Active volcano in Colorado; Campsites with a view; Roadside attractions; Post-adventure meals; & More...

[00:00:09] Welcome to the OutThere Colorado Podcast. Once again, it is me, Spencer, and I'm here with Seth. Howdy. And once again, we've got a lot of Colorado content to bring you. Seth, though, recently was out on the road looking for some stories to write about and sounds like he found a few interesting ones, one of which that caught my attention was something related to an Australian meat pie, which I don't even know what that means. So tell us about these Australian meat pies, Seth.

[00:00:38] I feel like it's kind of amazing that I had such an appetite for these Australian meat pies in Fort Collins after a visit about Rattlesnake Kate, which is something I'll be better at talking about a little later once I get done reporting it all, of course. But if you don't know about Rattlesnake Kate, quite a legendary tale in northern Colorado, a real pioneering, tough-nosed,

[00:01:08] woman in the 1920s, gained international acclaim for an incident in, was it 1923, early 1920s, coming upon a mega den of rattlesnakes, which do occur in northern Colorado on their migration route. And to protect her young son and horse and herself, she went about shooting these rattlesnakes until she had to resort to bashing them with a nearby no hunting sign on her body. And to protect her young son and horse and herself, she went about shooting these rattlesnakes

[00:01:38] on her property. Kind of ironic. Amounting to what reports say to be 140 rattlesnakes dead. Yeah, I'm on the Wikipedia right now. 140, that's wild. And she made a dress out of these, out of the rattlesnakes, used the skin to make a dress, which is on display at the Greeley City Museum. And you can learn more about her at that museum, along with a story that I will have at some point. Dang.

[00:02:07] But immediately after this, I scooted over to Fort Collins, of course, to get some waltzing kangaroo Australian meat pies. Which is so good. Wait, so is waltzing kangaroo the name of the spot? Waltzing kangaroo. Yeah, pretty popular up there. Are the meat pies kangaroo meat? Nope. They are, let's see, I had steak, it's like a French onion special this month. Ooh. But their most popular is like steak and gravy.

[00:02:34] And then I had another one, I brought home a frozen one, lamb and rosemary. That was awesome. Ooh. They have like a take on like curry. That's really good. Mm. Yeah. And so they're like handheld pies, man. Yeah, 4.8 stars on Google reviews. I met the owner. I met the owner and I was about to like get a fork. And he was like, no, mate, you're supposed to eat it with your hand. He's an Australian. Or he's pretending to be maybe. I mean. Oh, no. He's straight from that under, man.

[00:03:03] Straight from that under. He brought the idea. He just came here as a, what was he telling me? Came here as a ski bum originally in like 04. Came from a family of bakers back in Australia where meat pies are like synonymous with life. You know? Like you eat, you just eat meat pies in Australia. Yeah. And I'm looking at photos on them. Especially ground beef. Yeah. Yeah, these are good. They're like the size of like if you put your hands together, they fit in the palm of your hands. Picture a pot pie. Yeah. Pot pie. Yeah. Yeah. Less mess maybe.

[00:03:32] I was so ashamed that, because this was like my third time having it and I'd always eaten it with a fork. And I don't know why I didn't just rip the thing and stuff my face like I did yesterday. Because that is definitely the way to do it. Well, I think us Americans are probably used to eating chicken pot pies and things like that, which are messy. You can't eat those with your hands if you don't. Yeah. These are so well constructed that they maintain the integrity as you scarf it away. They look delicious too.

[00:04:01] What are these sauces that come with it? Or is that like mashed peas and mashed potatoes? Yeah. You're probably looking at the innards there. Yeah. Yeah. Probably maybe the shepherd's pie version there. Two hot sides. Ooh, this looks good. Nice to know up in Fort Collins. Where's it at in Fort Collins? Pretty close to the football stadium. What is that? Off Elizabeth. Yeah, super good. And quick. You know, you can just get in and out. Ooh, and they have sausage rolls. Oh, yeah. I have not had one of those. I have yet to have one of those. Dang. All right.

