FRIDAY, 09/10/2010 - CANON CITY

We left Cripple Creek in the morning and took a little roundabout way to get down to Canon City. We first headed north and paid a short visit to Mueller State Park, in case we are ever camping again. From here we headed north and west, ending up in Florissant Fossils National Monument. This is a place where a tremendous number of very small fossils (flies, mosquitos, bugs, etc.) have been found. I am not unhappy that they are all dead; I hate pesky bugs. But I digress.



The highlight of this park to us was a number of petrified tree stumps, including the star of the show, with a stump 74 feet in circumference. Apparently a number of eons ago, this area was full of redwoods. Then it became a lake or something and all the trees ended up being fossilized. There are pictures here showing trainloads of people climbing the hills picking up petrified wood; this is prior to the US taking over the area.

Just prior to arriving in Canon City, we veered off the main highway and took the Skyline Drive into town. This is another of those roads that are not for the faint of heart. This road is about 3 miles long, runs 800 feet above the rest of the world on an extremely narrow ridge. There are no shoulders for most of the road. The driver does not get to see a lot of the scenery while the car is moving.

This picture says a lot. Down below is US Hwy.50. At the upper left you can see the road as it swings around a little curve. The top of the little hump in the middle is also the road.

Another picture of the roadway, the little hump again, and Canon City on the left. The reflection is caused by your photographer taking the picture through the windshield as there was no room to get out of the car.

Ethel insisted that I include this picture of Canon City, as taken from the Drive. She still thinks that I am beautiful. Oh well…………

Needless to say we descended down from the Drive safely and soon arrived at our B & B in Canon City. I had discovered a web site that pictured a number of large, old homes in Canon City, along with an address to get more details. Well, it turns out that all these homes had been painted by an artist, so we got a copy of the addresses and went house looking. We took pictures of each of these homes and decided to put a few in the blog: you’re probably tired of seeing mines.

This last of the bunch is our B & B, the Jewel of the Canyons. This house, along with all the rest, date back to the late 1800’s. And again, we have the room with the windows in front.