Thanks for your interest,

Kory

Hornbek Homestead at Florrisant Fossil Beds National Monument

Approaching Great Sand Dunes National Park on US 150, underneath the early morning shadows as the sun comes up and over Mount Blanca, a red band slowly started to emerge at the base of the advancing range. Two-and-a-half hours after leaving the Springs, my son Tyler and I had finally arrived.

Before attacking the dunes, we decided to make a quick detour pulled off when we saw the sign announcing the “Zapata Falls Recreation Area”. While doing some brief internet research on the area the previous evening, I had come across Zapata Falls and thought it might be a fun way to initiate ourselves into the surrounding landscape of the San Luis Valley.

After the 3.5 mile drive along a bumpy dirt road we arrived at the trailhead for the half mile hike that would take us the rest of the way to the falls. Short yet steep, the trail rises 500 feet in a very short distance while depositing you to the banks of South Zapata Creek. To get the rest of the way requires a dip in the water, which of course originates from snowmelt high up on Blanca.

The first step was cold enough to shock my system a bit, but my body adjusted pretty quick as I waded upstream, carrying Tyler over the areas where I felt the terrain might be a bit too much. A quick climb up an embankment took us into the rocky crevasse that is home to the 40 foot waterfall.

Light peered through the opening as the water poured down, and in the mist of the falls was a rainbow whose colors were as bright and distinct as a box of crayons. The temperature had dropped what I guessed to be nearly 30 degrees since entering the alcove, teetering on flat out cold rather than refreshing. The brisk air was exacerbated by the sweat required to arrive to this point, but the sight of Zapata Falls justified it all.

Back on the road we arrived at the Visitors Center in less than ten minutes, and after a quick peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a couple pieces of fruit, we filled up on water (a must if you are taking on the dunes) we were ready to go.

First was crossing Medano Creek, whose seasonal flow peaks during the late spring and early summer months, but was now all but nonexistent due to the driest July on record at the park. Tyler shot across the sand toward the mounds thinking that he had arrived at the biggest sandbox on the face of the earth.
With the sun playing a game of hide and go seek with the clouds, a gentle breeze kick op and accompanied our initial explorations the dunes. At first we would attack the hills head on, emptying our shoes after what seemed like every thirty seconds, sliding down a good half step for each one we made forward. A break for water at the top was followed by a race to the bottom, only to have the sequence to begin all over again.

After a few too many mouthfuls of sand as Tyler landed on his face descending the hills, we started taking a more commonsense approach to exploring the 30 square mile dune field. The rest of our time was spent aimlessly weaving and zig-zagging our way around the ever-changing ridgelines until we were engulfed by the angular mountains of sand, whose shades of browns and reds were brilliantly juxtaposed by the deep blue of the August sky.

We were lost, just a father and son, in the majesty of one of Colorado’s most overlooked treasures. And I couldn’t think of a better way to have spent the day.

Theresa Mine at the Vindicator Valley Trailhead

]]> http://rediscoveringcolorado.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/colorado-snapshot-theresa-mine/feed/ 0 krkilmer Mine http://rediscoveringcolorado.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/patsys-candies-a-colorado-tradition/ http://rediscoveringcolorado.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/patsys-candies-a-colorado-tradition/#comments Mon, 03 Aug 2009 05:59:11 +0000 krkilmer http://rediscoveringcolorado.wordpress.com/?p=286 ]]> By 1903, El Paso County was just hitting its stride as one of the premier tourist destinations of the West, and entrepreneurs from the east coast and Europe alike where looking toward the budding towns at the base of Pike Peak for a future full of hope and prosperity.

One such visionary was Patsy Mahaney, an Irishman who had a recipe for candied popcorn that was a hit around the state and county fair circuit of Indiana.  Legend has it that before heading to Colorado, Mahaney lost his famed recipe from a bad hand of poker to a couple of gentlemen who went on to create the iconic American snack, Cracker Jack.

Who woulda thunk the Colorado connection?

Finding a home in Manitou Springs, Mahaney opened a candy shop across from the Manitou Spa, and Patsy’s Original has been a Southern Colorado Institution ever since.

