Rocky Mountain High -- Part I

It's official...the Huz is retired, as of July 1st...we houswives never get to retire, but hey the job has really flexible hours, heh heh...so 'we' are retired per se, the house is for sale for who knows how long (getting nowhere fast so far)...time to get away for a bit. Our daughter's 24th birthday was Sunday, so we headed down to Denver on the 5th. This time, I was hell-bent on seeing the 'real' Colorado......

On the 6th, we (daughter's boyfriend included) headed W on I-70, then N on Hwy. 40, to Hot Sulphur Springs Resort/Spa, just S of the Rocky Mt. Nat'l Park...we stopped to look at the area daughter and bf had camped in recently, along the Fraser River....

We stayed one night at the resort, enjoying several of the 24 natural hot spring-fed pools...too bad about the mosquitos...so far no signs of W Nile virus...this would be way better in winter when it's 20 degrees out...

The resort was scattered with lovely garden flowers incl this colorful assortment...

I managed to get photos of two birds, both at the resort...above is a tree swallow, below I believe is a type of wren....it has banded wing and tail...

Colorado's state flower is the columbine...there were several colors growing at the resort, planted there...I sooo wanted to get photos of the columbine in the wild but did not, tho I did see them at least...

I saw many wildflowers not seen in S Dakota, but couldn't get photos of most, like the Indian paintbrush, a coral-colored flower that looked like possibly a penstemon, and much more, whaaaaa...I did get this dewy narrowleaf penstemon...several penstemons grow in the Black Hills also...sigh...

Also common in S Dakota, phlox...

On Fri., we headed N. on Hwy 34, into the Rocky Mt. Nat'l Park for our first visit...the scenery did not disappoint! The Rocky Mts are as breath-taking as it gets...

These two shots were taken at the SW end of the Park. I'll post Part II of our trek soon....