Wrapping Up Our Stay in the Sweetheart City, Loveland, CO

Loveland, CO, also known as the Sweetheart City, was a short stopover for us to relive a little of Hans history and to do some stocking up before we head into small town territory for a while. It would have been a good hiking stop too, but the weather didn't cooperate this time around.

Sculptures abound in downtown Loveland.

Loveland boasts a mostly paved 18 mile bike and pedestrian trail around the city. The trail goes through Boyd Lake State Park where we stayed. One day we rode a 15 mile loop from the campground, along the Big Thompson River, then back through city streets.

We did run in to some minor challenges along the way as there is construction going on at various places along the trail due to major flooding in 2013 and also current flooding due to the heavy rains we've experienced this spring.

The trail through Boyd Lake State Park; you can see some of the camp sites on the right.

The day we rode we encountered several places where the Big Thompson River had overtaken the bike path.

The Big Thompson River flows swift and overflowing through Fairgrounds Park.
Heavy spring rains and recent high temps are quickly melting snow in the Rockies.

Sometimes we had to hike-a-bike to avoid a flooded underpass.

One of several whimsical sculptures along Lake Loveland.

New Belgium Brewery, located just up the road in Fort Collins, is one of MANY breweries along the Front Range, but we'd been told this one was special (thanks Mike and Keyna!). It's no wonder this tour rates #1 on Trip Advisor's list of Things to do in Fort Collins, it was the most fun brewery tour we've ever taken! This employee-owned company does it right, with beer tastings DURING the tour and a tornado slide at the end!

Our tour guide, Mindy, was lively and knowledgeable, telling us about the sustainability practices used throughout the company and how each employee gets a bike on their one year anniversary and a two week trip to Belgium on their five year annivesary! People temp here for years before getting a chance to be hired, and then they may compete against hundreds for a single job.

Mindy tells us how to pour a beer and about the 8 beers we had to choose from on our first tour stop...
we got to pour our own beer!

In the area where they barrel-age the sour beers, we got to try both the pre-aged beer and the final sour beer.
It goes from a smooth coffee and chocolate flavor to a puckery, fruity sour beer in 1 - 3 years.

The tornado slide is a blast...especially after the tasty brews!  :-)

Following the tour, as if we hadn't had enough beer already, we drove a short distance to Odell Brewing to partake of an onsite food truck and listen to some live music. Umami's thai nachos and edamame were delicious, as was the Sibling Rivalry Red IPA.

We shared the beer...!

Campground Review

We spent our four nights in Loveland at Boyd Lake State Park. It's got 148 electric only sites. Roads and sites are paved and each has a picnic table and BBQ pit. The sites are said to accomodate up to 40' rigs and they have a weird curve to them that makes it a little difficult for larger rigs to maneuver while trying to avoid the grass. There is a reasonable amount of separation between the sites.

The park is well off the freeway so it's nice and quiet at night. Though there was no wifi available, we did have decent Verizon signal with our booster. Each camping loop has a restroom building and there is a large central restroom facility that includes pay showers and a small laundry room. All types of water sports are allowed on the lake and there are multiple picnic sites, playgrounds and a swim beach. The Loveland Recreation Trail goes through the state park.

Our stay included a Friday night in early June and we definitely experienced the beginning of summer weekend revelry. RV's streamed in all afternoon and evening, many folks had boats, loud music was played and many campfires burned...a 9pm thunderstorm put an end to all that! This place has got to be crazy busy every nice weekend during the summer months.

The weather was wild during our stay, ranging from 90 degrees and sunny to hail and rain and thunderstorms...and a tornado touched down less than 10 miles South of us. We've both decided that we do not like hail very much! And we'll take a pass on tornadoes too!

The biggest hail we've ever encontered!

We got creative trying to protect our truck on the second day of afternoon hail storms!

Not sure you can see the curve of our site, #71.
Our truck and 35 foot 5th wheel just barely fit on the site.

The Recreation Trail along Boyd Lake.

Today we head into Wyoming for a couple of brief stops and, unfortunately, we aren't done with the rain yet! Though it certainly cut back on our outdoor activities in Colorado, at least it's making everything around us incredibly green!

Learning the Art of Art Casting

Hans lived in Loveland, CO briefly in the early 1970's, when he was a youngster. His father, a creative entrepreneur, became involved in the art casting business which is how bronze sculptures are made. This ultimately lead the family to move to Grand Junction, CO where they ran a precision casting foundry, making high tech metal parts. As a teenager, Hans worked at a variety of jobs in the Grand Junction foundry.

Fast forward 40-some years to our brief stay in Loveland, CO. We drove past the house where Hans lived in 1971 - 1972 and also discovered that the foundry where his dad worked those many years ago offered tours. Art Castings of Colorado is one of the largest art casting foundries in the US and they bring you right up to the action throughout the foundry, teaching about the "lost wax" process along the way.

Here's how a bronze or stainless steel sculpture is made...

An artist creates a sculpture, usually in clay or wax. A mold is made from the art piece by covering the original in liquid rubber, then applying plaster for support. Wax is poured into the mold and, when cool, the rubber is pulled off producing a hollow sculpture. The wax sculpture is cleaned up using a variety of tools to produce an exact duplicate of the original sculpture.

Next, wax gates, or sprues, are attached to the piece as avenues for the molten metal to flow into the piece. Then a ceramic shell is built up around the wax by repeated dippings into a slurry and coating the slurry with fine sand. The completed shell is kiln fired and the wax is melted (lost) from the shell.

Once the ceramic shell is emptied of wax, it is reheated to 1600 degrees and molten metal is poured in at about 2000 degrees. Once cooled, the ceramic shell is removed with a pneumatic hammer and extensive sandblasting is done. If it's a large piece, it is created in multiple parts and the parts must be welded together.