[00:04:30] You can always count on us talking about food, you know? Yeah, always talking about food. And one of our topics for the day we were chatting about, maybe going to discuss here, deals with more food. So hopefully you're not too hungry. But talking about the post-adventure meal, what do you get whenever you are totally done for the day? You're exhausted. You're driving back. You're tired. Yep. Where do you stop? So that was the first thing I was going to ask you. So we're not camping, right? We're in the car. We're going home.

[00:05:00] Or we're going to a restaurant. TBD. I mean, if you want to give us a post-camping meal recommendation, that works too. But I got mine. Most of mine are like 14 or based, I would say. Yeah. But yeah, what do you got? I love a burger. A good burger. Yeah. What's it? You got a recommendation for a place? We're down in Colorado Springs, as we said before. So sorry that it might be Colorado Springs-centric. But I'm trying to think.

[00:05:30] Well, and I love, to be clear, I mean, what's better than... I mean, my favorite post-hike food is a beer. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Same. Yeah. We were talking- For sure. We were talking earlier this week, Tim and I are video producer over here. We're talking about Paradox Beer Company, which that's a favorite of mine. It's in Divide. You're on 24, you know, going home. Yeah. Coming back from the West into Colorado Springs.

[00:05:57] And it's like 40 minutes outside of Colorado Springs, so kind of gets you fueled up for that final little stretch there. But they have really good food. They have some Berea ramen that's really good. I've heard the food is super good. Yeah. I think they... I don't know if they changed things up recently, but I've only probably been there for the last few years, you know. I think they were started back in, like, I don't want to say 2012 or something like that. But they've since moved up to that bigger location in Divide with a massive patio. Yeah. It looks at Pikes Peak. It's like...

[00:06:27] It's a good vibe. Kind of that backside of Pikes Peak, too, if you're used to the view from the springs. And you can just chill out there in the sun and have a beer and have some good food. Custom quesadillas, too. I think they changed the food menu up. Sometimes they have brunch. I see some chicken wings on there. I don't know. I haven't had chicken wings there, but yeah. No, it's... That's a favorite of mine, for sure. And then I've said it before, but Prostate on the way back from Breck, from taking I-70, pop their frisco, get the sausages there. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.

[00:06:56] If I'm not going to... If I'm really tired, if it's been a very long day, then my go-tos change. They get a little bit lazier. I'm probably not stopping on the way home. Instead, I'm placing that order with Domino's for three pizzas. For $6.99. I know, man. Or if I'm even lazier, baby, swinging through Taco Bell's drive-thru. The cheesy bean and rice burritos, for whatever reason. You've said this before. I know.

[00:07:23] I can't stop talking about it. You might. You might. I'm secretly employed by Taco Bell over here. They're like, we need more outdoor recreation enthusiasts to consume our meals. Dude, I saw... I'm a big believer in the crunch wrap, and I think I saw they're going like a steak one. Yeah. Yeah. Believe it or not, I think I'm a member of the subreddit for Taco Bell. I can tell you. They're mini crunch wraps. They will have steak and queso on the way.

[00:07:54] Hype seemed real online. But yeah, no, this is not a Taco Bell ad, and we are not sponsored by Taco Bell yet. Maybe at some point in the future. But yeah, what do you got? That's a quickie. Yeah, that's like my quickie. I need salt, you know? So very much like my quickie, quickie, quickie is beef jerky. Beef jerky, yeah. Back in the car. Yeah. You know, I always have a big bag from Costco. Mm-hmm. Definitely.

[00:08:21] Even like, what are the, Berkland steak strips or whatever? Yeah. You seen those? Yeah. That's a good one. I'm known to go hard on those. Yeah, that's always a thing. Like, I'll get back to the car, and it's like the number of drinks that I'll have in front of me where I'm like, I need to consume all of these immediately. You got like the protein shake. You know, you got a water, something with electrolytes in it. Maybe a Gatorade, maybe a post-hike beer, depending on the situation.

[00:08:48] But I'm just drinking all these things at the same time. I feel like, yeah, my appetite's always gone whenever, like right when I get back to the car. But then it sets in like, give it like an hour, hour and a half. Yeah, pizza's a great call. Yeah. And pizza and beer. I mean, match made in heaven, right? Yeah. And I mean, obviously, Domino's is a national chain. But for whatever reason, and it's also like fast food pizza, right? But for whatever reason, that $6.99 deal, I'm just like, you know what?

