Paddling the Main Salmon River

I was fortunate enough to draw a Main Salmon River permit for early September.  The group was Jim and Jake in a raft, Debbie and I in solo canoes, and John and Ann in a tandem canoe.

On Sunday, Debbie and I drove to Alpine WY,  and camped near Idaho. A friendly family invited us to join them at their campfire, we declined.

Monday. The drive north to salmon, on highway 28, was through emptiness and thick smoke.   In Salmon ID, we happened to see Jake and Jim, who were being driven by Doug from White Otter outfitter. We went to the ranger station and picked up our permit and lecture. We were able to drive to Cache creek, launch, and camp on the beach. (The usual launch site was closed for construction).  Anne and John arrived while we were launching. All in all things had gone well, it is always good to see the whole team in one place. The smoke was bad; the moon was orange. We had dinner on the beach.

Tuesday was launch day.  We shuttled my car to Ebenezer. I got something stuck in my throat. It was painful and kept me from eating or drinking. I thought it would clear up, but it did not. We were making plans to evacuate me by jet boat. Luckily, it cleared up while I was asleep. Kitchen rapid was straightforward, with big waves that filled up boats. The smoke continued. We camped at Phantom.

Jim and Jake

On Wednesday we got a relaxed 10:30 start. We scouted several rapids. Devil's tooth rapid looked bad, but there was a straightforward line. We saw two bald eagles in one tree, and across the river, an immature bald.   The smoke was worse; visibility not much more than 100 yds. We camped at big squaw camp.  Jim took many excellent bird photos on the trip, I selected this one.

On Thursday we scouted Black Creek, a new rapid.

Scouting Black Creek

I got flipped over so fast I do not know what happened. We stopped at the hot spring pool, ideal temp. There we chatted with folks from Encampment WY. Jim and Jake kept catching fish. We camped at Bargaman creek. The smoke continued, and some ash fell. A jet boat pilot stopped to talk to us, and confirmed the story that we had heard about Thumbs, as a mountain man living in the wild.

Friday was a big day, several major rapids, no swims. Rapids included Bailey, Five Mile, Split Rock, Big Mallard, and Elkhorn. The smoke let up some. We camped at Ruff creek, the rain started after we stopped. Later we saw blue sky; we applauded.

John and Ann

Richard

Debbie

Sheep near Buckhorn Bills

Saturday we ran some easy rapids, and stopped at Buckhorn Bills, now a kind of museum to the mountain man. We saw his fortress, and some of his handmade equipment. We also bought ice cream and root beer floats. This was the largest concentration of rafts we had seen on the river. We proceeded to the South Salmon, where Jake and Jim stopped to fish. The rest of us proceeded to Red Harlan camp, where we enjoyed a warm sun, something we have not seen in this trip, due to intense smoke.

Later in the trip, Jake used his stand up paddle board, and did very well. 

















Sunday we were on the river before 10. We had a pleasant stop at Polly Bemus ranch for lunch. This was the sunniest day of the trip, and was actually hot. Strong headwinds started about 2, so we stopped early, and camped on a sandbar across from California creek.

Monday we had a short day to the Vinegar Creek takeout.   Our shuttled cars were there, as was Doug from White Otter, to haul Jim, Jake, their raft, and their gear, back to their car.   Debbie and I had a late lunch with John and Anne in Riggins ID, and then we headed south.    We ended up at the Super 8 in Burley Idaho, arriving at 10 PM.   We drove that late because we still had a long way to go.

Tuesday was a hard driving day, 660 miles from Burley to Boulder.  We traded off driving.  I dropped Deb off in Loveland.    I was really beat by the time I got home.

The Great American Eclipse

We had booked a campsite at Gurnsey State Park in early January.  Thursday evening, Sandi returned from a business trip.   Richard had been packing, getting ready for the eclipse.

On Friday morning, we drove north, across the Wyoming border.  Traffic was heavy through Fort Collins; clearly other people had the same plan.  We stopped in Chugwater Wyoming, population 200, at at the oldest soda shop in the state.  We spent quite a bit of time in town, including getting a boating license, and meeting two ladies who ran the small library.  We also walked through their open air museum, full of old farm implements.

We checked into Gurnsey State park.  Neither of us had ever been there.   Our campsite was in a quiet corner of a large campground, and just a few steps from the water.  We settled in for the evening.