The Original still in Manitou Springs after all these years

The Manitou store is still in operation more than 100 years later, though the factory has since relocated to its home off of South 21^st Street.  Complimentary tours of the facility are offered twice daily, and to the surprise of my son Tyler and I, they get packed fast.  We found ourselves near the tail-end of a group that had swollen to well over thirty to see the Patsy’s operation in action.

Our guide Sharron greeted us in the store that fronts the factory, where a lighted glass case running nearly the entire width of the building displays the confections and separates the finished product out front from the more than a century of tradition held tightly in the back.

The Patsy's candy case at the factory location

The tour began in the Candy Kitchen, where everything not made of chocolate is produced.  The area was dominated by huge copper kettles with over sixty years of duty already behind them, as well as an antique industrial popcorn popper that works as well today as it did when it was pulled out of its crate back in 1945.  Commanding the back corner was a large tank which resembled a hot water heater, but instead houses over 32,000lbs of corn syrup.

An afternoon batch of candy corn had just gotten underway, releasing the sweet aroma of caramel throughout the building.  Tyler, watching with amazement at the sheer scale of the production, tugged at my shirt without taking his wide eyes off the biggest vat of popcorn both of us had ever seen.

“Daddy, it’s like a bathtub of popcorn,” he whispered.  I couldn’t have put it any better myself.

In back of the Candy Kitchen was the polished stainless steel confectioner’s table which can cool a 110lb river of toffee down in just 20 minutes before then rolling it out and cutting it up with its automated pizza cutter-like accessories.

The taffy area stood behind the table; a trio of machines that stretch and roll massive batches of the classic boardwalk candy.  Each of the now 17 flavors of taffy that Patsy’s offers are then sent though a taffy wrapper  that has been cutting and individually wrapping pieces at a clip of 500 a minute for nearly 45 years.

The Patsy's Taffy Stretcher

The other half of the factory is dedicated to chocolate production.  A web of piping sends melted chocolate throughout the factory, creating delicious waterfalls over conveyor belts full of pretzels and pumping chocolate into molds for the newest edition to the Patsy’s catalogue, the Prelude, with a melt-away flavored center.

Tyler may have been a bit young to fully appreciate traditionally-crafted chocolates and candies made with the highest quality ingredients including absolutely no additives or preservatives.   Yet the 45-minute tour features enough moving parts, not to mention free samples, to keep anyone’s attention.   Young and old will marvel at a family operation where all of the different generations can still be found placing almonds atop world-class chocolates by hand.

Still family owned and operated

The Patsy’s Original factory is located at 1540 South 21^st Street, just south of Highway 24.  The tours are free and are offered at Monday-Friday at 11am and again at 2pm, or by appointment.  Call 1-800-3-PATSYS (372-8797) for additional information.

There was only one way I was going to find out.

On my agenda where the towns of Anaconda and Altman, which were located in the heart of the Gold Belt in Teller County and just over an hour’s journey from Colorado Springs.  Both were at their peak during the gold rush of the late 1800’s but failed to survive much past the first decade of the twentieth century.

My drive sent me through Cripple Creek on CO 67.  About halfway out of town on my way to Victor, coming around a bend I immediately identified the remarkably intact wall of the Mary McKinney mine dump, almost exactly as it stood it the Brown’s photograph from Jeep Trails. The trees had filled in around the wall, and the number of structures on the surrounding hillsides had thinned, but I knew I had arrived at Anaconda

The Mary MiKinney Mine Dump Support Wall, Almost As It Was When Brown Photographed It.

Main Street of Anaconda branched off of Cripple Creek Highway down into Squaw Gulch.  With the exception of the dirt road that splits though the valley, nothing much remains of the heart of the town except for the mortar and stone corner foundation of the jail.  A fire in 1904 made quick work of most of the buildings, as the wind blew up the channel of the gulch and spread the flames before the fire departments of both Victor and Cripple Creek could arrive.

The Dirt Road Was Anaconda's Main Street

After taking time to snap a few pictures and let my imagination to once again give life to this once vibrant valley, I continued on to Victor, stopping by Sally’s Saloon and Pizza on Victor Avenue for a quick bite to eat and a bit of refreshment as I researched my route to Altman.

