Monday, July 14, 2014

Jul 14 – Hike and Hot Spring

The plan had been to drive up into the mountains but when I got up it was kind of cloudy in general and there were already dark clouds over the mountains. The forecast later in the week looks better so we will wait.

We decided to do one of the really easy hikes from our book, just to get outside. The Barbara Whipple Trail Is a 3 km loop trail that starts on the east side of Buena Vista. It eventually climbs 300 feet to an abandoned rail line for a view of the city and then loops back to the start.

It starts right by the river. There was a bit of activity with some kayakers practicing their rolls.

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There are always dark clouds somewhere, although we did not get rained on.

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Up to the rail bed.

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And back down.

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Jennie said this rock looked like a walrus.

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We had lunch just over the bridge.

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Onwards to the Mount Princeton Hot Springs. The road that we took to get there came down just above them.

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There are two sections. We started at the lower, older section down by Chalk Creek.

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The close pool is hot and the far pool is warm. Jennie tried to get in the hot pool.

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Nope. Warm pool it is.

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To cool off you can go down to the creek.

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It actually felt really good but thigh level was as far as I was going.

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Then we headed to the newer section farther up the hill.

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The main pool was warm and in two sections connected by a swimway.

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They had a small tub that was at around 102 to 104. There was another at 110. I tried but could not get in that one. There was no cold pool to go in after being boiled.

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But they had a water slide. Gentle but fun.

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These are my big feet.

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We got rained on a few times and we even heard some thunder but it was mostly sunny.

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A very relaxing day.

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