Camping death; June skiing at two spots; Popular spot to start charging; $1 million bike park; & More

[00:00:04] Welcome to another episode of the OutThere Colorado Podcast. Once again, I'm Spencer here with Seth. Hello. We got Tim over there on the audio and the video for today. Once again, a nice little midweek episode with a lot of headlines around Colorado for you to enjoy. Yes. How's your day going, Seth? Pretty good. Pretty good, man. Midweek, can't complain. Yeah. Working to the weekend. Yep. You know how it goes. Warm weekend ahead. Same here, man. Warm weekend ahead.

[00:00:34] I'm going to be getting outside. Not sure what yet, but definitely going to be doing something. Running 20 miles? No. Like you always do? No. I have not done that in a long time. But yes, probably running. Might try to get an incline lap in. I've been wanting to try, there's this barbecue spot up on Old Stage Road. The Cantina. Yeah. Something. I've been wanting to try that spot. I have too. Might take the dirt bike or the Jeep up there, but we'll see. Yeah. We'll see. Old Stage Cantina. Is that what it's called? Something like that. I had that hidden gem on my list.

[00:01:04] It's seasonal. It's seasonal. Right. Didn't they just open a little spot inside Trails End? They may have. I think I just saw that news. Yeah. Trails End down in Old Colorado City. On the western end of Old Colorado City. What is that? 30th, right there. Yeah. Let's get into some of these headlines, though. Because I was like, yeah, we don't have much to talk about today. And then I started looking at what's happened in the last few days. And I'm like, oh, wow. We have a lot to talk about. We've always got stuff to talk about. If not, we find a way to talk.

[00:01:32] So I want to start off with this one. There's a viral post going around online that claims that Colorado wildlife officials, is what they say, have released 15 New Mexican wolves into Colorado. Not accurate. Ended up connecting with Colorado Parks and Wildlife on it to confirm. But you can look at the post and it's like clearly one of those AI generated things. You look at the image and one, all the roots are looking very uniform on the ground. It's a good AI image.

[00:02:02] But you look at the Colorado Parks and Wildlife logo and it says like Colorado correctly. And then like the Parks and Wildlife is just like made up gibberish. You can always tell. Someone's got a bone to pick with CPW. Yeah. I mean, of course it was posted by like this hunting page, which seems like a semi-serious, I guess, hunting page. Didn't look too much into the actual page. It did not seem to be like a parody page though.

[00:02:31] And yeah, man, it was generating a lot of angry comments. So dug into that one. We are hereby debunking this. Yes. Debunking this post. If you see it going around online, wolves from New Mexico have not been released into Colorado. And will never be released in Colorado, at least if the current setup stands. Right now, someone from Colorado Parks and Wildlife actually saw me debunking this and reached out with additional information. They were like, thank you for debunking this because we've seen it too.

[00:03:01] The only red wolves he... Does the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo have... Wasn't that part of their conservation? Well, the Mexican gray wolves. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah, yeah. Okay, that's what I'm thinking. So currently, Mexican gray wolves are only in Arizona and New Mexico in the U.S. And then also in Mexico. But there is this memorandum of understanding with New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah to help protect the genetic integrity of the recovering Mexican gray wolf population.

[00:03:31] Maybe there are some Mexican gray wolves in Utah as well. But basically, what that calls for is that if any Colorado wolves go down to New Mexico, they will send them back, which they did in December. Or these other states. And then if any Mexican gray wolves make it to Colorado, we'll send them back. So... They're not releasing... Yeah, they're not releasing Mexican gray wolves into Colorado based on that alone.

[00:03:56] It's also mentioned in the plan that they'll never release Mexican gray wolves into Colorado, that greater wolf reintroduction plan. So yeah. I mean, if you see this floating around, not accurate. But you know how our broken discourse goes, right? We are here debunking it. And there are people who are going to hear it and say, what? They're releasing gray wolves in Colorado? It's true. And the conversation just keeps going. Yeah. You see the headline. I also thought it was interesting to...

[00:04:24] One of the other things that the Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson pointed out was that the wildlife officials, when they're releasing this wolf from the crate in the AI-generated image, they're not in their correct uniform. So we live in a world where AI is around. And it's like, if you start looking at these little things, you know, always think twice if something sounds fishy. Did you see, though, that a ranch employee did kill a wolf in Colorado? Oh, recently? Yeah. So this killing took place in March.