[00:09:17] I think I could eat three pizzas right now, and I want different toppings on each one. Domino's is running the game, man. It's funny because, you know, my wife and I, Oscars are coming up Sunday. We like to have a pizza party with our Oscars, right? And we're talking about a fairly expensive pizza that shall not be named. But that's exactly what I come back to. It's like, honey, we can get Domino's for way cheaper. Half the price. Yeah.

[00:09:45] I think I know what fairly expensive pizza place you're talking about. Yeah. Sending you numbers, sending you numbers, signals. I get it. Yeah. I mean, it's- I have confirmed. There is better pizza than Domino's. But is there a better value than Domino's? I know. It's true. I don't know. It's true. You just want to eat a lot of pizza and have it convenient. Pick it up. Put it in your car. Yeah.

[00:10:11] Also, so another one that's been a new favorite in Colorado Springs that somehow I just recently discovered after like 10 years. And 10 years of me also loving unhealthy food. So very notable. You can't see Spencer through your radio, but he looks great. I mean, you would, you know. Me as another hand, but you wouldn't guess this is the man eating Domino's and Taco Bell every day. You'd just see me after I eat those pizzas and I'm just like sweating out like Taco Bell grease and Domino's grease and et cetera.

[00:10:40] But yeah, no, Taste of Philly. Yeah. Taste of Philly on 8th Street. I've heard the 8th Street location's the best. It seems like that's the consensus. And are they beyond Colorado Springs? Are they? You know, I don't know. They might have some around. I can figure that out. We have that technology. I'm with you. I like the chicken Philly. Yeah. And I always just get the classic Philly that they have, but then I get like a bunch of the extra toppings added onto it. And something about that too. Just like get home. You're tired. You want a big meal.

[00:11:09] You want to go to sleep and rest up and be lazy on the couch the rest of the night. And Taste of Philly. Oh yeah, they're up around Denver. They're up around Arvada, Fort Collins, Greeley, Highlands Ranch, Lakewood, Littleton. Yeah, I didn't realize that. Fargo. They're in Fargo. North Dakota. Shout out to Arizona. Tempe, Arizona. One of my buddies went to school in Fargo and people think Colorado's cold. He's describing things where he's like walking a couple blocks home from the bar and it's

[00:11:37] like negative 20 for like weeks at a time or like it feels like that for like weeks at a time. Yeah, that's serious. Going to school up there trying to walk to class and it's just sub-zero. Yeah. Ooh. That's big time. Don't know if I could handle that. There's also not a lot of recreation in North Dakota. Mostly flat from my understanding. I don't know. I've never been. Maybe there's- Never been in North Dakota. In North Dakota I'm listening to this right now and they'll- Correct you right away. Yeah, let's see.

[00:12:06] What mountains are in North Dakota? They got Buttes Hills and they do have mountain ranges. Highest point is 3,500 feet. The Black Hills spans South Dakota, is that right? Yeah, the Black Hills are absolutely beautiful. If you're looking for a place to go that's kind of like right outside of Colorado, kind of has, you know, I think from Colorado Springs when I drove there I think it was about six hours to get to Rapid City. Is that it? Yeah, it was like closer than I thought it would be, but pretty dry.

[00:12:35] A lot of pronghorn along the way. And yeah, the Black Hills are absolutely stunning. Very underrated part of the country and close for Coloradans. Kind of same recommendation going down to New Mexico. There's a lot down there you can check out. And you just don't get the same crowds that you get in Colorado. It doesn't feel quite as developed, which for better or worse, you know, it's a little bit of a create your own adventure scenario at times. It's all Mount Rushmore too.

[00:13:03] That was, I don't know. I expected to be let down, but I was not just because the surrounding scenery of Mount Rushmore is just stunning. What maybe people don't talk about as much, you know. Yeah, yeah. You just see a photo of the heads in the rock cliff and you're like, okay. But they're kind of like small, to be honest. That it's just wrapped with just beautiful, beautiful like rock formations and just rolling forests. Yeah. Yeah. It's hilarious. So here's a surprise little day trip proposal.