Many of the workers in the foundry are artists themselves, and it is evident in the detailed finishing work that must be done to get to the final finished product.

Wing molds.

Here a worker pours wax into a mold 

In the Wax Chasing area the wax is made to look like the original.

Ceramic shells are built up around the wax parts.

In this kiln, the fired cermics are white (in front), and in the back are yellow ceramics ready to be fired.

Kendra tells us about the finishing process.
She is standing next to a piece of a giant horse being welded together. It will be about 30 feet high.

Finishing booths.

This is a mockup of the giant horse/Indian sculpture.

Most of the large pieces here will be part of the giant horse and Indian sculpture.

On the same day we walked through the lovely Benson Sculpture Garden. The Benson family homesteaded the land in 1877 and in 1961 donated some of the family farm to the city to be used as a wetlands and bird habitat. In 1985 the sculpture garden was built around the wetlands, creating a beautiful, artisitc statement in the middle of the city, with 148 pieces of art on permanent display. Bronze sculptures can also been seen around town as a testament to the local art casting culture.

Walking the sculpture garden and the doing the foundry tour in one day was a perfect way to learn about and appreciate this unique form of art.

A Few Nights in Longmont, CO

It was a short drive North of Denver to our next destination, St Vrain State Park in Longmont, CO. Longmont sits on the Western edge of the plains of Colorado, not quite bumping up against the foothills of the Rockies.

For our first outing we drove about 20 miles NW of our campground to hike at Rabbit Mountain. Once again, we were trying to avoid muddy trails because we were still getting afternoon thunderstorms and this was one of the few nearby open spaces that didn't list trails closed due to mud. We did end up with some pretty muddy conditions, but still enjoyed the views into the Rocky Mountains.

A view over a rocky escarpment from the Eagle Wind Loop.
Rabbit Mountain parking lot is visible next to the canal.

The Rockies are a sunlit line of white peaks above the foothills.

Sunday was my birthday and I was excited to spend it in nearby Boulder, CO. I just love spending my birthday in a different location each year! After a fantastic, huge breakfast made by Hans, we got an early start on the day due to anticipated Sunday crowds and temps forecasted into the 80's.

Eldorado Canyon State Park was our destination (see how much we are using our Colorado State Parks Pass...it's been well worth the $70 fee). It's a very popular park so we were very pleased to make it to the trail head by 8:15am. Our seven mile out and back hike on the Eldorado Canyon Trail included several steep up and down sections so we were happy to have cloud cover for the first hour or so. The early start also gave us an almost solitary hike out, but on our return the Sunday crowds were apparent as we passed dozens of people just starting out in the full sun and growing heat.

There's lot of switchbacks up from the canyon floor, opening up vistas into the Rockies.
The red building is a private home.

South Boulder Creek slicing through a canyon was our turn around point.

Downtown Denver could actually be seen from Eldorado Canyon.

This area is a rock climbers heaven.
On our return we could see those daring souls clinging to the rock faces...

Let's take a little closer look...see the person in the crevice below the rock spine?

Now you can see him!

Driving out we saw dozens of people on the steep rock walls,
this one was especially cute!

After our hike we had a delcious lunch of tapas and salad at The Med.
Then a stroll through the lively downtown plaza...a perfect birthday!

Yesterday we drove to Boulder once again for a short hike near the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Miles and miles of trails can be accessed all along the foothills of Boulder. NCAR was a good place to start because after our hike we strolled through their free exhibits and learned a lot about weather and climate change.

We had a bit of excitement on this hike...Hans did a little dance when he heard this guy rattling just off the trail.
He was not the least bit happy to see us, and was kind of hard to hear due to all the crickets buzzing around us too!

The dramatic Flatirons dominate the Western view from Boulder.

Great information and displays about Earth's climate at NCAR.
Lots of school groups on a Monday though.

As a former Computer Operations Manager, Hans was excited to see a Cray 1 on display.
That's the first computer system he worked with back in 1980.
Looks like something out of Star Wars, doesn't it?

We slipped back in to Denver one last time before we got too far away. The Royal Aces, a surf band, played at The Beer Depot and John and Pam met us there for one last hurrah before we part ways for many months.

Campground Review

We spent four nights at St Vrain State Park. Half of the sites are full hook ups with gravel roads and paved pads, picnic tables and BBQ pits. The other half of the sites are electric only, fully paved roads and sites, picnic tables and BBQ pits. The electric-only section has pit toilets and one central restroom facility with flush toilets and paid showers. All sites are well separated. Though the park does not have wifi, our Verizon signal was excellent. There are a couple of miles of trails in this park and fishing is allowed.

We stayed in the full hookup section in site 66 and had a pond 30 feet from our door. The good things about this park are the views of the ponds and the mountains, and there are lots of birds. But there were a couple of negatives: the freeway is only a quarter mile away so it is a constant background roar. Also, Greeley, CO is just Northwest of Longmont and when the wind blows the wrong way the stench of cattle fills the air. Lastly, the mosquitos are just beginning to come out. They weren't terrible yet, but still...

Be mindful of the speed limit throughout the park, there is a ranger that actually uses radar to make sure people are doing the 15mph speed limit. We didn't get a ticket, but we did get a talking to for going about 20 - 25mph.

If we were to stay here again we'd probably choose to stay in the electric-only section and as far from the freeway as possible. There are some really beautiful sites in that section.

Our site, #66.
The shade cover was perfectly placed to give us afternoon shade.

Another view of our site from the pond trail.

On a clear day you can see miles and miles of the Rockies to the West.
On the left you can see some of the waterfront sites in the electric-only section.

Waterfront site #30 in the electric-only section.

Western Meadowlark on our TV antenna.

We're off to our last stop in Colorado, Boyd Lake State Park.