Valley View

8/14/00
I'm a bit sore from yesterday's hike, particularly in my lower back. I drive up toward Ouray and Montrose, and make a very quick stop at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park (America's newest National Park, converted from a National Monument in October of 1999). There's a new visitor center here since last time I came, in 1992. The canyon is extremely narrow and steep here.

I drive across highway 50, intending to go toward the Great Sand Dunes National Monument. However, it's slow going across Monarch Pass, behind a truck on the downhill side. In California, there's a law that a vehicle going slower than traffic with five or more vehicles behind it must pull over to allow them to pass, but I guess Colorado has no such law. I'm about the 15th vehicle behind the truck. We all go down the pass at 20 mph in a 60 zone, with very few opportunities to overtake the truck; certainly not enough passing opportunities to get all 15 of us (plus the cars behind me) past him. By the time the truck hits the bottom of the pass in Salida, his brakes are all belching awful-smelling smoke.

When I'm tired, I get this powerful illusion that all the world's inanimate objects are ganging up against me, and that every driver on the road is an idiot who has a sworn mission to delay me as much as possible. This illusion is kicking in full-strength now. I decide not to go all the way to Great Sand Dunes National Monument tonight. Instead, I stop at Valley View Hot Springs, a place I notice on the map. I don't really know what to expect here, if they'll allow me to camp, or if they'll prohibit dogs, but I stop in and check it out. WOW! This is a wonderful place, that has space for me and Pepper (just barely, we have the farthest camping spot from the springs), and has a wonderful mellow crowd.

I take Pepper to the springs and tie her up to a bench while I soak (better that than leaving her in the van to yap). It starts raining, and I cover her with my raincoat as she lies there. A few kids play with her and make friends. I'm glad she's tired from her hike, as she's very calm and well-behaved.

I cook pizza for dinner, and afterwards step outside my van and snap this photo of sunset lighting up the rainstorm across the valley. It's obvious where Valley View gets its name. The spring is on the side of a mountain range, a few hundred feet above the flat floor of an enormous north-south valley offering spectacular vistas.

After sunset I return for another soak, leaving Pepper asleep in the dark van this time. There's a fairly large gathering of people soaking in the pools, and watching the bats swoop down toward us. A woman named Kelli tells about a nearby abandoned mine containing hundreds of thousands of bats, and she says she'll be leading a hike there around sunset tomorrow, to see the bats come out. I meet several interesting and nice people, and decide I want to spend an extra day here, to see the bats and soak in some more hot water. This is exactly the right prescription to prevent all the world's inanimate objects from ganging up on me.

8/15/00
At my morning soak, a little girl, about four years old, named Tea (not sure of spelling) is searching the gravel bottom of the pool for marbles, shells, and such. She's quite succesful at finding them. Pepper is still very very mellow and quiet around the pool, apparently still tired from the hike up Ice Lake Trail at Silverton. A deer walks by pretty close, and Pepper pays it no attention.

During the day, I nap, play guitar, and read in the shade, escaping the heat and sun. When the sun goes down enough, I soak some more. Pepper makes friends with all the little kids. She behaves herself very well, making a bed out of my towel as I'm in the pools. She does whine just a little if I get too far from her, though.

I meet Kelli at the designated spot for our bat hike at 6:15. It's raining, and there's only three of us. The other guy doesn't want to hike in the rain, so Kelli and I take off to the mine. It's about a 45 minute or hour long hike. We get a chance to know each other fairly well, and have some interesting conversation about a variety of subject including life, career choices, romance, solving society's homeless problems, and other subjects. She utters a pearl of wisdom, "I realized that I am limited by my unlimitedness!" Her point is that, in trying to keep choices open, she's lost opportunities that a commitment might have offered. We get to the mine and wait for the bats, but they are nowhere to be found. They were expected around 7:15, but they don't come out until about 7:50. When they do emerge, Kelli is disappointed, because there aren't nearly as many of them as she saw a couple of months ago. I think they're pretty neat anyway, and certainly worth the hike. It WOULD be nice to see the spectacle she described, though.

8/16/00
I take my morning soak in top tub at Valley View. Kelli's there, and we chat a bit and say goodbye. I drive from Valley View to Limon, CO, mostly following the Arkansas River. I stop in Canon City to do laundry. I bypass the Royal Gorge tourist trap. There are extreme thunderstorms at Colorado Springs, which prevent me from seeing Pike's Peak. When I get to Limon, it's still storming pretty violently, so I stay in a hotel. It was not worth the $60.00 charged.