On Saturday morning, we got up early and headed for Glendo State Park, right below the Glendo Dam.   There we met our companions for the day, Bob and Catherine.   After dropping off boats, Catherine and Richard started the two hour shuttle, to a railroad junction called Wendover, which is the take out.  We had not met Bob or Catherine before, but they were delightful.  After taking a few wrong turns in Wendover, we found the correct parking lot, and dropped off the truck.  Then we headed back to Glendo, where Sandi had been knitting.

Our trip started with a riffle, in which we took on some water but no harm done.  We had lunch on an island that Richard recalled, which had been visited by cows.

The only named rapid of the day is called the Haystacks, a series of large standing waves below a narrow point in the stream.   We all made it through OK.

One theme of the entire trip was trains.  The tracks follow the river in places, and we saw a number of trains during our trip, generally coal trains.   One engineer honked his horn in greeting.  At one point, we were floating at the same speed as a train.  Our campsite was not far from a busy track.  We got stopped by trains several  times, and the town of Gurnsey has a large railroad yard.
When we got to the takeout, we waited for a train to pass before Richard could go get the truck.  Before Richard could return, another train came through!

We packed up our boats and headed for Glendo, where we dropped off Bob and Catherine.   In the town of Glendo we saw temporary businesses catering to visitors, and the fire department was open, posting a first aid sign.  Clearly the 200 residents were prepared for crowds.  

Dinner was at Twisters in Gurnsey, a place with a "True West" decor.  The menu was hand written, copied on 8 by 10 paper, and limited to about 12 items.  We requested grilled cheese sandwiches, which were not on the menu.

On Sunday we drove to the town of Gurnsey for mass.  The church was full.  Father welcomed the out of town visitors, and acknowledged the attendance of the former Wyoming secretary of state. After mass, we met a visiting French priest and a seminarian.  They were interested in a working retreat for French and American young people, and had been trying to reach our pastor in Boulder to discuss a joint program.   Richard sent an email to our pastor to introduce them.

The town was busy, with several temporary businesses, and many signs offering camping in various parking lots or yards.  We were told that they had been planning for the eclipse for two years.  There was evidence of good organization, in both the town and the state park.   From Richard's experience with disaster work, it was clear that they had planned well.

We headed for Fort Laramie, which was a major fort on the North Platte river.  The fort had responsibility for protecting pioneers on the Oregon Trail, and repairing the transcontinental telegraph cable.  It is perhaps most famous for treaties negotiated with the Indians.   We spoke to some reenactors in period garb, and participated in traditional Indian games, coordinated by someone who was originally from Denmark.

Richard and some children playing an Indian game.

Sandi standing in wagon ruts

We then went on to see wagon ruts from the Oregon Trail days, where the wheels cut into the stone.   The Pony Express, the Oregon Trail, the California Trail, and the Mormon trail all run through this area.  We continued to Register Cliff, where we found signatures from the 1850s.   All in all, a day focused on history.  Sandi was impressed to think about the vast openness that the pioneers went through.

Monday was the day of the Great American Eclipse.  We got up early to drive to the designated viewing area, where we could see all the way to Laramie Peak.   The area was full of people, with more cars than we could count.  Many people had driven up for the day from Boulder and other parts of Colorado.   Most of the license plates were from Colorado.    We set up our chairs and our blanket, and sat down to await the eclipse, which would reach totality about 11:45 AM.   We joked that we were in a Wyoming Woodstock.  The crowds were very respectful, and there were many children.  We saw crystals lying on a blanket, and Sandi saw one man playing a flute.  We saw various homemade devices for viewing the eclipse, and one of our neighbors had several cameras set up to capture the event.

Using our special eclipse glasses, we could see the moon obscuring the sun, starting about 11 AM.  Some people had brought telescopes, with the lens covered with very dark solar film.  We could gradually see the sun getting less bright, until it looked like twilight.  It became cooler.  Finally, with a yell from the crowd, totality started.   The world around us became dark, and everyone looked at the sun with telescopes, binoculars, cameras, or just with the naked eye.   We could see a red spot on one side of the sun; we saw three streamers going way out from the corona.  We noticed that a planet had come into view.   Laramie Peak, which had been largely obscured by the haze from distant forest fires, suddenly became very visible, perhaps because it was in the sun while we were not.  In a little over 2 minutes, totality was over.   There were many responses to the eclipse, some quite emotional or spiritual.