[00:04:53] The news has recently broken about how this wolf died. So apparently this was at a ranch that I believe spans Eagle and Routt County, if I'm not mistaken. But one of the largest cattle ranches in the state. Apparently, according to this Denver 7 report, the rancher there had reported an estimated 60 calves lost in a year. That wasn't confirmed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Or those depredations were not confirmed.

[00:05:23] Because there's a whole process for confirming these depredations, right? But three depredations were confirmed. And there was an application that was submitted for a lethal kill permit related to those depredations. But that was denied. So flash forward, this wolf was apparently, you know, threatening these cows and some calves at this ranch. A ranch hand reportedly fired two warning shots and then a third shot that killed the wolf.

[00:05:52] So to kind of show you what that whole process looks like, now there's a whole legal battle to prove that this killing was warranted, we'll say. Protecting property. Yeah, protecting property. There are a few, I mean, in general, in Colorado, it's very illegal to kill a wolf. There are a few cases, though, where that is permitted if human life is being threatened, if livestock is imminently being, like, attacked or a working livestock dog is imminently being attacked.

[00:06:24] So, yeah. According to the rancher, it's cost tens of thousands of bucks already in legal fees to try to protect herself and the employee. Denver 7 has a whole report on it you can find. But I think also more interestingly, or maybe not more interestingly, but it's worth noting that the wolf that was killed was the matriarch of the King Mountain Pack, which now only consists of four pups.

[00:06:49] So there's no parent there because the patriarch of that pack was killed or died as a result of some capture operations. I believe that was back in January. So, yeah. So there's a pack of wolves in Colorado. They're just pups. But it seems like they're old enough to survive. I mean, we had the one pup that survived that first winter just on its own when it wasn't captured previously. The saga must go on. The saga goes on.

[00:07:19] But that's enough wolf news. What else we got here? You got some news about the Blue Lakes. That's right. One of the most beautiful places in Colorado. Yeah, we've kind of been updating folks here and there as the process plays out at Blue Lakes. Definitely, yeah. One of the most iconic outdoor sites in Southwest Colorado. You know, that chain of aqua-colored lakes up in Mount Sneffel's Wilderness outside Ridgway there.

[00:07:46] Yeah, people have been following along for the past several years now. Forest Service has been looking to address overcrowding there and what's reported to be, you know, degradation in that environment. Loss of vegetation and threats to wildlife and water quality and just the overall wilderness essence of that place that has to be maintained under the Wilderness Act of 1964, right?

[00:08:16] So, hence the Forest Service trying to kind of address that situation. And as we've talked about before, the way to supposedly do that is by capping numbers allowed in there. Going back to 2021, there was a study that found, I think it was like an average of 164 hikers a day. As many as like 500 a day going up to Blue Lakes.

[00:08:43] Emphasis on that was in 2021 is my understanding. And we all know that's when record absurd numbers of visitation was happening across Colorado's outdoors. It kind of had people panicking or at least wild. Yeah, yeah. What am I looking for here? Outdoor recreation managers panicking. Land managers. Land managers, yeah. Land managers, it was just like, boom, what do we do about all this? Yeah, does this keep increasing like that, you know? And at least elsewhere, we've seen indications of numbers, you know, dropping off.

[00:09:12] And also some spots peeling back some of those strategies that were put in place to help manage crowds as well. Nonetheless, Forest Service has pushed on with this Blue Lakes Visitor Use Management Plan, as it's officially called. And yeah, they just recently announced what it's been known that how do you cap those numbers? We're going to institute permits and fees booked in advance to cap numbers.

[00:09:38] That plan, that visitor use management plan envisioned like hikers down to 40 a day and overnighters down to 24 a day. Yeah, significant. And how are they planning to do that? By instituting a permit system booked in advance, right? So we finally have those numbers, what those numbers are going to look like. I'm kind of burying the lead here. But just to catch people up.

[00:10:01] So yeah, what the proposal is for hikers, five bucks a day at another dollar to book that on recreation.gov, that processing fee. And then for overnighting campsites, looks like they're going to be 25 bucks at six bucks for the processing fee, is my understanding, on recreation.gov for that. So maybe fees that people would maybe expect at such sites.

