MONDAY - This morning we spent the first 75-miles of our 154-mile moving day backtracking to the Walmart in Grand Junction. You remember, that's the one that wouldn't allow us to sleep in their parking lot last week.
Well, today we did our grocery shopping down the street at The City Market (owned by Kroger) instead of spending our $85 in Walmart. That'll teach 'em!
Haven't they ever heard the saying, "you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours"?
Outside of Grand Junction, CO we found ourselves merging onto Interstate 70 East.
I hope our route is not "over" that mountain, instead of "around" it!
It looks like this ridge comes to an end up ahead.
Interstate 70 does a fine job of following the Colorado River "through" the mountains.
When you can't follow the river, there's always the option of digging a tunnel.
We are fast approaching our destination of Glenwood Springs, CO.
Just around the next corner and we will have arrived!
Guess what we'll be doing first thing tomorrow morning?
TUESDAY - Well I'm sure you all guessed we're taking a gondola ride this morning, but the real question is why?
The Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park sits high up on a mountain overlooking Glenwood Springs and the best way to get there is by taking a gondola ride. We're going to skip the Adventure Park portion of the park and concentrate on the caverns.
This is just the beginning of the gondola ride that we take us some 1300' up the mountain.
We were loaded into the 4th gondola car to leave the lower station at 9:01AM. Can you see ROVER in the nearly empty parking lot?
All of those cars in the lower left corner of the photo are brand new Land Rovers that overflow the dealership lot next door.
Now we are getting near the top where you can see the Colorado River as it flows through the middle of Glenwood Springs, CO.
Once off the gondola ride I made a beeline for the cave tour entrance.
YEP, first in line for the first tour of the day, just like I like it! Now all we need is a tour guide and we can get this show on the road.
This will be our 70th cave tour and the first time in over 10-months that we've gone underground. Today will actually be a two-fer, thanks to the newly offered King's Row Tour in addition to the Historic Fairy Caves Tour. Both take about 40-minutes, but the King's Row Tour includes 120 steps down and then 120 steps back up. We decided to get that one done first.
Our last three cave tours were all in Ohio last summer and they were all very "UN"spectacular. We're hoping today's tours will once again excite us about the prospect of being underground.
It seems the predominant formation in this cave is "cave popcorn".
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That's not to say there isn't a large amount of "cave bacon" here too.
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This is one of the larger stalagmites we saw today...
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...and here is some more of that "cave bacon".
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Same stalagmite as before only now it is backlit.
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Here are a few of those 120 stairs we had to negotiate.
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These two stalactites are actually joined together at the top.
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On the other side of this rollup door is the King's Row we've been waiting to see.
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Now that's a highly decorated room and worth the effort to see it.
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Things really got interesting when they turned off the lights and turned on the UV lights.
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Same photo with the white lights back on.
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Only one thing left to do, climb the 120 stairs back out of here.
With a short 15-minute interval between cave tours it was just enough time to head to the gift shop and purchase a couple of cold beverages and add on two tickets for the second cave tour.
We learned that our first cave tour guide had only been working at the park since the season started six weeks ago. Our second tour guide trained with our first tour guide and had just begun working here two weeks ago. They both did a good job making the tour entertaining, but I could tell they were both fairly new at their jobs.
While the King's Row Tour was in one large vertical shaft, the Fairy Cave Tour goes through many rooms with short cubbyholes in the walls.
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Any idea what those things are coming out of the ceiling? They're tree roots from live trees just 30' above the ceiling.
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Here's some of the cubbyholes I was talking about.
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Surprisingly, halfway through the tour, it exits the cave out the side of the mountain.
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You arrive onto an open balcony appropriately named Exclamation Point!
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That's the Colorado River down there paralleling I-70 which will eventually place you in Denver.
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And that's AZ-82 which heads south out of Glenwood Springs...
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...to a little ski resort town you may have heard of, Aspen.
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No one was sure why these rocks were colored this way, but they sure are cool.
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Some of the old wiring was left it place when they rewired the entire cave in 1998.
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This cave popcorn isn't the usual grey color, it looks like it may have butter on it!
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And this cave popcorn appears to have been burnt!
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There were a few shallow reflection pools in the cave...
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...but looking at this photo it's hard to tell just how deep it is.
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This is what happens when the water takes a new route, everything dries up.
Now that our two caves tours are complete it's lunchtime, but we both ate a big breakfast this morning at the Village Inn Restaurant before we got on the gondola and neither one of us is very hungry yet.
There are three places to eat up here in the park, but we're both going to take a pass and board the gondola for our ride back down.
Our campsite is about 3.5-miles off in that direction.
One of the roller coasters in action as we descend back down the mountain.
We should be back in ROVER by noon and home shortly thereafter.
Looking for our Visited States Map and Data? How about our State by State Bucket Lists or Visited Campgrounds List? If so, click on the sign below to be taken to our other website.
It seems the predominant formation in this cave is "cave popcorn".
That's not to say there isn't a large amount of "cave bacon" here too.
This is one of the larger stalagmites we saw today...
...and here is some more of that "cave bacon".
Same stalagmite as before only now it is backlit.
Here are a few of those 120 stairs we had to negotiate.
These two stalactites are actually joined together at the top.
On the other side of this rollup door is the King's Row we've been waiting to see.
Now that's a highly decorated room and worth the effort to see it.
Things really got interesting when they turned off the lights and turned on the UV lights.
Same photo with the white lights back on.
Only one thing left to do, climb the 120 stairs back out of here.
While the King's Row Tour was in one large vertical shaft,
Any idea what those things are coming out of the ceiling?
Here's some of the cubbyholes I was talking about.
Surprisingly, halfway through the tour, it exits the cave out the side of the mountain.
You arrive onto an open balcony appropriately named Exclamation Point!
That's the Colorado River down there paralleling I-70 which will eventually place you in Denver.
And that's AZ-82 which heads south out of Glenwood Springs...
...to a little ski resort town you may have heard of, Aspen.
No one was sure why these rocks were colored this way, but they sure are cool.
Some of the old wiring was left it place when they rewired the entire cave in 1998.
This cave popcorn isn't the usual grey color, it looks like it may have butter on it!
And this cave popcorn appears to have been burnt!
There were a few shallow reflection pools in the cave...
...but looking at this photo it's hard to tell just how deep it is.
This is what happens when the water takes a new route, everything dries up.
