Fatal fall on 14er; Lightning hits golfer and starts fire; Two waterfalls to visit; Spencer's paragliding experience; & More

[00:00:06] Welcome to another episode of the The OutThere Colorado Podcast. Once again, I'm Spencer here with Seth. Hello. Once again, we've got Tim over there on the video and the audio for today. And once again, we've got a lot of interesting Colorado things to talk about. Always, man. Gonna talk about some more bucket list stuff. Some good, some bad, some ugly. Yeah. Because fires. Yeah, right. Yeah. Which I guess we just let's just roll into fires first and get it out of the way. All these fires. I mean, it's wild. I'm tracking it.

[00:00:36] There's only nine of them right now that are just burning around the state. Scary stuff, you know, obviously. I mean, it goes without saying. Obviously, you've got this, the Gold Mountain Fire at Inure, which the videos of that and just the contrast between the town of Inure, which is at this time not really threatened. I don't think they're even under a pre-evacuation or anything like that. But this fire burning up on the hillside above that and just putting out all that smoke.

[00:01:07] Yeah, it's about 15,000 acres now. So it's grown pretty consistently over the last few days. Pushed into the Cow Creek drainage area. A lot of people were, I don't know how many people, but people that were recreating over there and also dispersed campers that were recreating were evacuated. And also evacuations in the Silver Jack and West Fork areas of the Cimarron drainage area. That's a beautiful area. That's really sad to see that being in the crosshairs from the looks of it.

[00:01:36] Yeah. So we'll see how that. Well, not knowing exactly. Yeah. From the map, you know, it kind of looks like it's in that general area. Yeah. And right now, from what I've seen is structure and protection is pretty much the top priority. So obviously, town of Inure is right there. So that's important to protect. I mean, another public place, you know, when we talk about being worried about places, there's this absolutely required context of people are losing homes. Yes.

[00:02:06] As we speak, right? Especially down south around Pueblo. I was going to say, though, in terms of public places, I'm really worried about that Pueblo Mountain Park, too. Close to Beulah, that really looks like it's in the crosshairs of that fire. And that is a really amazing place back there with a lot of great history as well. Yeah. Yeah. Seth's talking about the Aspen Acres fire. Yep. Which we're filming this in Colorado Springs. So people in Colorado Springs definitely seem to be pretty focused on what's happening down there right now.

[00:02:35] The latest report I saw, and it might even be updated already, but 28,000 acres, a little bit over that. They expected that number to grow because there was some unexpected growth last night. We're recording this on Wednesday, July 1st. All these numbers, obviously, are subject to change. I think most concerning there, though, you referenced homes being lost.

[00:02:58] Officials have said that at least 100 structures have been damaged by that blaze, and that includes the Horseshoe Lodge and Retreat Center in Beulah. Lives are changing. Yeah. Yeah, it's scary stuff. I mean, most of the other fires are smaller and starting to get some containment there. Snyder Fire is obviously still problematic as well. The largest fire in Colorado. Technically, part of that's in Utah. Crossing the Utah. Yeah, yeah. But over 30,000 acres.

[00:03:27] Yeah, also the Ferris Fire, 23,000 acres down there. Scary, scary. In a pretty remote area. If I may, I think I'm just going to echo a lot of officials that you're hearing right now going into July 4th. Said it Monday, I'll say it again. Probably just keep saying it. Be smart, people. Yeah. Be smart. We are talking about, again, like we've said in the case of the Snyder Fire, lives lost. Yeah. Firefighters' lives lost. Homes being lost.

[00:03:54] Be aware of any spark that you might cause. These being the potential consequences of that going into this holiday weekend. And it doesn't take much. Please, please, please. Lakewood actually just kind of dodged a bullet, so to speak, yesterday with a quick response to a fire. A lightning. A lightning. At a golf course, yeah. A golfer got struck by lightning. At Fox Hollow Golf Course. Do we know if the golfer's okay? They're hospitalized. Yeah.