[00:10:28] But nonetheless, yeah, Blue Lakes is kind of the next site to be subject to management like this. Other wilderness examples are Maroon Bells Snowmass, where we see permits in place for, especially for like campsites across there. Or closer to the Front Range, Indian Peaks Wilderness, you know, there's timed entry reservations for some very popular trailheads accessing Indian Peaks Wilderness, along with camping permits in that wilderness.

[00:10:57] So Blue Lakes would kind of be the next example of that management. Nice. Yeah, a little bit more pay to play, but sounds like it's needed to help protect that area. And for people just listening, we'll get some Blue Lakes photos on here. But it is absolutely stunning. Lives up to the name Blue Lakes. Bit on my list. Yeah, bit on my list. And you can do it, though it should be said, those fees would not go, if approved, would not go into effect until next year, next summer.

[00:11:24] And it would apply for June through September, is my understanding. So it's open now. People, if they've been before and haven't been in a while, sounds like they'll find a revamped parking lot there. That was kind of the focus of last summer when the trail was closed for some work in advance of this plan. So they revamped that parking lot. And my understanding is they went back and did a lot of vegetation restoration.

[00:11:51] You're going to see kind of blocked off areas that are regrowing, essentially. And they really took a look at how to establish camping. So if people didn't tune in last time we talked about this, they need to be aware. Overnight dispersed camping is only going to be allowed around the lower lake, not the middle and upper lakes, as the Forest Service previously announced.

[00:12:15] And there's some other rules and regulations that people should be aware of before visiting there this summer. So just a PSA there. Yeah, nice little PSA. Also looking ahead to this summer, I guess it's not quite summer yet. You see two ski resorts are starting to, or I guess I should say two ski areas. We'll say one ski area and one ski resort. Actually none.

[00:12:43] So one ski area and one ski resort are going to be offering skiing here in June. Oh. Yeah, reopening some of that access. A Bay? So not a basin. Copper Mountain. Talking about Woodward? Yeah, so Copper Mountain. Does that count? Don't they always do Woodward? They always do. They always do, but I didn't realize how big it was. So Copper Mountain, here on June 5th, they will start their season for their summer hike park,

[00:13:13] which is hosted by Woodward, famous training facility where you can find the Woodward Barn at Copper Mountain. It's four acres of snow though. And you look at some of the photos and it's pretty, I mean, it looks sizable. Yeah. They basically, they use a lot of the snow from their 22 foot super pipe, right? And they reallocate that so that they can have this hike park. It's a terrain park. There's a lot of rails that people can hit. So yeah, I mean, pretty cool stuff.

[00:13:40] They're doing summer camp there for, and one week of the summer camp is dedicated to adults out of the nine weeks. It's 25 bucks for a day pass. So not, you know, too, not too much money there. Pretty affordable. It's operational Thursdays through Sundays. Last year, they closed it in September eventually. So pretty cool stuff there. The one that was maybe more surprising to me though, Kichara Mountain Park. What?

[00:14:07] Yeah, they will be opening up for a weekend of snow sports. Really? That weekend will be hike to skiing on June 12th and 13th. So that's a Friday and Saturday with potential for some festivities on Sunday. They have snow? They have snow. They have, if you look at the photo that they posted online, it's kind of like this little patch of like tarped off snow. What?

[00:14:32] They'll be doing, they're billing the event as the Kichara Mountain Park Summer Slush Slab. Yeah, it's a $10 fee on Friday and a $20 fee for a Saturday competition that will be taking place. That's a good way for young upstart Kichara to get some buzz around them in southern Colorado. That's what I was thinking too. You know, because what's been the big concern about Kichara? They're never going to have snow.

[00:15:00] And so in June, early in here, they can say in what was their first lift served? Yeah. Access winter, right? Yeah, a couple decades. They can say, hey, all you doubters, we got some snow in June. Yeah, and you look at the photo. A slab of snow. Not a lot of snow. It's not a lot of snow. It's a good marketing maneuver is what I'm saying. You know, and I think also for them, the other cool thing is it will kind of introduce people that come in for that. Yeah.

[00:15:28] Maybe to see their other summer activities that they've got going on. And there's definitely high hopes there. You know, I mean, it's easy to imagine at least lift serve mountain biking. I mean, that would be really huge. Yeah. And they've got disc golf, miniature golf, hiking, mountain biking, stargazing this summer. Yeah, that's right. Stargazing. So, yeah. I mean. And just Kichara. Check it out. I mean, an overlooked part of the state for sure, that Kichara Valley. Yeah, and skiing in an underserved part of the state. Yeah. As we've talked about. Yeah.

