Road trip

We will be taking a road trip through New Mexico for the next several days, visiting Chaco Canyon, the Albuquerque balloon fiesta, Santa Fe and Taos. Pleased stay tuned for more stories and photos from Colorado's southern neighbor.

Clyfford Still

We have eclectic tastes. When we're not rising before dawn to watch the elk, or attending a model airplane rally (photos coming soon), we like to visit art museums. I learned of a new museum in Denver which houses the entire collection of the American abstract expressionist painter Clyfford Still.

Still's early work (1930s) is representational and the museum points out influences and similarities with the work of Van Gogh.

Clyfford Still self-portrait 1940

The monumental later works are pure examples of abstract expressionism.

The Clyfford Still Museum is right next door to another of Denver's Art Museums.

Art comes in many forms.

Elk bugling (le brame du cerf)

Beep beep beep beep . . . The alarm goes off at 4:45 AM. Time to get up, grab a quick breakfast, and jump into the car so that we can be in Rocky Mountain National Park before dawn. It's the mating season and the bull elk are competing for females. It's quite a spectacle as you can see and hear below. Well worth getting up in the middle of the night.

Father and son

A large bull watching over his harem

This young male is too small to compete

Sunrise in Rocky Mountain National Park

Dawn breaking on Longs Peak

Living in other people's houses

Sleeping in strange beds, getting used to a firm pillow. How does the shower work? Is there salt in the kitchen cupboard? Where are the light switches? And do we have an internet connection?

I'm learning my way around this house - the fourth one we've stayed in since our arrival in Colorado. It's cheaper this way, staying with friends and family and finding the occasional dog-sitting gig, but sometimes I weary of the constant upheaval, living out of suitcases, never fully unpacked, never fully at home.

But I'm the perfect housesitter or tenant. I'm respectful of personal property and always put things back in their proper places. I water plants, feed the fish, and walk the dogs.

We are now staying in Boulder where we are temporary guardians of two lovely dogs, Magic, a German shorthaired pointer, and Silver, a Weimaraner. They are in good shape, have a lot of energy, and love to run. They are well-trained and come when called - so they have been awarded the coveted green Voice and Sight Tags by the city of Boulder. This allows their guardians (they are not called dog owners in Boulder) the right to walk their dogs off-leash.

Magic and Silver also have a special dietary regimen. It took me a little while to learn their routines, as each dog has a completely different menu.

Silver's rice and chicken with vitamin powder

Antibiotics and digestive enzymes

Silver and Magic waiting for dinner

Do you need a house sitter? We come with excellent references. Just ask Magic and Silver.

Mt. Evans

My brother's house is on the road to Mt. Evans. We weren't able to drive to the very top, but the views along the way are impressive.

Bristlecone pines at timberline

Summit Lake at 12,840 feet (3,914 m)

Elaine and son Eric

Mountain house

We've just returned from a three-day stay at my brother Joe's mountain house. The house sits on 140 acres of secluded woods near Idaho Springs. The house is only 45 minutes west of Denver, but a world away from the stresses of daily life. We arrived during the peak of the autumn colors as you can see for yourself. 

My brother Joe

Living room

 

The view from the front door

Playing chess on the terrace

Transportation for the trails behind the house

Ghost towns

The Colorado mountains are full of ghost towns, abandoned when the gold and silver mines closed.

 

This is not a ghost!