People started to pack up, to face the drive home on crowded highways.  We stayed until the eclipse was over, and then drove back to our campsite.   We had decided to spend the night, and let the roads clear.  On Tuesday we drove home.

Beyond the eclipse, we were impressed by the residents and the vast open spaces. The residents were highly organized, friendly and helpful.  The residents were genuinely excited to welcome us to a very big event in their backyard.   They told us to come back, and we shall.

San Luis Valley with the Girls

On Tuesday Sandi and the girls went shopping to get ready for the trip.  They also went to the Pearl street mall, and watched Daredevil Dan the juggler, as well as the Rubber Band man.

On Wednesday morning, Richard hitched up the camper, and we all got into the truck.  The drive was uneventful.  The girls kept asking how much longer, and Richard gave them random times, like 9 hours or 17 hours.

We finally did arrive at San Luis Lakes State Wildlife area.  This used to be a state park, so there was electricity at our campsite, which was nice.   The campground was relatively empty, so quiet.

Once we got the camper set up, we headed for Great Sand Dunes National Park.   The water in the creek was surging, a rare phenomena involving the sand building up, and then breaking loose producing a surge of water.  Richard had never seen that much water, nor had he seen the surges.   The girls played in the water and had a great time.

On Thursday morning, we ate breakfast and headed over to the Park, hoping to find someone leaving their campsite, so we could move to the National Park.  However the situation was very competitive, and all the campsites had been claimed by 8 AM.  We went to the "beach" and walked upstream, away from the crowd.  The girls made sand castles.  After a couple of hours in the water, we were wet and cold, so we headed back to the camper to eat, rest, and read.   After dinner, we drove back to the park, intending to hike on the dunes, but the weather was threatening.  We decided to drive on the Medano Pass road, a four wheel drive road paralleling the creek.

We stopped to walk across the creek and climb a very steep sand slope.  Climbing uphill in soft sand was a lot of work, especially for Richard.  We drove a little further up the road, only to get stuck in the soft sand.  The next truck gave us a tow out of the hole that the rear tires had dug.  The folks in the truck said that the front wheels were not driving, which is why we got stuck.  Richard guessed that the automatic hubs were not engaging, so he engaged the hubs manually.  It was obvious that the truck was pulling better through the sand, so that had been a problem the whole time.  We headed back to the paved road, and saw a spectacular sunset over the dunes.

On Friday we had reserved a Bison Tour at the Nature Conservancy's Zapata Ranch.   However, K. had a bad night with stomach problems.  But K. is a trooper, and went on the tour, even though she felt bad.   The tour was quite excellent.  Gwin was an intern with Ranchways, which runs the ranch for the Nature Conservancy.  She drove us to the Medano part of the ranch, near the Sand Dunes.  They run 2000 head of Bison.  This is really an unmanaged herd; they are free to wander anywhere on the ranch.  Once a year they round them up for vaccination, and to get an accurate count.  If there are more than 2000 bison, they send them to another ranch, or to the slaughterhouse.  They estimate that the ranch can handle 2000 bison, but no more.   We must have seen more than 500 bison, in several herds.  We saw the system of pens which are used for the annual roundup, with a design based on Temple Grandin's work.

K. was unable to eat, and could not keep any fluids down, so we ended up taking her to the emergency room in Alamosa.  Everyone there was very nice, including the physician's assistant.  They did some tests, gave her some pills, and made sure that she could keep things down.  Since K's mom is a nurse, we had her on the speakerphone some, but she was satisfied.

On Saturday morning, K. got up, and felt normal.  We were all relieved.   We headed for the National Park to play a bit more in the water, but ran into a long line before we got to the entrance gate.  The line was not really moving.  We decided to turn around, and head for the UFO observatory, which was a hoot.  The place is a repository of offerings and junk from all over, and reportedly has two vortexes.   It was a fun stop.

Then we headed for the KOA campground, which met with approval from Sandi and the girls.  They liked being able to take longer showers, and spent some time at the pool.  It was good to be able to fill the RV tank with fresh water.   We enjoyed the Saturday night Spanish language mass in Alamosa.  The people were very welcoming.