Brown gave no real specifics in his guidebook to finding the town, only to say that it rested in between Bull Hill and Bull Cliff.  He did mention, however, that one could look down on Altman from the hilltop above Goldfield.  That is just where I found myself as I came across a sign that steered me toward the American Eagles Overlook.  The road headed west up into the hills, right toward where my calculations said Altman resided.

Altman is probably best known for the fact that, at 10,700 feet, it referred to itself as the highest city in the world (which it was not) for the ten years before and after the turn of the century.  In his book Brown talked about the few in-tact buildings that still lined Main Street when he was writing Jeep Trails, including a large safe still resting in what was believed to have been city hall.

“There is no way that safe is still there,” I said to myself as I got out of my car to scale the stairway up to the overlook.

Not What I Expected To Find, But Worth It Nonetheless

It wasn’t.  Nor was Altman.

Down below where I hoped to find the ghost town of Altman, I saw instead large trucks hauling away chunks of earth one load at a time.  Rather than looking down on the Colorado’s past, I was now staring at the present-day operations of the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Company.

Out ahead, however, was one of the most breathtaking panoramic views of Colorado I could have asked for.   I was able to see for over a hundred miles while absorbing both the Collegiate and Sangre de Cristo ranges, and looking at for the first time the peaks of many of the state’s most famous mountains.

I suppose it was fitting, I thought to myself on the drive home.  I had started the day trying to rediscover Robert L. Brown’s Colorado, but as is so often the case, I ended the day discovering a little bit of my own, too.

Uncle Wilbur Fountain, Acacia Park, Colorado Springs

Keep the caption PG people! He's only 4!

Arriving shortly after the first pitch, the concourse was already milling with kids, most of whom were proudly wearing their Sky Sox Kids Club t-shirts as they weaved in and out of Dad’s who were fresh from the concession stand with the maximum allotment of eight discounted hot dogs in their arms to take back to their seats.

$.50 worth of love and a sodee...

I too had the full intention of finding our seats after leaving the snack window, but my son Tyler had a different agenda. At four years old, he is still a bit bored with the finer nuances of America’s Pastime, but he knows what a bounce house looks like from a mile away. With our dogs dressed in ketchup and mustard and a large soda to go around, we made our way to the Fun Zone located above the left field berm.

Baseball game? What baseball game?

For $6, Tyler received unlimited play in the Fun Zone, which in addition to the bounce house, included an inflatable rope wall and slide as well as a simulated pitcher’s mound where budding Nolan Ryan’s could test their arm’s heat under the radar gun. My wife and I joined a contingent of parents who were sitting at picnic tables where they could relax and watch the game while still keeping an eye on their kids.

The kid is occupied, mom is relaxed, and dad is going back for another 8 hot dogs

We sat there and leisurely chatted for most of the game while Tyler would come over and grab a bite in between trips of bouncing and sliding away. He would stop only long enough to watch the in-game antics Sox the Fox, or Rockies mascot Dinger the Dinosaur who had made a special appearance.

Dude, this is so not Sox the Fox...

With my son happily worn out and content, by the seventh inning we had arrived in our seats-just as the skies were starting to show subtle hints of the storm pushing its way over the mountains.

Our view for the better part of the game...not to shabby

Eventually the rains did come, and though the afternoon showers may have sent us to the parking lot with a 2-2 tie on the scoreboard and with Tyler having yet to take the field to run the bases, the day was well spent outside among a few thousand friends, and all for less than taking the family to a movie! That’s a good day in my book.

Membership has its privileges...

As for us, we will be headed over to Palmer Lake, who claims to have “The Best Small Town Fireworks Show in America”.   On Saturday, the street fair starts at 11 a.m. and includes crafts, food, live music, games, rides and of course, fireworks. 

Image found here

A Shacky Burger Joint = Heaven

Learn from our mistakes.  From CO50 just turn south on 9th street for just about a mile.

1205 South 9th Street.  Canyon City CO (719) 275-8079

Front of the Line

The menu is what it is- Burgers, fried goodness, and other classic American burger stand fare including the often overlooked grasshopper shake.  In the case of Big Burger World, the execution is what makes them memorable.

And for the record, I conquered this beast and didn't even get a t-shirt.

“A burger as big as your face has to be good.”

These words have yet to fail me.