[00:15:58] Southern Colorado, kind of close to Trinidad and La Vida and Walsenberg. So, down in that area. But, yeah. So, there's two ski areas that are going to be having some skiing in June. So, interesting stuff. After the winter that never was, which had big ramifications for the start of rafting season. Yes. Tell us about that. Kind of thought that would be the segue there. Yeah.

[00:16:21] So, I called around to some, you know, enthusiasts, some boaters who've been, you know, kayaking, paddling, rafting Colorado for decades, along with some business owners and some outfitters just to kind of gauge how the whitewater season is shaking up here early on. Yeah. At the start of the season following, yeah, that historically low snowpack from the winter that never was, as people keep calling it.

[00:16:53] Yeah. And, you know, I'm kind of hearing some mix of grim reactions and the expected tone of hopefulness that you'd expect out of the industry trying to still entice customers while there is water, of course. Right? Right. Yeah. Customers are coming. Clients are going out on these rivers.

[00:17:20] But you hear about some of the numbers and you look at some of the photos and things seem pretty, pretty tough. Put it that way. Right. While giving, you know, that leeway to the industry, right, that knows how to adjust in years like this, right?

[00:17:45] You hear that messaging, you know, they've been able to, especially along the Arkansas River, the most rafted river in America, right? Mm-hmm. Um, there's been a lot of organization along that river for decades allowing for adjustments, right? Certain stretches that work in better in low water years, um, coordination that happens for sure. Also the use of more kayaks, maybe the fewer people in the rafts. I'm hearing about that. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:18:13] You know, this is kind of the year where they're, they're looking to smaller boats and maybe people who've been wanting to learn how to kayak, you know, this could be like a summer for that. Right. So certainly that kind of messaging is out there. Um, and lessons learned from such years as 2002, 2012. I've heard kind of 2018 too, that people point to.

[00:18:34] Um, but nonetheless, uh, we are talking about, uh, a march, the, the hottest march on record in Colorado that in some parts of the state sent this astonishingly early peak runoff to some stretches of rivers and creeks around the state. Um, in May, you know, May came with a nice boost with some sudden snow again, uh, with some rain. Right. And that's another part of hopes out there.

[00:19:03] Just to make that clear, this super El Nino that's forecast, you know, there's a lot of hope that that can fuel these rivers, um, longer into the summer. But as things stand right now, I mean, put it this way. I talked to a guy, I know a kayaker, um, in Salida, who's been paddling the Arkansas for 30 plus years now. And he told me he went on a recent run and it was like paddling in October. Dang.

[00:19:33] And we're at the start of June when things should be, should be, uh, should be higher, much higher. Right. He was looking at, and his stretch of the Arkansas river that he goes, you know, he was looking at around 350 cubic feet per second CFS for people that don't know. It's kind of the measurement for how, how flows are coming in. And, um, you know, there's years where he expects that to be closer to like 3000 right now. Jeez.

[00:19:58] I mean, yeah, it was, we were there two years ago and Arkansas was around, yeah, 3,200, I think. And yeah, it was, it would have been a June trip if I remember. So it's 350 right now. I mean, again, sometimes numbers speak for themselves. I talked to another, uh, kayaker I know in golden, right. Who has some go-to stretches along clear Creek. And, um, you know, there again, he was looking at, uh, recently around like 230 CFS where you'd otherwise be hoping for something closer to a thousand.

[00:20:28] Right. This time of year. Um, so it begs, again, it begs that question of, are these waterways going to last? Are we going to get a season, a full season here? You know, these outfitters hope to get into Labor Day and on, um, again, there, there's, there's big hope for this super El Nino. That's in the four that's been predicted and forecasted and what that could mean for Colorado in terms of, uh, rain that continues to boost these waterways. That's the best hope.

[00:20:56] It sounds like right now, you know, um, on the Arkansas again, being the most rafted, uh, um, river in America that prompted, uh, years ago back in like the nineties, this, um, really innovative, uh, regime. What's called this, the voluntary flow program.

[00:21:17] I want to say, where regulators release water from twin lakes down to Pueblo to boost water levels through July into August there for that, for that river, for that economy. Right. Uh, that rafting is so important to the Arkansas river Valley. Um, that is not expected this year as you've heard. Yeah. That's what Bob, Bob Hamill was talking about. Yeah. Not expected.