Sunday we drove to Antonito to ride the train.  The Cumbres and Toltec steam railroad is a narrow gauge line from Antonito Colorado to Chama New Mexico.  The girls had never ridden a train.  The train had relatively few passengers, including some rail fans.

The engineer let the girls get up in the engine for a photo; after that, one of the rail fans did the same things, with Sandi taking his photo.

The train has a snack car, including hard liquor.  The docent was very knowledgeable, obviously a rail fan.  The ride is pretty slow; the fastest speed that we measured with a gps was 12 mph.  The train starts on relatively flat terrain, and then heads gradually uphill, on a 1.4 percent grade.  

We stopped at Osier for a buffet lunch, and then later at the top of Cumbres Pass.   On the way down the 4 percent grade, the brakes were squealing.  Towards the bottom, the train repeatedly stopped abruptly, in something called a "dynamite."  This was a malfunction of the brake system on one car, which caused all the brakes on the train to apply.  They eventually were able to isolate the problem, and we arrived in Chalma about one hour late.

We took the bus back to Antonito, where we had dinner at the Dos Hermanos restaurant.

On Monday, we were on the road about 9:30 AM, stopped in Fairplay for lunch, and arrived home at 3 PM.

All in all, a good trip, and a good time was had by all.  The girls said that they would do another trip with us next year.

Wedge Overlook and Emery County

On Wednesday we drove to Green River and filled the fuel tank.  Sandi stopped in the post
office to buy stamps, and the lady gave her a very helpful and detailed tourist brochure,
"San Rafael Country", on the San Rafael Swell area.

We headed West through the San Rafael Reef to exit 131, where we turned north, into a canyon that
led to a bridge over the San Rafael river.  We stopped to admire the Buckhorn Wash pictograph panel.  We continued on that road and then turned left to get to the Wedge Overlook, with a spectacular view of the Little Grand Canyon.   This area seemed to be off the beaten path, compared to the area south of I-70.

When we arrived at the Wedge Overlook campground, we struggled to fit our rig into the confusing maze of roads and spaces between trees, but ultimately found a spot that worked.   We walked to the edge of the canyon, and admired the view.  We chatted with a couple from the Vancouver area, who knew the area well.  We relaxed, in a campground that was mostly empty.

On Thursday, we decided to go to the Cleveland-Lloyd dinosaur quarry.   There are thousands of bones in a small area, posing a mystery of scholars.  The bones were scattered in the sense of no articulated skeletons, but grouped together in such a dense area.  There are many theories, all which of which have obvious difficulties, so there is no accepted explanation.  We chatted at some length with Mike, with a masters degree in geology, who ran the quarry, among his other functions with the BLM.  He was perhaps as interesting as the quarry.  We took the rock walk, and used the pamphlet to learn about the various stops on the walk.  Sandi took many pictures of wildflowers.

On our way back to camp, we went through the town of Huntington, where we found the Mexican restaurant, Palenque, that Mike had recommended to us.  Richard practiced his Spanish.   We later stopped at the Buckhorn well, a water well constructed by the government for the ranchers in the 1960s; the old pump is on display, but no longer in use.

When we returned to our campsite, we were immediately greeted with an inquiry about our plans.
The young woman and her husband had been celebrating his birthday in our particular campsite for 15 years!  They were very happy that we would be moving the next morning; she moved her car to claim our site.  The Canadians told us later that the group had discussed all day how they would approach us about moving.  We were told that there might be 40 people in the group by the weekend, so it was probably a good idea to move.

We walked along the rim and saw other individual campsites spread out along the road; next time we will aim for those sites first, rather than the campground.  The view was perhaps even more beautiful
from the end of the road.

On Friday, we got on the road around 9, and headed for Highway 10.  We used our booklet guide to find the Rochester panel.  Sandi elected not to hike, as the trail was described as dropping steeply to the side.  Richard had never seen so many petroglyphs in such a small area.

View from scenic overlook on I-70

We used our booklet to find the cutoff road to I-70, Miller canyon, and then headed towards the town of Green River.  We had lunch at the town park, bought gas, and then headed for Dewey Bridge campground, next to the Colorado River.  Richard was concerned that there might not be a campsite available on a Friday afternoon, but we were able to take the last campsite.



