there. I also really enjoyed, the beautiful photographs, thank you for sharing them :)

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