[00:04:20] But aside from that, they haven't said anything else about the status of the golfer. That is bizarre. But struck by lightning. The lightning sparked a wildfire kind of in the rough of the course, right? Which is intentionally kind of like rugged by design, you know. But it ended up burning about two acres. They got it contained quickly. Yeah. Quick access to that. But yeah, that was a weird one. Yeah. Good example. It doesn't take much. Doesn't take much. Yeah. From nature or man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:04:47] Like we've also said, Spence, like it's kind of starting to be that summer that we all feared in terms of wildfires. So you got to be hypervigilant people. It was getting smoky down here yesterday, man. Yeah. Looking outside. Couldn't see the mountains. I can usually see the mountains from my house. It was weird how, I don't know if you had the same experience on your side of town, but like five, it was crazy smoky, crazy awful. And I thought it was how it's going to be for a while. And then like six or seven. It cleared up. Lifted away. Yeah. Just how the wind blows and doesn't blow.

[00:05:18] It's weird. Around that time, my buddy up in Woodland Park was like, oh, it's getting smoky now. So I think it kind of maybe shifted toward that area maybe. But it was literally as it started clearing up in the springs, he was saying it was getting smoky in Woodland. Really weird. Very weird. Yeah. Another weird update you're going to talk about. Right? Or maybe not. There definitely, there is, so there is an interesting. Didn't know if I teed you up there or not. Yeah.

[00:05:47] We'll get into that here in a little bit. One thing that I did want to talk about first though. Yeah. Definitely not a weird update. A very sad situation. Tragic situation. Um, but another death has occurred on one of Colorado's 14ers. Little Bear Peak. Right? Um, it's a, it's a 14,041 foot peak down the Sangre de Cristo range. Absolutely notorious among the state's 14ers as one of the most technical climbs.

[00:06:13] Uh, there's no route to the top that is easier or safer than a class four route, uh, known for that hourglass feature, which is the standard route. This is, this incident, however, uh, took place on the West Ridge indirect route. So the hourglass has a ton of rockfall risk in it and it's also exposed. Um, what some people do, not most, but what some people do is they opt to take this West Ridge indirect route, which means less rockfall risk, but a lot more exposure.

[00:06:43] During this, this relatively brief, uh, stretch of, of that crux of the route. Um, but yeah, like I was saying, unfortunately, uh, on June 27th, this crux of that route, uh, proved to be fatal. Um, this is from, uh, Alamos, a volunteer search and rescue and, uh, their report on this matter.

[00:07:04] Essentially a climber was on that West Ridge indirect route, uh, with a climbing party, uh, when a rock dislodged from the crux section that was exposed and he fell, um, ultimately would succumb to his wounds, uh, that were said to be severe. And, um, yeah, I mean, just a, all around tragic situation. Uh, three different helicopters were involved in the air and the response. I thought that was kind of a, uh, interesting takeaway.

[00:07:34] Um, and they were responding amid like 60 mile per hour winds. Wow. So difficult situation to get these helicopters in there. Um, essentially they dropped some hikers off that were able to get up to that, that climbing party, drop them off in the Tobin basin area.

[00:07:49] Um, and then after that, uh, a hoist team with the, uh, Colorado national guard or Colorado army national guard, um, came in and they were able to drop people directly there and package that climber up and transport him to the Lake Como helipad, uh, where he was met with another helicopter. That was a medical helicopter. Um, they, they attempted intensive life-saving measures is what they said, uh, but those were tragically unsuccessful.

[00:08:17] So, um, yeah, I mean, it's a, it's a dangerous peak. And I mean, it's another one of those cases where it's just, even when you're as prepared or as experienced as you are, you know, things like that can go wrong. A rock can dislodge. Uh, so just always something to keep in mind. Um, then there's honestly, I mean, there's not, if you're on that route, there's probably not much you can do to prevent that. Yeah. You're taking, taking that inherent risk. So we've had other fatalities on the 14ers. Yeah. There was one other fatality.

[00:08:47] Um, on snaffles. Okay. Yeah. It was, it was a, uh, a trail runner, uh, said to be very experienced as well. Yeah. Training and fell in scree and, um, ultimately died from that fall. So that's right. Um, yeah. That's one of those couple bad reminders with, what those 14ers pose in the state. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, you always hear it said, said like there's no safe 14 or right. Yeah. Something to keep in mind. Things can always go wrong. Um, yeah.

[00:09:14] Kind of similar to that other story we were talking about the other day, uh, where the man was crushed by a boulder, not on 14er, but crushed by a boulder. Just another example of how rocks can fall. Things can go wrong. And that's an unpredictable nature up there. Yeah. So, uh, either way though, um, some pretty, pretty, uh, major news out of the Sangre de Cristo Christos there. So something to, um, you know, just keep in mind, just be aware of the risks and, um,

[00:09:43] if you're taking them on, you know, you, you have that choice and you have that option to take them on. Um, but those risks are always there. So. Yeah. I've been thinking about, um, you know, maybe this being a more busy season on the 14ers with the winter that never really was the spring that never really was. And, you know, here we are with all this smoke in the air, man. I mean, you know, people got to do a lung check, I think before they take on a lot of these 14ers right now. Yeah.