[00:13:33] Speaking of New Mexico, at least I made a day trip of it from Colorado Springs here. Again, more and more south. But right over, or pretty right over, the southern Colorado line out of Trinidad into New Mexico, Capulain Volcano National Monument. Hmm. You heard of this one? I've heard of it, but I can't picture it. It is a neat thing to do. Yeah. You can walk the rims of this extinct volcano, man. Dang.

[00:13:59] And you're just out in, you know, what seems like the plains, you know, kind of rolling terrain across that side of New Mexico. Oh, yeah. And then you just see what is very clearly looking to be a volcano. Dang. Yeah. That's cool. If there's a road, you can drive the road up it and then do a short hike around the rims. It's super cool. Dang. Yeah, that looks pretty. And you can walk down into the crater. That's super cool, too. Dang, yeah. I mean, you can do that in Colorado, too. The Dotsero Crater. Oh, I've done that. Have you?

[00:14:29] Yeah, you have. But this is way more dramatic. This one feels more like a volcano, right? Yeah. Like, I remember, yeah. It's hard to even recommend that Dotsero. Have you seen it? Have you gone out there? I haven't seen it. I've covered it before in passing. Yeah. Yeah. But I've never done the actual hike there. Right off I-70. But then you're kind of just going up, as I'm recalling, what was like a very loose and sandy, gravelly kind of road.

[00:14:56] I remember thinking I wouldn't want to be on this if it was raining, if it was big rainfall. Yeah, that makes sense. But then it was just kind of like, I looked to my left, and oh, there's the crater. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, and it's in the mountains, too. It looks like this Capulance, kind of more of a- Isolated. Yeah, isolated peak. That's sweet, dude. It's kind of classic. Yeah. This looks awesome. I wrote about this a couple years ago. I need to go check this out for sure. The coolest thing about Dotsero Crater, I think, is how the lava flow goes under I-70. Mm-hmm.

[00:15:26] So there's like a stretch of, yeah, where it's like hardened lava flow from ancient times. Now, and isn't it classified as extinct? Isn't there- I'm vaguely recalling like there's like a minuscule to 0% chance of it erupting, but I thought that it's still on a monitored list. Yeah. Right? Where was it?

[00:15:54] So it looks like a 2023 report, a U.S. geological survey considers it to be an active volcano in Colorado. Yeah. Yeah. So. The only active volcano in Colorado, I think. Yeah, it might. I think so. That's what I'm seeing. Yeah. And here's a 2020 Colorado Sun report that says Colorado has an active volcano. Yeah. And it is talking about Dotsero. Click that. Is that me? I feel like they pulled that piece. Oh, yeah. It is you.

[00:16:25] Read it. It is. Here we go. By Seth Foster. So it was 2020? That's hilarious. Was it 2020? Yeah. Well, that's when they pulled it to their website, I guess. So it's been a while. I couldn't quite remember. That's so funny. I couldn't quite remember the specifics on that. I just remember thinking there was a chance. So you're saying there's a chance. We're saying there's a chance. That would be pretty wild if all of a sudden that's like in the middle of ski country. Yeah, dude. Ooh, I-70 traffic's bad enough without a volcano going off.

[00:16:55] Hopefully we're not jinxing anything. Yeah. Rest assured. I remember some scientists telling me there's... It was like kind of one of those by the specific terms of science, it's an active volcano, but by logical thinking, there's like no chance is kind of how I'm remembering the conversations I had. Oh, yeah. Here's a quote with, I believe, Mr. Hagedorn. Okay. Where I'm literally just quoting you. Yeah. Right now. I trust you for that.

[00:17:24] Volcanoes have different styles, Hagedorn says. Mount St. Helens has that build-up explosive style, whereas Dodcero, maybe it builds up, does a little poof, but it might ooze a little bit more. I see. So it might ooze, apparently. Which, yeah, it says... Watch out for oozing. ...it's great to build up in Eagle River. So it's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that was an interesting thing. It says if it did that, I-70, once again, according to you and your reporting, I-70 would be closed for at least one year.