We took a hike to see Dewey Bridge, and read the historical markers about the small community of Dewey, which was centered on the ferry.  We also walked to the river gauging station, where we inspected the cable car and the telemetry station.   This is also an access point to the popular Kokopelli trail; we saw many 4WD vehicles headed up the trail, which was a good gravel road at that point.   We enjoyed very mild weather; at one point, it was 72 F inside and 72F outside the camper.  At dinner we discussed the impressive booklet that we had used for the last few days; Sandi thought that grant money must have been involved.  We both agreed that it was very detailed and very well done, including mile by mile descriptions.

On Saturday, we drove to Grand Junction, where we bought gas and some parts for our RV.  We found an RV wash, and washed thick mud from the truck and camper.

We continued our drive to Charlie and Gail's house near Glenwood Springs, where we discussed the state of the world, and admired their house.  It was good to see them.

Snow in April in Colorado

On Sunday morning, we headed home in what turned out to be a snowstorm!  Luckily the roads were only wet.   By the time we got to Boulder, we needed to wash the RV again!

Overall, it was a very nice trip.  We both appreciated getting away from our technology and phones for the week.   This was the first trip for the new solar system that Richard had installed on the RV, and it seemed to work well, so that is good.  It was nice to see territory that was new for both of us.

Goblin Valley State Park

Sandi and I left at 8 AM on Sunday morning for Utah. We had planned to leave Saturday, but the weather in the mountains was not good. The roads on Sunday were good, and we drove with relatively few stops. Glenwood Canyon was impressive, as was the Utah desert, with its book cliffs. Our longest stop was in Grand Junction, where we bought fuel and groceries at the Walmart Neighborhood Market.

After Green River Utah, we turned off I-70, and drove south, with the San Rafael Reef on our right. We arrived in Goblin Valley State Park about 5:30, and set up camp. The small campground is kind of whimsical, with rock formations everywhere, and many kids treating it as a giant playground. Our campsite has a toadstool rock formation, a covered picnic table, and a large concrete pad for the RV. The campground was full. We learned that there were two weeks of spring break in Utah, and this is one of them.

On Monday we drove to the entrance station; Sandi bought gifts and postcards for her grandkids. The young ranger suggested that we hike the Curtis Bench trail, which included an overlook of the Valley of the Goblins. The rock formations were amazing, and even hiking in the desert was interesting.

We had the trail to ourselves until we turned around to go back. We had a nice conversation with some Quebequois retirees from Montreal. They were on a grand RV tour of the US, starting in Florida.

Late in the afternoon, we walked in among the Goblins. Goblin Valley is a area with many toadstool type formations, created by weathering of sandstone. The goblins can be whimsical. There were many adults and kids playing in and around the Goblins. We kept walking further into the field of Goblins well beyond where the other visitors were. Richard was interested in following the drainage; Sandi was looking at the plant life. We had been watching a rainstorm to the north, hoping that we were safe. As we walked back to the parking lot, we were peppered with cold rain, wind, and a little sleet. The wind woke us up during the night, shaking the camper. Sandi noted that in the book she was reading, Edward Abbey talked about strong spring winds in this area.

On Tuesday, we headed for Little Wild Horse Canyon, a popular slot canyon. Because of rain the previous night, there was a very large pool of water where the canyon started to narrow. The trail went high along one side of the canyon. Richard casually scrambled up, hands in his pockets. Sandi was terrified, but pushed through it, and we reached the valley bottom, and the entrance to the slot. The pattern of the water carved rocks was amazing. We went in about one mile. In many places, the slot was so narrow that two people could not pass. This became an issue when we turned around at a large stone, and started to go against the flow of traffic. Sandi was impressed by the small children who were fearlessly climbing the rocks.

We returned to the camper for lunch, and then decided to explore the other side of the San Rafael Reef. We stopped to see some petroglyphs, and the historic Temple Mountain uranium mining area. We then turned off the main dirt road, onto the Chute Canyon Road. From the back side, you can see the many layers of rock which make up the reef. The area is full of off road vehicle trails, but we did not see many vehicles

We headed back to the camper for dinner. After dinner, we took a stroll out to where we could take advantage of the evening light to take pictures of the impressive San Rafael Reef.

Sea Kayaking in the Everglades

Jud organized a Rocky Mountain Sea Kayak Club trip to the 10,000 island region of the Everglades, on the gulf coast of south Florida.