[00:10:09] Well, and I think too, just in, in regard to how busy it could be, um, what also tends to happen when smoke is in the air is people get pushed to areas where there's not smoke in the air. Um, so if there are areas, which, um, I think it may have changed a little bit in recent days, but like the San Francisco's, for example, they were, they were relatively smoke-free compared to some of those mountains that were up in, up in the, uh, like being a Vista area by, uh, up in Lake County, uh, by that, the fire that's burning there by Leadville.

[00:10:39] Um, so, I mean, you got to think on these crowded weekends, people have instead of 58, 14ers to pick from, maybe they have 30 or maybe they have less than that, probably going to mean more traffic on some of those peaks. So, yeah. Um, and I mean, like you said, the snow, like I remember years when there would still be snow on the trail, like going into July, like in like that first week of July and stuff. And I mean, the snow has been gone for a couple of weeks now for the most part.

[00:11:06] Like it's, uh, pretty, um, you would probably not expect to see any snow. Right. Um, really starting mid June this year, but yeah. Um, crazy. So you have an update out of Boulder County and this is something we've talked about quite a bit, uh, speaking of things like crowding and just more people hitting the trails and how places can even try to manage these crowds. Boulder County had an interesting proposal that I, I honestly, I found it kind of, I was a little

[00:11:36] skeptical of it. I think when I heard about it for the first time, um, would you mind explaining what that proposal was and then just kind of giving us that update? Yeah. You are not alone in your skepticism. Uh, I think other people would describe their feeling as, uh, mad, right? Uh, so this proposal really stirred up some emotions and around Boulder and, uh, especially

[00:12:00] for mountain bikers who are familiar with, um, Batasso preserve, which is managed by Boulder County where Boulder County describes, um, what, what goes on there as alternating use, meaning hikers, people on horse, um, can go use these trails any day of the week, anytime, or, you know, between the hours that it's open. Um, but, uh, bikes are banned, uh, I think Wednesdays and Saturdays there.

[00:12:29] So when this was floated by the County, um, alternating use pilot program, a lot of minds went to an expansion of those rules coming to other, um, open spaces in the system. Right. So, um, yeah, the County went about a survey and open houses in recent months, um, gauging feelings on this.

[00:12:54] And it really, I think unearthed some simmering tensions around Boulder where on city managed trails, historically, they are largely, um, they largely restrict mountain bikers on city of Boulder trails. And so a lot of mountain bikers went into this feeling like here's another attempt at restrictions

[00:13:18] on Boulder County trails, uh, flash forward, uh, County commissioners recently heard some options presented by, um, parks officials. And, um, some would read the options as a, as a bit of a shift away from like these, um, bands on days that a lot of people had in mind. Uh, the proposals more so had to do with like, um, different directions, mandating directions for bikes.

[00:13:48] Interesting. Um, other options had to do with design, designating, um, certain trails for bikes and for hikers and certain days. Um, but the recommendation was actually one that was going to, um, dictate bikers go certain directions, uh, and then changing that direction by month while hikers and horseback riders could have their choice of directions all throughout. Right.

[00:14:17] So it was a bit of a shift from what I think a lot of people, at least me was expecting. Um, in the end, County commissioners, uh, declined to endorse any of these options and there will be no pilot program, um, regarding any alternate use or otherwise for mountain bikes. All right. In the way trails are shared up there. There we go. Um, yeah. Yeah. The, uh, the, there's some twists and turns in the process. Yeah.

[00:14:44] The directional thing is interesting cause it doesn't cut off access. Right. Right. Like you're still good to go. Uh, but that seems like an even greater maybe level of chaos. It causes like you show up and you're like, Oh, which way are we going? Yeah. Um, I guess that's maybe solved by a simple sign. It's just like bikers can only go this way this month. Yeah. I guess. So it has to be said, I mean, um, we're County commissioners, what they had to work with here

[00:15:09] was some data, uh, from this surveying, um, a lot of responses over 7,500 responses. Wow. Um, 74% of which opposed any kind of pilot program like this. Right. Um, when you drill down a little bit, it's a little interesting to think about, um, where these responses were mostly coming from.

