Ideal town

Another 4 wheeling adventure on the back roads around La Veta took us through Ideal canyon.  There was a mining town here called Ideal and I took a picture of the tailing pile from the old coal mine.  There was a lot of coal mining in this area back in the day.  Just small mines with small towns now abandoned.  We've pretty much explored the whole county around La Veta going on the gravel county back roads with our 4 wheeler.  We have met some nice ranchers and some very paranoid ones.  They don't like it when you stop along the road because they think you are up to no good and we just need to get out and stretch.  We never go through closed gates and always stay on public roads but I'm sure others do not.

For a little town there are lots of activities always going on that make it difficult to find parking when you need  a few groceries.  I guess thats good for the town that they are able to draw tourists to it since it is not a destination by itself.  We really like it here and going out in the countryside exploring we find it is unbelievably quiet and beautiful.

Stairway to Heaven

We were out 4 wheeling and came across a ghost town of old adobe buildings.  The picture at the top I call the stairway to heaven because it had stairs leading up to it and the another set of stairs going up inside the crumbling building.   Remember you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.   The other building shows how thick the adobe walls were made.  We figure it was an old mining camp because there was a huge tailing pile nearby of what looked like an old coal mine.  Coal mining was big here and there are still some active mining operations.  We wish they were old gold mines. The history of the area says that there were a few gold mines around as well but we haven't stumbled across any yet. 

The weather has been pretty nice with highs in the 80's and low humidity.  Lately, there have been brief showers in the late afternoon which keeps the dust down.  Our RV park is very busy and most of the time is full especially on the weekends.  You have to go a little out of your way to come here and there isn't a sign on the main highway that tells you we are here so you have to know about the place to come here.  The owners keep the place nice and are willing to pay for enough help (like us) to keep it that way.

Burn Scar

We took our 4 wheeler up into the mountainous area that burned last year.  There was a very big forest fire that came within a few miles of La Veta.  The campground we are in had to be evacuated because the fire was moving so fast they weren't sure they were going to get under control before it reached town.  Many ranchers lost cattle and many folks lost their homes.  The firefighters did manage to keep it from spreading to town.

This year they are worried about flooding because the burn area or burn scar as they call it won't hold the rain.  The ground is cement and the rain will just run off and La Veta is in the bottom of the valley right alongside a river.  They say the siren will sound and give us enough warning to get out if the river floods.  All the workampers here, including us, can be packed and out of here pretty quick if need  be but we are hoping the monsoon rains they usually get toward the end of August and into September will hold off until we are out of here.