[00:17:54] Okay. Ooh. Spooky. Yeah, I gotta go back and read all this. That would be a wild situation, because there's just not many ways to get across Colorado for a year. I think about those communities that would be shut off. Like when all those mudslides were going on in Grizzly... Glenwood. Yeah, Glenwood. Yeah. And Glenwood Canyon there. Yeah. Is it Grizzly Peak right there, maybe? The fire? Yeah. The Grizzly Peak fire, yeah. Yeah. And then the resulting mudslides years later. Yeah. Like, yeah, that shut down I-70 through there for a couple weeks or so in a month, and it

[00:18:24] pretty much meant everyone had to divert through like Steamboat, which... Right. That's a... I heard that was a haul. Yeah, that's like an extra two and a half hours added to your trip or so, probably. Mm-hmm. But... And also probably very annoying for Steamboat residents. Yeah. One of my buddies lives up there, and he was... He was... I remember hearing about all that. Yeah, he was complaining. Whereas businesses were probably pretty happy. Oh, yeah. Businesses, yeah. Yeah, that makes sense, too. You know what's crazy? I mean, speaking of that fire, you remember all that...

[00:18:54] Gosh, was that like a late Saturday where there was all that news about maybe hanging lake going, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I forget that. And then, I mean, subsequently, the years after that, they've been doing repairs. Yep. It's closed right now. Mm-hmm. Getting some bridges in there and kind of making that trail a little bit better. It was... We were... That trail alone is kind of an interesting trail just in terms of the amount of search and rescue missions that take place there. Yeah. So, we were... You know I've never done it, man. Oh, dude. I've never hiked it.

[00:19:24] It's beautiful. It's probably like a mile up or so, or maybe a little less than a mile. But it's steep. Steep. Yeah. It's like 1,500 feet of gain, and it's a pretty lush area. So, it's like you have kind of water around the trail on your way up, and there's some mud. There's roots. It's like, it's not, you know, it's not family friendly, so to speak. But, yeah, like we were doing a search and rescue out in Pitkin County with one of the

[00:19:53] medical helicopter companies out there. It was super cool. They ended up dropping us off on one of the peaks out in Aspen area. Yeah. And getting some photos. But this was, you know, eight years ago at this point. But, yeah. And I think, what was it? Classic Air Medical was who we were with. But they were talking about the search and rescue responses in the area, and they were saying that Hanging Lake Trail is the top search and rescue response thing where they have to,

[00:20:21] I think it's something, don't quote me on this, but I think it was like over 50% of their calls or something crazy like that. Like, I remember being shocked. Yeah. Well, sheer numbers. Yeah. Yeah. And it's... I mean, just the sheer number of people doing it and maybe number of people who aren't aware of the vertical and elevation and whatever. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Last time we were there, we were coming down, and this was like fall, if I remember correctly.

[00:20:47] But there was a family headed up struggling with a couple small kids, like, and they're going up a steep trail, and it's getting dark. And I'm like, you know, it's... You kind of... You have that little conversation with them sometimes where it's like, hey, like, trail's still a bit longer. They're like out of breath, and you can't make somebody turn around, but they were definitely underprepared. And it's definitely showed how that trail can be a little bit underestimated, I think. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:21:15] I hope to be one of the first when it opens to get out there. Oh, dude. It's great. And you got to go up a little further. The new trail, yeah. Yeah, and you got to go up a little further to see that spouting rock. Yeah. It's like 100 feet past Hanging Lake or so, but I think that's even... Maybe even cooler than... I guess they're building a new boardwalk. Oh, are they? Oh, really? A little platform. Dang, that's interesting. Yeah, when we were there, you could literally walk under the waterfall if you wanted to. But yeah, that makes sense.

[00:21:42] Yeah, that's one of those things where it's like Hanging Lake gets brought up a lot. Just people talking about the preservation and high traffic areas. You can kind of see what happens when an interstate exit is built for a single natural destination. Obviously, that's going to make that destination get a lot more popular now, kind of years later, dealing with how do we make sure this stays around. Yep. Speaking of destinations, is that a segue into campgrounds? Oh, yeah. It could be.