[00:15:34] So 55% of those responses identified biking as their primary activity compared with 27% who identified hiking and walking as their primary. So one read of that is this was a survey dominated by mountain bikers who worried they were going to lose access. Yeah. Right. And how fair or not is this data? Uh, parks officials are even calling it, you know, it's not statistically representative of the broader community.

[00:16:03] Um, there still remain some points among, um, um, you know, certainly among one commissioner who really was seeking to explore this concept, um, because of what she has observed as declining hiking around some of these really popular trails in Boulder County. The way she put it was, you know, she knows hikers who have abandoned these trails, um, either perceiving

[00:16:30] or having stories of having issues with mountain bikers. Right. So these, this situation or these perceptions, what have you exists. And, you know, some would call this a real, a real issue, right? Like numbers are one thing, but if people have a feeling of not wanting to go to a trail because of some perceived risk or what have you, you know, that's a concern among these land managers. Right.

[00:16:59] And that's something they, they, they sought to maybe address with this. But like I said, it's also representative of not just Boulder, but I think you and I are talking about this because we've found it interesting in a broader context of how we share the trails or how we don't in this ever changing kind of recreation environment on the front range. Yeah. Most certainly. Yeah. Right. Um, and yeah, mountain biking use is growing as those price points become more doable as,

[00:17:28] uh, people increase their skills and bikes become, um, more capable. Right. There's a lot of interest for different kinds of trails and how we share those trails, I think is a conversation that's going to keep happening in Boulder and beyond. Well, and I think too, um, an interesting aspect is how e-bikes have flooded the mountain biking scene and, uh, how, I mean, first that probably encourages a lot of people who, um,

[00:17:57] maybe aren't as experienced with biking. It's going to get them further into the back country. It's going to get them up on more difficult trails potentially. And then on top of that, they're also dealing with a heavier bike that is maybe a little bit harder to control. Um, so I could see where you could have some safety issues there in that regard as well. But I think everyone that has hit any trail on the front range, regardless of whether you're

[00:18:21] on a bike on foot, whatever, you have an example of like a bad encounter you've had or like some level of like a, like, ah, I didn't really, that didn't settle well with me, you know, whether it's like me being, uh, me running, you know, like having bikers pop out of nowhere coming fast at me or something like that. Um, whereas on a mountain bike, like maybe you're going and like a horse, uh, is in the way and they're not, they're not moving. They're not cleaning up the horses poop and stuff.

[00:18:50] Like there's always little instances in counties. Yeah. It goes. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Um, yeah. And I think another part of this was, you know, there was past Boulder County surveying that showed like, you know, 4% of people who responded to this survey reported a conflict on the trail. So there were, there were also questions about this whole process. Like what's the point of this? What are we doing? Yeah. Right. And some people's mind went to, this is, this is bike hate, right? This is about bike hate.

[00:19:17] This is about a history of restrictions in this area spilling into this. Right. Um, that's not what officials would say, right? They would point back to people having real concerns again, perceived or not, um, that are keeping them away from these trails. Right. That's what they would say. But, um, yeah, to your point, I mean, my observation has been like e-bikes kind of are, are kind of bringing up a lot of these sentiments that you heard back in the eighties when mountain

[00:19:44] bikes were coming on the scene where there were people like really worried about what were mountain bikes going to mean to the trail environment. And now as e-bikes are increasing, I think people are kind of coming back to those sentiments of like, what are these, what does this mean for our landscape and my experience and all of our experiences? So yeah, it'll be something we keep talking about, I think for sure. But for now, the alternating use in Boulder County, uh, is at least at a standstill, not going anywhere. Yeah. All right. There we go. After much deliberation. Yeah, here we go.

[00:20:13] Um, so also out of Boulder County, uh, there was a violent robbery and assault that was reported on a very popular trail there. Uh, and right now they are looking for potential witnesses. So figured it would be worth mentioning. Um, essentially you have, uh, the suspect of this, uh, assault and robbery and his girlfriend on the trail. And then you also have the 73 year old man that would ultimately become the victim of this. And this is all just according to the Boulder County Sheriff's office.

[00:20:42] So, uh, all crimes are alleged, you know, um, uh, any, any charges from this would be, uh, innocent until proven guilty. Uh, but so this took place on June 29th on Boulder Creek trail, uh, kind of in the area of the 40,000 block of Boulder Canyon drive. Apparently the 73 year old man was walking or hiking along this trail. Um, and he asked this woman for a drag of her joint. Um, she allowed it.

