Lathrop State Park, Co

Hello again with more notes from the road and a Happy Birthday to Chris (Chriss's son-in-law).

This morning stated out with more tire problems. Seems there were two holes. Only one got patched at Walmart. We asked at the campground and found a place in Trinidad that would fix our flat tire. although it took a long time we had friendly service at J&M tire by Mark and Randy and then we could continue on with our journey. We followed route 12 in a loop from Trinidad campground just outside of Walensburg CO, to Lahtrop State Park, CO. Route 12 is probably the most scenic road we have traveled in a long time. It started out in the mountains and just went higher. But the amazing part of it was the rocks. The rocks weren't actually mountains, but rather walls with places that you could see through. These walls were incredibly high. I have stood next to skyscrapers and didn't feel the incredible size that these rocks gave me. They just went straight up and up and up... Some of the walls looked like they were carefully stacked in place by man or machine, but nature put them there. Our highest peak today was 9,975 feet according to signs and our GPS. There were mostly fir trees on the mountains and what looked like white-barked birch trees, but were actually Aspens. We also passed a few pristine lakes. Blue and Bear Lake, Monument Lake and North Lake. All in places that made it look like an artist painted the scene. I will say one thing, the rangers were not very friendly, however, the front-desk people in every place we have been were extremely nice, usually went out of their way to help.

Tonight we are safely tucked into a state-run campground, more expensive than the national parks, but clean and nice.

Good night.

Love, Mom (Carol) and Chriss.