[00:22:13] Or roadside attractions. Oh, yeah. We got a couple more things to talk about. We can go campgrounds first. Yeah, so campgrounds, Matador Network, popular kind of travel slash travel adjacent publication, recently published their list of the 60 campsites around the U.S. that offer the best views for campers. They split it up into six different regions. Colorado was in the Mountain West region.

[00:22:40] It was one of three states in the Mountain West region that ended up with two of the top ten beautiful view campsites for that region specifically. Their two picks were Silver Bells or Silver Bells campground or Silver Bells campground in the Marine Bells area, which is an established campsite.

[00:23:03] I think they said there's 14 spots, but it offers views of the Maroon Bells, so it's kind of a shoo-in when it comes to most beautiful views. Then they also picked the Animus Forks area, which isn't really like an established campground, but it's a ghost town right outside of Silverton, right on the Alpine Loop, which is very popular among off-roaders. I think it's like 60-something miles of high elevation and rugged terrain that you're traveling.

[00:23:32] And yeah, so those were their picks. I've been up to Animus Forks before. It's a beautiful area. Just don't remember that either. Oh, it's beautiful. It's, I don't know how. There is camping around there? It's a few miles. So I think it's, what my understanding is, is that it is public land, and there are certain areas where you're not allowed to camp depending on whether or not you're threatening like historic stuff. I did a little digging trying to like really get a solid answer.

[00:23:56] I think it's one of those areas where it's like, it's public land, you're able to pitch your tent as long as you're doing so in a legal and ethical way. Check out Leave No Trace Principle 2 for more information on how to do that. They have a whole section on their website that talks about camping ethically and making sure you're not damaging the land around you. But yeah, so check the rules and regulations before you go up there.

[00:24:24] Apparently noise is also a problem if you're camping in that Animus Forks area because there's a lot of off-roaders. So they're constantly passing you. But either way, I mean, camping there or not, go up there and check it out because it is a cool ghost town. It's preserved. Yeah. I think it had like 450, 500 people that lived up there seasonally during the mining booms and then got abandoned. Yeah, I've been meaning to get up there, man.

[00:24:48] Yeah, if you're going up to Silverton, I think I've said it before, but one of my top recommendations for any summer trip to Silverton would be to rent an ATV or one of the Polaris Razors, you know? Rent one of those. Go explore the mountains around that town. And there's so many little Forest Service roads and just mining ruins. And you could spend all day just kind of, you know, driving around. It's awesome. It's beautiful.

[00:25:15] In my opinion, maybe the most beautiful part of Colorado. The San Juans are very hard to beat. What's the campground with a view you're willing to reveal? What comes to mind on your list? Yeah. Yeah, right? Like willing to reveal is the big caveat there. So one that's already very popular and gives you access to a national park, and it's got maintenance, and it has its whole reservation system, and there's an on-site caretaker, a lot of spots.

[00:25:44] But it's about a falls campground right outside of Great Sand Dunes. Yeah. That's one that I like. It's kind of a little rugged road up the hillside to get there. But then once you're up there, if you're lucky enough to get one of the campsites that kind of has a view of the San Luis Valley, great for stargazing. Like you're just looking off kind of, you know, 1,000, 2,000 feet below you. Yeah. Just looking into the vastness of the San Luis Valley. Some of the best stargazing. Yeah. Good sunsets, good sunrises even, I guess.

[00:26:14] And yeah, no, it's a beautiful area. And then right at the base of the dunes there is, what is it, Pinion Valley? Pinion Flats. Pinion Flats. There you go. In extremely high demand. Yeah. Yeah. We were just chatting about this before we hopped on this. And yeah, that one, I think some of the reports you see, it's like 96% booked throughout the year. It's one of the most booked campsites, or at least has one of the highest rates of booking in the U.S. So it's like even the old wisdom of a weekday might not apply there. Yeah, right.

[00:26:42] And I mean, any of these campsites at this point, any one that is well-known in Colorado, and even those that aren't, you know, you're booking months in advance. So. I feel lucky because, gosh. Yeah, we were at Pinion Flats, I don't know, three, four years ago. On the contrary, though, while both of those campsites are great for camping, I've heard camping in the sand dunes is not quite as enjoyable. Yeah, dude. Because you can camp. I mean, how do you keep the sands everywhere? Sand bags. You need to get sand bags is what I get.