Six of the eight folks decided to save money by flying the Frontier redeye to Miami, getting on the plane before midnight, and arriving about five AM.   This did not work out as well as they had hoped, with several people swearing never to fly Frontier again.   They also had to wait hours for the rental car company to open.

Bernie and I were not enthused about the redeye, so we flew in the day before, and stayed in the very comfortable Cambria Suites hotel for about $100, my first use of Priceline.  Bernie flew on his United retiree benefits, and I flew on American miles.  Bernie picked up a rental car, and later picked me up at the airport.  We were happy with our decision.

Bernie and I had breakfast at a Latino restaurant on our way out of Miami, after a grocery store visit.   We stopped in the Big Cypress Preserve visitor center, where we learned a bit about alligators.

We drove through Everglades City, and met up with the group at our campground, Chokoloskee Island Park and Marina.  The campground was reasonable, although most folks were in RVs, not tents.  The boat ramp was a busy place, mostly fishermen.  We had dinner at the Camillia Street Grille.

We picked up our boats in Everglades City on the 24th, after stopping by the Everglades park visitor center to reserve our campsites.

Mangrove Tunnel

We had decided to paddle up Halfway Creek, through the mangrove tunnel, and then down the Turner River, which took us back to Chokoloskee.   The bugs were fierce; I was very happy to have and use my mosquito net headnet.   We met a guide taking some tourists up the tunnel; he said that obviously it was not our first rodeo, perhaps noting the mosquito  headnet.  I flipped my kayak trying to get under a low branch.  All in all, it was a pretty hard day.  We had a nice dinner at the Havana Cafe.

On the 25th, we paddled across Chokoloskee Bay to Indian Key pass, a busy channel.  We stopped at a small shell beach, and watched the dolphins fish.  If you see several fish jump through the air, look for the dolphin they are trying to escape.  We also saw a couple of manatees.   We had to fight a tidal current as we headed out to the Gulf, and later a headwind, to make our way to Picnic Key, our beach camp for three nights.   Yes, there were mosquitos.....

On the 26th, we decided to take it easy, and paddle to nearby Tiger Key, where we relaxed in the shade, with just enough breeze to keep the bugs away.   It was really quite pleasant.  We paddled over to Camp Lulu Key, just outside the park, and then returned to Picnic Key.   Clark saw a huge sea turtle on the way back.

On the 27th, we headed for Fakahachee Key, which at one point was a tomato farm.  We had an easy paddle, with the current.  We found several gravestones, as well as a cistern.

Cistern

Like many of the islands, it is largely made of shells, discarded by the Calusa Indians over thousands of years.  We decided to circumnavigate the island, but when we turned towards home, we ran into very strong currents.  It was all we could do, paddling as hard as we could, to make slow progress against the current.   The speed of the current was substantial in certain spots, less in others.   The wind turned against us later, so we were tired when we got home.

Note the shells and the mosquito headnet

On the 28th, we headed back to Everglades City.  We had to go around Stop Keys, due to low tide, but generally had an easy paddle, with the current, back to Chokoloskee Bay.   However, by the afternoon, the wind picked up, and we had a tough paddle across the bay, against the wind, to get back to the marina.  We turned in our boats, and started the two hour drive back to Miami.

In Miami, we checked into the Ramada Springs hotel near the airport, where we were happy to take a shower, and had dinner at the sports bar.

On the 29th, I had a later flight, so I decided to see Wynwood Walls, an area with many murals.  I said goodbye to our group after breakfast, and took a bus to Wynwood.  I took a walking tour of the murals, which was somewhat interesting.  Most of the murals were not to my taste, but many of them showed real skill, especially considering the size of the murals.

I went back to the hotel, picked up my luggage, and took a cab to the airport.  The flight left on time, but we learned midway that the Charlotte airport had been shut due to bad weather.  We landed in Charleston to refuel, and then had a very bumpy ride to Charlotte.  I made my connection, which was also late, and ended up in Denver at 1 AM.  Sandi was good enough to pick me up at the airport, as I had missed the last bus to Boulder.  She had opted to stay home and bond with the house and cats.  Sandi reported that the cats were strangely silent while I was gone.

All in all, a good trip.  I was the new guy in the group, and one of the younger members.   I hope to paddle with them again in the future.  We all learned that we need to plan around tidal currents.   We all got warm for a week or so, having missed some snow in Colorado.