[00:21:41] Um, not expected for priorities going to agricultural and municipal and, you know, recreation types I talked to sounded really understanding of that. Right. In a lean year, there's gotta be priority priorities and, uh, agriculture and municipalities, uh, over recreation. You know, people can understand that, but nonetheless, the way, uh, I heard it from one guy was like, especially after winter, um, where, um, business was down with lower skier traffic and no snow.

[00:22:09] So, you know, hearing that news about those flows, not coming to the rescue was kind of like, as he put it at the next stage of grief, you know? And he's like, right now we're like in whatever that acceptance stages. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:22:51] Typical peak. Uh, the creek stops flowing, uh, 1.5 miles from the parking lot. So significant. I don't know if that's changed in the last week or so, but unlikely it's changed much. I would imagine. Uh, the snow is totally gone pretty much from all those mountains there. Yeah. Um, yeah. Interesting. Scary stuff, man. Yeah.

[00:23:12] I mean, I would say like, uh, there's the other, there's the other consideration when we're talking about like river economies, uh, considerations like fire, right? Yeah. You know, people really obviously hope against wildfire. No one wants to be rafting when there's smoke in the air. Um, the other consideration of that is like the broader economy, the economic landscape. Right.

[00:23:32] And, um, I was looking back at the industries, the state industries latest posted, um, annual report that, um, that, um, puts out user days, essentially the number of commercial, um, rafters coming on a year and the economic impact of that.

[00:23:51] And for the latest posted report from 2024, um, it cited, um, user days being down in that continuing this downward trend that's really happened since after COVID. Right. When we saw record levels on the rivers in 2021, saw record numbers of people everywhere in the outdoors. Right. Um, for the rafting industry, those numbers have gone down since then.

[00:24:14] And last year, um, according again to the state industry tracking this stuff, those numbers were the lowest they've been since 2013. Dang. And, um, the industry pointed to the overall economic landscape, right. Where discretionary spending might not be as high or at least spending toward, um, rafting trips, evidently not being that high, um, pointed to other circumstances where costs for these outfitters are, are, are just higher. Yeah.

[00:24:43] Costs for everyone are higher and costs for these outfitters are higher. Um, wages, gas, insurance. Boat costs more. Boat costs more. Yeah. You know, um, supplies, um, vehicles, right. Everything. So what is the impact of that is having to raise prices. Yeah. And when that happens, according to the industry, people aren't booking as much. So, um, maybe there's a message there to support, um, support this industry some, right. Yeah.

[00:25:11] If you really value what it means to Colorado's economy. Yeah. And also maybe this is a year again, harkening back to the economic landscape. Maybe you're not going on, uh, vacations abroad, but maybe you're doing staycations. Yeah. In Colorado. Mm-hmm. Um, going to some of these river towns, you know, supporting these river towns. Yeah. Seems like as good a summer to do that. Yeah. You think about places like Salida where the, uh, Monarch Mountain getting hurt by the dry winter, I would imagine visitation down there. Yeah.

[00:25:41] And then turn around their river town in the summer and get hurt by the low flows. Um, yeah. Yeah. To kind of switch topics here. I debated including this on the show cause it is very sad news. Um, but, uh, I think it makes sense from a safety messaging standpoint, just with, with camping season ahead. Um, but did you see the story about the four year old who died up in Boulder County on a camping trip? I did not.

[00:26:08] So essentially what happened, um, this, uh, this all happened on, on June 2nd. Uh, but this little boy, uh, four years old was swept away in the flow of South St. Vrain. So kind of by the town of Lyons, uh, his family was camping nearby. Once this happened, um, there was no cell phone reception. So the family was unable to kind of immediately make a call.

[00:26:34] They ended up having to flag down a passerby in a vehicle drive to somewhere where they could, could make that call. Um, yeah, the boy was, uh, or I guess that, that call went out around 5 30 PM. Uh, the boy was ultimately found in critical condition about one and a half miles downstream around 7 PM, uh, late taken to a hospital and later pronounced deceased. So very scary situation.

[00:27:01] Um, especially for all the parents out there, but just a reminder when you're camping, you know, uh, just be, be highly aware of, of where those hazards are at and keep the little ones close. Water's lower, but still flowing. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, hate to say it, but we'll, you know, we hear about water deaths in Colorado throughout the year. So even with water being down, like we just talked about, it still poses a lot of danger. Yeah.