[00:21:10] And then he reportedly gave that joint back to the woman and continued his hike. Later on, this suspect ended up, uh, confronting this man, um, on the trail and accusing him of stealing this girlfriend's joint. Uh, he then ultimately is said to have attacked the victim from behind, uh, causing him to lose consciousness. Uh, he, he woke up essentially, um, right when, uh, medical teams were arriving to take him to the hospital.

[00:21:37] Um, also woke up with his wallet, uh, his bank cards, his driver's license, cash all missing. Um, had some serious, uh, blunt force trauma injuries. So, uh, yeah, I mean, it's a wild trail encounter that seems to have taken place. Um, suspect was described in his late twenties, approximately five, six 130 pounds and muscular. So yeah, spoke, spoke with an unidentified accent as well.

[00:22:04] So, um, so yeah, people in that area, maybe if they saw something or something rings a bell, uh, might be good to contact the sheriff's office and help solve this case. But yeah, scary situation. Yeah. I hate to make any joke when someone's injured. Hope that, uh, hope that man's all right. But, uh, it occurs to me that some situations with a joint are chill and some situations are not. Yeah. Yeah. What the heck? Um, yeah.

[00:22:30] Sounds like, yeah, they thought this, this suspect thought he stole his drugs and this is what unfolded, but wow. Let's get into some bucket list stuff. Never know what you might find in the Colorado news cycle every day, huh? Yeah. Yeah. We'll try to bring you the most notable and most interesting stories. So hopefully, uh, you like what we pick, but let's get into some bucket list stuff. So we bring you some fun stuff too. Fun stuff, fun recommendations all around the state. It's becoming a weekly tradition. Yes. By now I hope people are coming back for this segment.

[00:23:00] Maybe, you know, I'm, I'm proud of these, these suggestions. Um, no better time for it. It's the summer. Yeah. As we've noted, I have a list of 102 things to do this summer. Seth has a list of 150 things to do this summer. We're just going back and forth telling you a few of our favorites. Uh, you want to kick us off Seth? Yeah. I'm thinking, um, I'm thinking Bridal Veil Falls. Hmm. The state's tallest free falling waterfall, right? What is it? 350 feet? 365 feet. 365 feet. 365 days of the year. Mm-hmm.

[00:23:29] Uh, it seems like a place, at least if you're in Telluride, you might just try to go there. 365 days of the year because it's just that beautiful, right? Absolutely beautiful. But guess what? I've never been. You've never been. How have I never been? That's been a telluride. Of course. How can you not go to Bridal Veil Falls if you get a telluride? It's literally like a five minute drive out of town. I'm always just on to other things. I always have other missions, I guess, when I'm in that part of the state, but gotta go see Bridal Veil Falls. That's shocking. That's shocking that you've been there. Well, I have a lot of shocking examples like that. What was I talking about last? St. Elmo.

[00:23:59] I've never been to St. Elmo. Yeah, but that's a little bit off the rip. Yeah. Like, I wonder what percent of people that have been to Telluride have also been to Bridal Veil Falls. Right. It's gotta be over 50%. To my credit, I think I've been to Telluride in that area, like maybe, I think I've been to Telluride proper like three times. Yeah. So that's not nearly enough times to be in Telluride for one thing, but I've been over three on getting to Bridal Veil Falls. Gotta change that. It is worth checking out. It's absolutely beautiful. You can kind of like feel the mist coming off the fall, you know, and there's that massive

[00:24:28] building up on top, or not massive building, but there's the powerhouse up on top too, which is definitely visible and notable. Like you can see it. Interesting history there. Yeah. One of the coolest views of Bridal Veil Falls, do the view for Ottoman. Going across that cliff side, you can see Bridal Veil Falls over in the distance. Very cool view. And you can see Black Bear Pass cutting up the mountainside. Well, and there's like, I think in recent years they built a new trail. Yes. Kind of toward the base of it or something like that? Yeah. It's a new way of seeing it.

[00:24:58] I think it's a trail that goes up to the base. Okay. I actually, I haven't seen it since they made that trail. So, but yeah, I think it's a trail that goes up to the base, I want to say. So yeah. Yeah. New way of seeing it. A little bit easier to get to maybe the different parking options and stuff. More of a, more of a excursion. Yeah. We could say. Because there's a hike involved. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Whenever we went, we just pulled off to the side of the road and you can see it right there. So. I never have. Shame on me. What are you up to? What do you got?

