The tour guide at Cosmos explaining the "Mysterious Cabin" to us.
Inside the Cosmos cabin. The board the woman is standing on is one of the only level surfaces in the place.
The rest of our Cosmos tour group.
Mount Rushmore (Black Hills, SD)
Brandi heading into Mt. Rushmore's visitor area.
Mt. Rushmore memorial plaza (okay the area between the gift shop and the food court)....
View of Mt. Rushmore from the plaza.
A request from a friend.
The avenue of flags thingy in the plaza. All fifty state flags are on these pillars.
Aaaand more. I swear I just wanted a level picture....
Mt. Rushmore, framed by one of the terrace archways.
Mt. Rushmore, the money shot.
Brandi with Mt. Rushmore...
Me with Mt. Rushmore. Honest. It's up there somewhere.
Us at one of the less busy side areas of the plaza. Note the matching socks.
Us at one of the less busy side areas of the plaza.
One more of the flags as we go.
Lost in the Black Hills, never to find civilization again. Even the tunnels are only wide enough for one car.
Woe is us....we will never find our way and be force to sell pictures of trees to passers by for food and water....
Despite popular theory, the Black Hills DO actually go up a ways.
More lame scenery by the side of the road.
Unfortunately our tree picture business didn't last long as we were run off by squirrels who said this was THEIR corner.
The entrance to Jewel Cave. Meaning the actual cave. The entrance to the visitor's center is about 200 ft. up and MUCH better lighted.
The beginning of what is many many pictures of lame cave scenery that looked AWESOME in person, trust me. This one is a LONG ways down from the first platform.
The start of over 700 stairs, and this was the wussy tour.
Our tour guide. Otherwise known as "The poor schlub they sent into the cave alone with a flashlight to find the light switches hundreds of steps down. In a cave. Alone." You have to EARN that funny hat.
The bumps are called dogtooth spar and are EVERYWHERE in Jewel cave.
And I mean eeeeeeeeverywhere.....
I'm blanking on what this ridge was called, but it's formed when a bunch of dogtooth spar falls off, exposing the limestone underneath.
This is actually looking above us into a chimney.
Okay the lighting here sucks (and I actually photoshopped it up), but around here they turned off all lights in the cave for a bit. You have never......EVER....seen dark like what is in a cave over 300 feet underground with no lights at all.
Some stalactites.
A straw column.
Some "fresh" cave formations. Not caramel.
About here is when Brandi started asking me when the hell I was going to knock it off with the camera.
The black shape on top is a very VERY long thermometer.
Cave-bacon.
She LOOKS happy, but her eyes are saying "Take one more picture and you and the camera will never be found again. It's a big cave....don't think I won't do it."
Few hundred mile change of scenery. This is going up Fall River Road in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. This is also where my nemesis the sun started its insidious work.
Some people have the gumption to actually get OUT of the car to take the scenic picture. I envy those people.
We're going riiight up theeeere.
Curse you antenna!
Some rock formations. And telephone lines.
The front sign to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO.
The music hall of the Stanley Hotel.
Um...ignore the jerk in the car mirror.
And we continue on our way up the mountain.
This was actually where water came down from the mountain when a dam burst at the top. The flood shot through here and down the valley, flooding Estes Park and killing a LOT of people camping along the valley floor.
Chasm Falls on Fall River Road. Also known as where I gave my wife a ring and told her how much I loved her.
The happy couple at the bottom of Chasm Falls.
"Okaay....you're getting annoying with the camera again...."
A wild flower growing near Chasm Falls that Brandi wanted a picture of.
Back to scenery!
As we got closer to the tree line, things got a lot colder.
This is chicken wire fencing put in to hold the shape of the hillside to try and prevent landslides.
Trying to remake our tree-picture business in Colorado didn't work out so well either.
This right here is why I love coming back to Colorado....
A river coming down from the mountain-tops.
"Get lost...this is OUR corner!"
Brandi and snow in July.
Brandi moments before she realized that the markings behind her that looked like graffiti actually WAS graffiti.
Above the treeline.
Essentially Fall River road is an unpaved and more scenic back way to the top of Trail Ridge Road. At the top of the roads lays a gift shop, refreshment area, and a trail that goes up to the mountain top itself.
View of the valley on the mountain-top.
Finally here! Yay!
It literally feels like we are on top of the world. Once the wheezing and gasping is done.
End of the road. I believe the ridge ahead of us is the border at where the rivers in the US flow east and west.
If it looks like I have a rock up where the sun doesn't shine, you woldn't be far from the truth.
At least from here on down we have gravity on our side.
There she goes, not a care in the world. Blissfully unaware that I am asphyxiating back here.
Elk are such divas. They simply refuse to pose for a photo they won't get any kickback on.
One more look at why I love the mountains so much. Nothing makes life seem truly beautiful quite like looking down from the top of a mountain and seeing miles and miles of untouched wilderness unfolding around you. That's Nature's Majesty kids. Write that down.