[00:27:26] And there was another, uh, 13 person rescue that took place up at, uh, Reuter Hess reservoir. I want to say it's out there along, uh, by Parker there, right? By 70. Yeah. Yeah. By Parker. Uh, 13 people rescued 11 juveniles in that group with two supervised, uh, supervising adults. As far as I understood, uh, winds knocked them into the water. Uh, thankfully they all have life jackets on that were well fitted and, uh, they all were fine, but hypothermia is still a risk even on a sunny day, right? Don't be fooled. Yeah.

[00:27:55] Cold water shock is a thing in Colorado, um, without life jackets. I mean, you're potentially looking at everyone dying in that scenario just because of that cold water shock and how immobilizing it is. Yeah. Good messaging as part of the life, as part of the life jacket requirements out there. I don't think people realize that, uh, that layer of it, the hypothermic. Yeah. Why, you know, people are like, I'll just swim. I'll just stay swimming. You might not be able to. Yeah. And also, I mean, that's why it's important not to just, if you're paddle boarding, for example,

[00:28:22] like paddle boarding, people tend to take their life jacket off. Right. And, uh, you shouldn't do that. Um, don't just have it sitting there because if a wind gust knocks you off, it often creates a pretty decent separation between you and your paddle board pretty quickly. And if your life jacket's on the paddle board, you know, you might just be sitting there in the water. And I mean, you see those cold water shock deaths happen year round in Colorado. It's not like, uh, eventually July hits and the water is just warm enough.

[00:28:49] It's something like if the water is colder than like 78 degrees or something like that, um, it's potential or has potential for that. Don't quote me on that number, but I believe that's, that's roughly where it is, uh, according to some reports. So yeah, uh, water seasons ahead of us, wear those life jackets. Um, how about this one? Here's, this is a, this is a happy story. You see the news about the million dollar bike park that just opened up in Frazier. I did hear about that. Yeah, man. It looks really cool. Yeah.

[00:29:17] And we've talked a lot about like where are the best mountain biking places in Colorado. We kind of left Grand County off the list and I feel bad about it. You know, winter park. Yeah. Trestle park in the summer, which is, I mean, one of the best downhill mountain biking parks in the country. You've also got Granby ranch, which they have their downhill park, but they also have lift accessible, like normal trails kind of off the backside of that, that ski area.

[00:29:43] Um, and now you've got this, this million dollar bike park when you're looking at it's right by a lake, right by us 40, um, as you're going through Frazier and, uh, yeah, has a pump track, has a few little jump lines. It's free to visit. Um, I imagine the, the local people in that area are so excited about how this park and the skills they can kind of hone here will translate to Trestle park and Granby. Sure. Good for kids. Yeah. Right. Has some BMX kind of flair to it. Right. Yeah. These kinds of parks I hear about.

[00:30:13] Yeah. That pump track area for sure. And I mean, yeah, you're looking at the jumps. You can, that was always the thing too. Like I've spent a lot of time biking, but I've never really like mastered mountain biking at all. Like I'm still very much so like intermediate amount of biking. Um, and whenever I go to a place like Trestle park, I find myself very hesitant about some of the features they have, whether you're talking about the big berm turns or you're talking about like the wooden planks where you fly across the little bridges or, or, um, even just like the jumps and stuff.

[00:30:42] A spot like this is perfect for comfortable getting comfortable. Yeah. Yeah. Instead of trying to figure that out when you're, you know, in a higher risk scenario. So very exciting stuff for them in Grand County. Also, I mean, you got to remember Grand County has so much single track too, uh, which I think is tends to get overlooked or overshadowed maybe by the presence of Trestle. But, um, that's a spot where, where people mountain biking need to pop up there and then,

[00:31:09] you know, maybe pop by Idaho Springs on the way, uh, back to the front range if they're headed that direction. But, um, you could do a whole mountain biking weekend out there. Yeah. Thanks for Grand County there. Yeah. I had a great time at, uh, Granby Ranch too. That's a spot where you don't really get much, you don't get much talk about Granby Ranch. Yeah. For a place that's gotta be focused on the summer and what can happen in the summer, mountain biking being one of those things. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, uh, I've been up there twice. I've been up there one time biking, one time skiing. I've never been there. Had fun both times. It's beautiful up there, man.

