As we said at the end of the last blog, with high mountains to the front and back of us, the Bighorn RV resort was picturesque indeed and directly behind our RV was a cliff with eagles soaring up and down it, catching the thermals, whilst below the cliff was the Arkansas River in full flow.
There were supposed to be Bighorn Sheep on the cliffs, but despite spending quite a long time, drinking beer and wine and watching, we didn’t see any.
The first day we jumped in the car and went a run up a winding dirt road to a camp site called Hayden Creek, interesting drive up into the hills behind Coaldale.
The next morning we set of to explore Salida, an old fashioned small town just to the north of the Bighorn RV Park.
Salida is set in the mountains of Colorado, it has lots of ‘arty’ type shops, bars and restaurants and the day we were there an art festival and an open air music show was taking place in the middle of town.
Most of the buildings around the centre of town were built in the late 1800’s.
Spotting a barbers shop Andy decided to have a haircut and approached a guy sitting on a bench outside the shop taking the sun and asked him if he was the Barber and was the shop open.
The guy said yes, but he only does ‘scalps’, when asked why he replied, “because I am a Native American and that is what we do”!
Not wanting to appear a coward, Andy nevertheless went in for a haircut, emerging a few minutes later looking like he had indeed been scalped!
Wendy sat outside the Barbers shop on the seat vacated by the Barber, with Millie sat in her stroller, needless to say, she (Millie) attracted a lot of attention from the passersby.
After the haircut, feeling a lot cooler (well not really) we took a stroll around town, looking at the buildings and art shops, then had lunch before heading for home, shattered.
That evening we took our drinks out to watch the birds and look out for Bighorn sheep, well there was a wooden picnic table and Wendy sat at it, Andy arrived with the two glasses and placed them on the table before sitting down, ignoring the warning from his better half that the wooden picnic table didn’t feel very safe.
Sure enough, the boss was right, as Andy sat down, the whole table up-ended, spilling the two glasses all over the intrepid couple.
Neither was physically hurt, but nevertheless Andy looked in a state of shock and looked as if he was going to cry, Wendy asked what was wrong, was he hurt, to which Andy replied, almost in tears “That was my last bottle of Guinness”, he was distraught.
Wendy soothed his forhead and poured him a glass of Newcastle Brown Ale and within a few minutes, he had calmed down and was gulping the Ale down contentedly.
The bird and Bighorn sheep watching continued as if no tragedy had occurred.
Several Eagles were gliding on the thermals by the cliffs and numerous brightly coloured Humming Birds were flitting around several bird feeders that were on adjacent RV’s.
They were fascinating little things, beautiful colours and only about as big as a large dragonfly.
The next morning we set off to travel over yet more of the southern Rockies of Colorado to our next stop at Montrose, about 150 mountainous roads away.














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If you need any info on the area you are headed to, just call us. That is the area we lived in for 2years.
So sorry to hear about the demise of the last Guiness…..tragic! But what a beautiful place!
It sounds like you may be headed for Mesa Verde on your way to Zion or Bryce Canyon. If you are, you might want to consider making a stop in either Durango or Silverton. There is a wonderful narrow gauge railroad that runs through the mountains between the two towns. Lots of fun, if you have the time or inclination.
We miss you, but love reading of your adventures. Give Miss Millie a little extra love from us.
I was initially very concerned about the the overturned picnic table but somewhat relieved when I found that nobody was injured (very sad about the Guiness though). Thank goodness that Her Ladyship had a backup supply of brown ale