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Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Historic Trinidad, CO and Day Five of the Photo Challenge

Trinidad, CO started out as a stop along the Santa Fe Trail and grew exponentially after the discovery of coal in the area, which ultimately brought the railroad to town. It's got the prettiest downtown district we've seen in a while. There are dozens of historic buildings, many of them well preserved.

Main St. Trinidad, CO.



Colorful old homes overlooking downtown.



Like any historic town there are quite a few old houses that need some (or a lot of) TLC.
This one has a fine view of town.



There is a paved river walking trail for several miles along the Purgatoire River through town.
We only walked about a quarter mile of it so we don't know if all of it is this pretty.

Campground Review

Colorado is one of those states that charges a DAILY park entrance fee on top of the nightly camping fee so we decided to buy the annual state park pass and spend all of our nights in Colorado at state parks.

Trinidad Lake State Park has six full hook up sites and 57 electric only sites. Roads are paved, some sites are paved, some are gravel. All sites have a picnic table and fire ring. The restroom facility looks new and has coin operated showers. There is a small, inexpensive laundry room. We had good Verizon signal. There are several miles of trails from the campground.

We had full hook up site #3, which was fine, but did back up to the entrance road and visitor center. Site #6 is the best full hook up site. Some of the electric only sites are spectacular, with excellent privacy and views of the lake (such as #45, 46, 47). Quite a few of the sites have a bit of slope to them. At this time of year, along with the threat of rain, the park was less than one third full and very peaceful.

View of Fisher Peak across Trinidad Lake.

Trinidad Lake looking West.

We walked the South Shore Trail one morning and came upon a herd of elk!
Here, they have seen us and are starting to freak out and head back into the hills.

There were at least 25 of them!

Making a run for the hills...

This was as close as we got!


Site #3.

Lots of room for Rosie to explore, the next site was some distance beyond the trees.

Black and White Photo Challenge Day Five. I've made it to the last day of the challenge! I realize I forgot to invite another blogger to the challenge on a couple of the days, but I definitely had fun going through my old photos and finding ones that would pop in black and white.

Today's shot is of a very happy Hans and Lisa at Ouray Brewing Company in June 2013.

RV travel makes us happy!

Today I invite Linda of Linda's Lens to the Black and White Photo Challenge. Linda lives in the Pacific Northwest and likes to hike and ski and takes fabulous photos on her adventures.

The only rules of the challenge are:

1. On five consecutive blogging days create a post using a recent or past photograph in black and white.

2. Invite another blogging friend to the challenge each day.



13 comments:

  1. Trinidad looked like a cool town as we drove by on 25. It looked so substantial with all its brick buildings, especially after some of the towns in NM that looked like they might just blow away.

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  2. No kidding! Las Vegas, NM had so many dilapidated old buildings and empty stores it was sad.

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  3. Trinidad looks like an interesting town. Bet it has an interesting history. Love your pictures especially that second one. Very cool to come upon a herd of elk even if you did scare them. You don't look very dangerous to me. Nice hike. Lovely views across the lake.

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    1. After the kind of ramshackle towns in New Mexico Trinidad was a balm for the eyes!

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  4. Love all your photos of the historic buildings! Thanks for the invite, blog mention, and follow. I'll try and post a few B & W shots on my next blog post. :)

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  5. Ouray Brewery… where happiness comes by the bottle :)

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  6. What a wonderful little town - old architecture, new walking paths, and beautiful views all around. That's a lot of elk! I'm excited about the campground, especially all that lovely space at your site.
    Thanks for joining the B&W Challenge - I really enjoyed your pics, and I'm glad you had fun too!

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  7. The orangy-red color of the old buildings sure pops! Great pictures Lisa!
    That was a lot of elk...the unexpected photo opportunities like the elk or bunny under the rock in your last post sure add to the adventure.
    Nice choice for Day 5! Love your smiles.....

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  8. The elk views are stunning.

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  9. This is such a quaint, colorful town. I always enjoy when the locals brighten up their homes with brightere colors. I do believe you and Hans are going to have some great homes while in Colorado. Your planning ahead is getting you into all these beautiful state parks. Rosie likes her space and wilderness:) The elk are beginning to head up to cooler territory here in Utah. We were around 8,000 ft when we saw our large herd the other night. Boy, they are skiddish aren't they but so cute!! Glad you got to see so many.

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  10. What an interesting and colorful town -- and the walking path looks great. That's certainly another beautiful Colorado SP -- and with a laundry! That's always a great bonus. You're giving us lots of great ideas. Thanks. :-)

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  11. The face in your second picture is awesome. Trinidad is such a cute town. We are heading to Ouray & vicinity this weekend.

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  12. What an interesting and quaint town. Thanks for the "armchair" tour.

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