Wow, have we been busy, busy having a great time!

I left you on the way north to Pagosa Springs with Jan and our granddaughter Faith heading for our friend Harvey's campground that he and his friend Jan run all summer long.  It is a cozy scenic place with our western family.  We arrived with a warm welcome from Harvey and Jan(yon), Buzz and Gay; Bob and Georgia pulled in right behind us.  It's still early in the season out here, so since then Vince and Suzie have arrived and we are expecting Jo later today, and will welcome her with a pot luck dinner at the club house.  It will be bittersweet as her wonderful husband and our wonderful, funny friend, Ron passed away since last season.

So the first thing we had planned for Faith was a horseback ride with Jan.  They had a wonderful time on their 2 hr ride after a bit of a mixup at the stable.

Jan and Faith ready to go

They even saw a fox right out of the gate!

After the horseback ride Faith started with her golf cart lessons.  She got to the point where she was chauffeuring Harvey and Jan(yon) around the campground as they did their chores.  Faith even had some jobs to do such as collecting and distributing mail, and putting chickens up for the night and she even had to get up at 5:45am to let them out.  She even got checked out driving the tractor as Harvey had to do some work moving a site around.

Faith and Harvey

Harvey and Faith

And one of the absolute highlights of Faith's trip was when Harvey and Jan(yon) presented her with her Certificate of Achievement showing she had accomplished the rigorous training course to become a Golf Cart and Tractor Operator!!

A beaming Faith!

Kelly and our grandson Christian arrived in the evening after we had a nice day starting with Buzz's famous sausage gravy and biscuits for breakfast followed by a nice walk along the San Juan River Walk in Pagosa Springs, yeah, we needed it after breakfast!

After Kelly and I got the tent set up, and after a debate about who would stay in the tent and who would stay in the motorhome we had a restful night.

We headed up and over Wolf Creek Pass east of town to take them to the Lobo overlook, but that was unfortunately still closed due to snow, so continued over to Big Meadows Reservoir.  We did let the kids run around in the snow up on the pass.

We had a nice walk around and let the kids blow off some steam, pretty easy to do at 9250' elevation:)

Big Meadow Reservoir

Kelly getting used to the elevation

The flow out of the reservoir

Kelly, Faith, Jan, and Christian

We stopped along the way at the overlook for Wolf Creek Pass looking over the valley back into Pagosa Springs.

Kelly and the crew

The next day we wanted to share one of our favorite short hikes into Piedra Falls.  It's a short 1.5 mile round trip trail to, at this time of the year, a booming falls.  The kids had a great time, and boy was the river flowing!

Piedra Falls

Sure easy to get cold and wet!

After the falls hike we stopped along a creek for a picnic.

Lunch

Then we continued up to Williams Lake, one of our favorite places.

The backdrop to the lake

William's Lake

The next day we decided on a longer hike along the Piedra River.  We ended up doing about 3.5 miles with the kids and I think they thought it maybe a bit much:)  But it was another absolutely beautiful day!

Along the river

The kids breaking trail

Kelly and Christian at a cave he discovered

The two kids along the river

Well, what a whirlwind of activity that old Grandma and Grandpa aren't used to:)  We loved it and I think everyone had a good time, and the silence descended on us as Kelly and the kids headed back home.  We took a big breath and after a nice walk along the San Juan River Walk, we chilled and reveled in the silence for the next day:)

But not long being here we wanted to go back to Big Meadows Reservoir and do the trail around the lake.  The Archuleta Trail begins at the lake and continues 7 miles one way, but it appeared there was another trail that branched off it and continued around the lake.  We started off and watched the fishermen for awhile pulling in some decent sized trout.  It was another gorgeous day, and the trail was wonderful, nice and quiet and just a bit of up and down.  Lots of pics, hope you don't mind.

Nice and peaceful

One of the streams feeding the lake

Across the meadow

One fisherman

You can see the bar created by the in flow from the stream

Fantastic trail!

Almost around

Jan having fun

A gorgeous day!

It ended up only about 2.6 miles around and it was just perfect, good exercise, fantastic views, nice and quiet, a nice hike.  We'll be back.