[00:25:25] So this is something that I did a long time ago in Colorado and it's not so much going to like a specific spot, but it's an activity that people should try. Paragliding. Oh. Go tandem paragliding. When I went, I did it in Glenwood Springs. Oh man. And it was absolutely awesome, man. Yeah. One of the coolest things I've ever done. It sounds like a dream. Every time I hear you talk about it. It still makes me smile, man. When I just, when I'm thinking about it. But yeah. I found a Groupon at the time. That was how we, how we did it.

[00:25:54] But yeah. Out in Glenwood Springs with all just the green lush mountain sides all around you. And a lot of people, maybe until they've gone paragliding, they don't realize that the way that paragliders tend to stay in the air and you can stay in the air from, you know, like the guy that was with us had gone from Glenwood Springs all the way to Pikes Peak on his paraglider. Holy cow. Which you're even gaining elevation, right? The way you stay in the air is that warm air rising up a hillside.

[00:26:22] So very similar to how like a bird floats. Yeah. And you literally feel like you're a bird just floating above the treetops. It's so cool. Yeah. I mean, it was, it's, it's fun. And as far as like what you're in, in these like tandem setups, like it's pretty comfortable too. Like you almost feel like you're on like a floating lawn chair maybe. And your feet, cause your feet go forward, right? Yeah. It feels like you're on like a floating lawn chair. More relaxing skydiving for sure.

[00:26:52] See, I had this look on my face like Spencer, no one's going to do that. Only you. So, okay. So, but there, it is approachable. So like you had a guide of some sort or. Same as like skydiving too. Like you're, you're, they're on your back essentially. And they're, they'll let you maybe do a few turns or whatever. I think we were in the air probably for like 10 or 15 minutes or something, maybe less than that. But how many companies will do that in Colorado? There's a lot. Are there? Yeah.

[00:27:20] You can find them pretty much in any, I don't want to say any major city, but like within a drive of any major city. Huh. Yeah. There was, I think there's an option golden that's pretty popular. I know there's some jumps over on a Vail pass area. Okay. I want to say somewhere over in that area, but yeah. In Glenwood. Yeah. In Glenwood. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. Definitely check that out.

[00:27:47] If you're looking to do something different, then like I said, it's not, it's not skydiving. Skydiving, you jump out of a plane. Mm-hmm. It's like, I couldn't even talk for like two hours after I went skydiving because my adrenaline was just like so through the roof. I don't like that. With this, it was not quite that same feeling where you might be airborne. You might be using a parachute in a sense, right? Mm-hmm. But it's not, it's more of a relaxing experience.

[00:28:24] Mm-hmm. Like you and I are talking about, but still outdoors and probably the most beautiful zoo in America. Yeah. Can I make that argument? Uh, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. And I guess I'm bringing it up because this summer they're celebrating a hundred years. So maybe, maybe there's no better time to go check out the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, especially once they open up this new, uh, giraffe center. Mm-hmm. Right?

[00:28:51] So maybe people are familiar with how, um, people have been able to feed giraffes from their hands, you know, with lettuce. Mm-hmm. Um, that's about to change in like, um, in a pretty cool way. Like you can feed them from different elevations now. That's cool. In this new center that's going to open. That's cool. So be on the lookout for that. I don't know when they're going to open, but that's slated to open at some point this summer. And yeah, just, uh, you're on the side of a mountain. Yeah. On a zoo.

[00:29:17] I mean, it's a pretty neat way to go to a zoo, you know? They have the little wallaby section where the wallaby is kind of hop around. I think that's my favorite, favorite part aside from the giraffe feeding. Giraffe. Um, which will be really cool. Cause like right now, yeah, you're feeding them like head level where they kind of reach up and are at that, or previously feed them head level where they reach up over that, that handrail. Kind of nose to nose. Yeah. Kind of nose to nose.

[00:29:44] It would be very cool to be like under a giraffe with how massive they are. Like that is probably more memorable than staring a giraffe right in the eye. I was, I was there when it's under construction. They were kind of showing me around and yeah, my understanding is like, you're going to have a chance to be toward their hoofs where, you know, there's a baby giraffe now and you might have a chance to feed a baby giraffe. Dang. You still have that classic face-to-face experience. And then there's like a little overhead bridge sort of thing where you can feed them from above. Yeah. They can reach up.

