Sven and Gunnar had a visitor

What do you think it was?
Maybe a space alien?

Blackberry post and other bear posts

Sorry, everyone.
It seems like blogger deletes videos after a short time. 

Looks like we'll be in Colorado for Christmas...

So I may as well do a little holiday decorating.  Bruce had diverticulitis 3 years ago and the doc said he may have future problems.  After being on antibiotics for 8 weeks, he still wasn't feeling like his old self; got some catscans and turns out the colon still has the diverticulitis and has attached to the bladder.
Surgery on 12/6 to remove a 6  inch stretch of perforated colon, hospital for 3-5 days and 4-6 weeks recovery before relaunching the Chicken in Trinidad.  He'll be fine.  As Bruce says, "This is piece of cake after getting your legs sawed in two".
If I had known we were going to be here, I would have decorated the big pine as in the past.  We'll just enjoy it.  

World Cup Downhill on man-made snow

Here's the real condition of Snowmass

The Viceroy, Snowmass Village from the gondola.  Sad picture, so sorry.
The summer road is still accessible to mountain 4 wheel drive vehicles.

Sledding on Thanksgiving

Parking and a gondola ride were free today, first day of the ski season so we went to check out the new restaurant at Elk Camp.  Lovely blue bird day, not a cloud in the sky and temps in the low 50's.  Ski School had made available a few children's plastic sleds so Patti and I decided to be kids again. Snow not very good...these pics were mostly on man-made snow-blower snow.

Hope to get an up close and personal picture soon

I'll keep watching and taking my camera with me.  They are really spectacular to see in the wild.
This is the time of year we see the illusive animals most often.  No promises; it's a matter of being at the right place at the right time.

Yep, we have snow!

Went looking for Big Horn Sheep

Big horn sheep have a sanctuary about 3-4 miles up our road in the White River National Park and I learned that they are starting to come down out of the mountains.  Didn't find any, just this group of mule deer by the side of the road.  They look like pets, eh?
We did happen across a beaver, 16"+ trout just hovering in the water and a herd of at least 30 elk but the elk were too far away and the sun too low on the horizon to get a good picture.

Somebody had fun...

We took a car ride up the Frying Pan river (16 miles) today and there were hundreds of pumpkins stashed everywhere...on a rock in the middle of the river, high up on the rocky cliffs, and hanging from trees.  Somebody put a lot of effort to stragicallly distribute all these pumpkins along a 16 mile piece of road.

They call it "littering" out here.

Happy Halloween

From the monkey and his banana.