[00:27:12] Get more sand. And all the bugs come out at night. Yeah. And I mean, think about like, you know, you got to go to the restroom. Yeah. And you can't just poop in the sand. Really? Right. Like it's not, that definitely doesn't follow the trace principles. Yeah. So you got to figure out that situation. It's very cold at night. Potentially windy, too. Yeah. So sand blowing around. Yeah. You're probably not going to sleep well at night. Yeah. Looking for privacy. You might have to climb up a dune, you know, like.

[00:27:39] Might be all the, you might not need a pad. It might just be. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Honestly, it is probably, it's way more comfortable than dirt. It's probably very cold, though, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. That has never appealed. Yeah. I've talked to a few people that have done it because it sounds like it'd be a good idea. Yeah. It's one of those things where you're like, one of a kind. You're like, that'd be cool. Yeah. Every single person I've talked to that's done it, they, generally the first thing they mention is all of the downsides of doing it. Yeah.

[00:28:09] You better off Zapata or Pinion Flats and hiking as you please with your head. Yeah. That would be, that would be my move. But I mean, hey, maybe everyone should check it out and see what they think. Yeah. I think you need a wilderness permit or something like that to do, or not a wilderness. You need some sort of permit. I think you do. I think it is wilderness. Is it? I think that is wilderness, designated wilderness. Yeah. Yeah. Back country. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, hey, if it's how the experience has been described to me, there's probably not too many return visitors.

[00:28:39] Want to talk front country attractions? Front country. Roadside attractions? I tried to play on back country there. Hey, no, yeah. Let's do it. I think, did we chat about a couple last week? We might have. We teased it. We said we would talk about it. And we come through on our promises. Yeah. We do. So, well, this might. Got to start with Bishop Castle. Yeah. Bishop Castle. Like, that's. Got to start with it. I mean, that's probably one of the best roadside attractions in the country. Yeah. Free. Yeah. And it's free.

[00:29:08] Obviously, the lifelong work of Jim Bishop, who, his story is well known, recently passed away. So, condolences to his family. But, yeah, the castle stands. And he worked on it for, like, what, 60 years? 60 plus years? Since the 60s. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, it's stunning if you haven't seen it. Also, another roadside attraction castle, Kano's Castle, down in Antonido.

[00:29:34] You know, you can't tour that one, but, you know, it's built with, you know, beer cans, hubcaps, et cetera. Just a very unique structure. I think they had a fire a couple years ago, so I'm not sure how that's held up. Also, I had a fire recently, Colorado Gators Farm. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Gators and Reptile Park, actually, I think is what it's called, but down in San Luis Valley. That's a favorite of mine.

[00:30:03] And it's, I mean, there's alligators in Colorado. Dozens of them, if not hundreds of them, just chilling in these geothermal pools. Definitely something to go and support. All the gators are a lot of, maybe all of them, or a lot of them, either or, but they're rescue gators. There's a former tilapia farm, so the dude bought a few gators to deal with fish waste. That's right. And then people started sending them gators, essentially. And so now he has a bunch of gators out there. What a trip. And you can go and check them out.

[00:30:33] You can, you used to be able to wrestle them, but that's a different story for a different day. Speaking of creatures, I love May's Bug Museum. Yeah. South of Colorado Springs here, off 115, where you see that big statue of the Hercules. Is that a Hercules beetle? Is that what they call those? Yeah, I believe so. Anyway. That's the big horn. That is a cool little place. On the way down to Canyon City. Yeah. Pop in there and see a bunch of exotic insects that you didn't know could be so big. Also the result of someone's- You might be creeped out. Yeah.

[00:31:03] It's also the result of someone's lifelong passion. Like, this dude traveled the world collecting thousands and thousands. I think it's like around 7,000- And his family's still running it? That's cool. Yep. Hopefully they're staying busy. That's a good one. Yeah. I like Tiny Town. Been into Tiny Town. Yeah, I haven't been there. You can probably tell I'm a kid at heart. You know, I like seeing weird bugs. I like going into Tiny Town where there's a tiny train running around. Yeah.