[00:31:39] Uh, right there by kind of the same area of Devil's Thumb Ranch. Mm-hmm. Um, little dude ranch, uh, out there. But yeah, I, I had a really good time biking. Um, I did half the day downhill and at Granby and then half the day just on a normal mountain bike and, uh, had a really good time on the normal mountain bike, just on some of the trails that are lift accessible and, uh, just very beautiful. Like it's, I don't understand why, why Granby isn't on more people's radar, but it should be.

[00:32:06] Probably because it's a ski area and, um, it's, that's more of a family friendly ski area, right? Yeah. It's not, it's, it's, it's probably, it's probably hiding out in the shadow of Winter Park, right? I mean, a major ski destination. Mm-hmm. Whereas, um, Granby Ranch is more of the family one and kind of divided into two mountains, right? Like two kind of. Oh man, it's been a few years. I'm trying to remember that ski map. Yeah. It's something like that. I feel like East and West, you can sort of picture those. Yeah. I'm trying to. Hills in my mind. I'm trying to remember. But, um.

[00:32:36] Yeah. I mean. Ski terrain that is. Yeah. The downhill park too. I mean, there's definitely some pretty intense stuff at their downhill park. Mm-hmm. I will say. Mm-hmm. Don't want to get one of those. But, um, standard mountain biking. The trails are fun. Mm-hmm. Um. Yeah. Exciting stuff. Yeah. Just for Grand County in general. Yeah.

[00:33:05] A little, cool little mountain biking hub in Colorado. It's a great part of the state. And then keep going up or down the road to, uh, Hot Sulphur Spring. Oh, yes. Well, I said there's no Hot Springs destination quite like Hot Sulphur Springs. Mm-hmm. And, and the way that it feels like, it feels like what Colorado probably was in, like the 60s and 70s. Mm-hmm. Like still trapped in that time. You know? Yeah. Like. Like untamed. Right?

[00:33:34] Well, and the thing that I like about it too is you kind of have those, the cloudy waters that you see when you see people take their trip to, what is it, like Iceland or whatever, where they have like the famously like, like pale blue water. Hot Sulphur Springs has that. Right. Which is very cool. Right. People unfamiliar, this is the name of the town that we're talking about. But man, when I remember. Oh, I was talking about the Hot Springs. Well, yeah. No, for sure. The Hot Springs, for sure. The name of the town too. The town is built on the Hot Springs. Right. We're talking about the same thing, for sure.

[00:34:04] But man, it like hardly feels like a town. I don't, I don't know if there was a restaurant open when I was there. You know? I think there's a gas station. I've been into the little museum there, believe it or not. Mm-hmm. But yeah, just a small little community that people often just keep driving, it seems like, driving past. But yeah, Hot Springs, it's nice to just go dip in there, kind of along the hillside there. There's a variety of pools and there's overnight options. And yeah, maybe put a Hot Sulphur Springs on your list this summer.

[00:34:34] It's a funky place. To quote reporting that you've done on Hot Sulphur Springs, the Mineral Springs are said to rise 35,000 feet from underground, feeding the resorts 21 pools and baths, which sit at temperatures between 95 and 112 degrees. 112 degrees is hot. That's a very hot pool. That's a steamy dip. That's a lobster pot, as some call them. Yeah. That's, I don't know if I've ever been to a hot spring where the pool's 112 degrees before. I think I have, man. Maybe there. Yeah, probably there. It sounds like there.

[00:35:03] Yeah. Cool stuff. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think we've covered a lot of this stuff today. Giving the people what they want, what they need. Yeah, we've covered a lot of topics here. We'll save the two more so evergreen ones for next week. That's what I figured. Oh, I did want to mention real quick, the first West Nile virus case of the season has happened in Colorado. You're going to end it on West Nile virus? Safety PSA. Yeah. Killed 18 people in Colorado last year. Right.

[00:35:32] Colorado's one of the worst states in the country. I believe last year it was the worst state in the country for West Nile virus. People don't think about it because we don't have mosquitoes. But according to a report from Nine News, they linked up with an expert. Apparently, a bad mosquito season is ahead because of the mild winter. So protect yourself. Yeah. Don't get West Nile virus. When you're around muggy areas. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So there's your little PSA to end the day. All right. Yeah. We'll see you next week. Until next time, I'm Spencer. I'm Seth.

[00:36:03] Yeah. Keep getting out there. Yeah. We'll see you out there. I messed it up. I'm here to the rescue, man. Keep getting out there. Keep getting out there.