[00:30:14] That's so cool. So I think that could be a pretty neat experience. Also, while you're at the zoo, you got to check out the Shrine of the Sun. Yeah. A little tower up there where it comes with your zoo entrance, I believe. Does it? Or maybe it's Tacmon. Either way, it's worth checking out. You can only access it with a zoo admission though, because you have to go up the road that goes through the zoo and then you get up there. That's a cool place. It's a cool little tower. The Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, right? Yeah.

[00:30:42] Where is entombed Spencer Penrose, the man behind the zoo from a hundred years ago and also most famously the Broadmoor, right? He's the visionary behind the Broadmoor. Yeah. Man, I got a story on some crazy colorful history about that zoo. People can look that up. But with this guy, yeah, Spencer Penrose, I mean, he had an elephant on the golf course. He had sea lions in the lake there at the Broadmoor. That's wild. There's images of people on the little boats at the lake at the Broadmoor with sea lions

[00:31:12] coming up to say hi. There are monkeys too. There are monkeys walking around. There's a story about a monkey biting a kid's nose, I want to say. Dang. And prompting a lawsuit. Yeah. It's a colorful, wacky history. Anyway, if you want to check it out, it is free, but you do have to have access to the zoo to access the shrine. So yeah, 8,000 feet of elevation. Good view. Very good view from up there. It's kind of a wacky drive, right? It's like a little, it's a winding road, winding mountain road.

[00:31:41] I haven't been up there in forever. No one's flying down that mountain road though, but I mean, yeah, it is definitely like a winding road there. So very cool stuff though. So, and like I said, great views. You will get a workout while you're walking around the zoo too. You got to mention that because it is one of those things where there's so much elevation gain. It is a hike. Yeah. Yeah. I've gone with someone before and they've got an altitude sickness just from that, from that hiking. Yeah. So yeah. You know. Got one more? Yeah.

[00:32:11] I'll throw one more out here. Uh-huh. Um, I'm going to say Zapata Falls. We started with a waterfall, ended with a waterfall. Um, Zapata Falls right out there by the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Uh, there's a campground up there and this little like pretty, pretty chill hike, uh, takes you to this kind of this little slot canyon where these, these waterfalls come down. I think, I want to say there's two of them. Um, yeah, beautiful. And I mean, you're overlooking the entire San Luis Valley from, from up in that area too.

[00:32:41] You see the sand dunes in the distance during your drive. Um, and then visit the sand dunes, you know, you got to check it out as well. Um, I'll be curious to see what the visitation numbers are for the sand dunes this year with the lack of Madonna Creek. Yeah. Cause that, that was on my list. And then it didn't. Yeah. I mean, that's their busiest time of the year. For sure. Yeah. I'm glad you mentioned that. Some people overlook the pot of falls. Yeah. Just are making a beeline for the dunes. Yeah. So go, go support that part of the state. Cause they are probably, they are probably lacking some visitors this year.

[00:33:11] San Luis Valley. Um, but yeah, go check out the sand dunes. Check out the pot of falls. Cool. Uh, wear sturdy shoes. I would recommend, this is one where I'd say wear your Chacos because there's a part. Yeah. There's a part of the hike where to really see the falls, you got to go through some water. Who knows what that water flow looks like this year? You know? Um, I, I have no clue how, how that's doing, but dude, I think it's hilarious. So you say like, you want to wear your Chacos. Like in Colorado, we just assume everyone has Chacos, you know?

[00:33:39] Well, so the reason I mentioned it right is because I don't know if I'd wear Chacos at Great Sand Dunes. Sand gets too hot. It goes over your toes. You're going to, you might get like blisters from how hot that sand gets, especially during the summer. Yeah. So bring two pairs of shoes for this trip. That's right. And it's always a trip. Cause it's like, you know, it's hot and you don't want to wear boots, but like. You don't have to wear boots or sneakers. Wear your tennis shoes. Yeah.

[00:34:05] So that's a, that's a good little, uh, quick, quick reminder that we're doing this bucket list thing this summer. So four more things for you to add. I think we had four last episode and six episode before that and four more coming up. Uh, yeah, I think that's about all, all we got today though. Yeah. You good? All right. You good, bud. All right. Until next time. I'm Spencer. I'm Seth. We'll see you out there.