[00:31:31] Yeah, it's like Tiny Town is what it sounds like. It's a tiny town built up. You can ride around like a little train around it, you know. Good for kids. That's in Morrison area. Yep. Yeah. Right around Morrison, off the highway there. Yeah. Very cool stuff. Yeah, those are probably a few of my favorites. Also UFO Watchtower. Yeah. Also in San Luis Valley. Talked to UFO Watchtower. You're a big fan of Snippy the Horse. My friend just came, just saw Snippy the Horse. Yeah. Famously mutilated. In the 1960s. People say UFOs.

[00:32:01] Yep. The evidence, apparently, right? There's some like little exhaust marks by Snippy. Look at the carcass and you're like, how did this happen? Yeah, like with like extreme precision, drained of blood. Yep. One of his bones a weird color or something. Like just totally stripped clean, the flesh, right? Yeah. Snippy the Horse. We started off raising up our appetite and now we're ending by winding that down by talking about bugs and horse meat. And horse meat.

[00:32:30] They do eat horse meat in some parts of the world. They eat bugs too. Yeah. Yeah. They eat bugs. That's a popular thing in outdoor recreation now too, where they're like, every once in a while you see these companies pop up and they're like, we've created this new protein snack for you in the back country. And then it's just like a bag of crickets. I've tried them. They taste like whatever seasonings on them. But you can see the little crickets. Yeah. You can see them.

[00:32:58] They're like, no legs on them. They're just like the body of a, what is it? The thorax or something, whatever. Just tell a kid it's candy. Yeah. I don't know. That's going to be a hard sell for me. I was not necessarily jumping at the chance to get more. That was one of those where you're at like one of the outdoor recreation conventions and they're handing out samples and they're like, you can take a few bags with you if you want. And you're like, I'm good. Thank you though. I tried a couple of them. You're like, I appreciate it.

[00:33:27] But I wonder if that, that was a year, that was probably seven years ago. I wonder if that company is still around. Be curious. Yeah. Crickets are the rage. I've heard. Nowadays and some conversation circles, so to speak. I've heard. But yeah. Well, hey, that's probably about all we got. I guess I can wrap it up here. A few important news stories to maybe mention. Apparently there's a gentleman that's missing in Blackhand and Gunnison right now.

[00:33:52] So if you are there, be aware of that scenario. He's 31 years old out of Denver. There has not been seen since, I believe it was February 13th. So something to be on the lookout for. Also, Colorado Parks and Wildlife just released their bear report for 2024. Euthanizations went up like 55% or something like that compared to 2023.

[00:34:17] There were over 5,000 reported incidences or reports of bears where people felt they need to call in. Wow. Something like, I think it was like 61% of those or 62% of those were related to either trash being left out and attracting a bear or people having bird feeders out. Which the bird feeder one is one that I think a lot of people tend to overlook.

[00:34:40] The Colorado Parks and Wildlife recommendation is to never use a bird feeder between April 15th and November 15th. It's when bears are active and they like bird seed too. So, yeah. I mean, kind of one of those things where a lot of these instances are pretty preventable if you look at just not leaving food or possible attractants out. Yeah. Man, that's discouraging. I mean, CPWs aim to do so much education and we're seeing those numbers. Yeah.

[00:35:08] And I think, too, a big misconception with that is that, so out of the 5,000 reports, 68 bears were relocated and 98 were euthanized. So, that's still less than 2% of these reports resulted in a bear euthanization. People seem to be reluctant sometimes to report bears because they don't want authorities to come and kill the bear. But generally, that's not the case. Generally, hazing will work and kind of getting rid of attractants will work.

[00:35:33] And reporting that, according to Clara Price and Wildlife, reporting that early whenever you see a bear in your neighborhood, so to speak, is important because it helps them respond before the bear develops bad habits. So, yeah. So, that's about all I got today. You got anything else, Seth? I'm good, man. Until next time. All right. Until next time. We're about to go to crickets. Cricket, cricket, cricket. All right. We'll see you out there. I'm crazy. See you. Have a good one. Have a good one. Have a good one.