LENS-ARTISTS CHALLENGE #227 – Home Sweet Home

(Tina leads.)

I spent our U.S. Thanksgiving holiday in a part of Colorado I haven’t visited previously, even though it is only a one hour and twenty minute drive from my home. (It’s a big state, there is a LOT of it I haven’t visited previously.)

Beautiful downtown Woodland Park meant a cabin in the woods and town views of the iconic Pikes Peak:

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Murals and statues depict the old days and local wildlife. We saw a lot of deer grazing throughout town. Good grub for yours truly, the day before a ‘traditional’ Thanksgiving dinner, included hamburger steak, gravy, and fried onion rings. The rings were worthy of an entry in last weeks Textures theme. 🙂

We hiked part of the Lovell Gulch pine forest the first day. M’lady said this shot looked like a tree graveyard.

For the next, all I can say is ‘Sedimentary, my dear Watson, sedimentary.’

Friday, thanks to a lead from AllTrails.com, we did the Vindicator Trail near Victor, CO. Victor and nearby Cripple Creek (“Goin’ up Cripple Creek, Goin’ on a run…” – Buffy St. Marie song) were HUGE gold mining areas at the turn of the 19th to 20th Century. Old mine buildings and history sign boards abound. The beautiful Sangre de Cristo mountains line the horizon to the west.

Always envious of you ‘monochromatists’, I took some original photos in color and monochrome with my ZS-200, sans post-processing:

Victor yielded a few interesting snaps. (Some of you likely remember Lowell Thomas.) And that sandwich price can’t be beat!

There is one large working mine still in the area, the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine (Wikipedia). It’s an open pit operation, leaving mountains of rock:

Woof! Thank goodness there is still a lot of beauty around. Home Sweet Home!

 

 

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