Hi, I’m Chip! My brother Chet was already travelling with one of his class friends, so I got to take a trip to Colorado with T and her family! We flew on a big jet to a place called Atlanta, which is in Georgia. I learned that is a state next to us in Florida. From there, we took another plane to Colorado. It was so far away, we had to set our watches back two hours because we got there before the sun did.
It was pretty cold in Colorado, partly because it is North of Florida, but also because it is at a higher elevation. Jacksonville is at sea level because it is right next to the ocean, but when we landed in Denver we were 5,280 feet – or a whole mile – above that. Thankfully I have a thick coat, and I really needed it for our first adventure: a visit to a town called Estes Park. Initially I thought we were going to play in a park, but that’s just the name of the town. It’s even higher (and colder) than Denver – 7,522 feet – because it is even closer to the Rocky Mountains. While at Estes Park, we saw wildlife just walking around the town! There were elk white-tailed deer and even bighorn sheep (though I thought they should have been called smallhorn sheep!)
Next to Estes Park is the Rocky Mountain National Park. Here we actually got to drive up into the mountains and saw snow flurries during the drive. T and I climbed up a rock at one of the scenic lookouts and with beautiful snow-capped mountains behind us. Unfortunately so much snow fell the previous day that they closed off part of the road for the rest of winter, but where the road ended we were at a place called Many Parks Curve at an elevation of 10,829 feet. The air was so thin up there, it was hard to catch my breath!
Near the end of the road were more scenic lookups and some signs that showed us what mountains we could see and T and I also read how the mountains and valleys were formed by large glaciers, which are solid blocks of ice, cutting through the land over many, many years The adventures of the day really tired out my good friend, T.
It was pretty cold in Colorado, partly because it is North of Florida, but also because it is at a higher elevation. Jacksonville is at sea level because it is right next to the ocean, but when we landed in Denver we were 5,280 feet – or a whole mile – above that. Thankfully I have a thick coat, and I really needed it for our first adventure: a visit to a town called Estes Park. Initially I thought we were going to play in a park, but that’s just the name of the town. It’s even higher (and colder) than Denver – 7,522 feet – because it is even closer to the Rocky Mountains. While at Estes Park, we saw wildlife just walking around the town! There were elk white-tailed deer and even bighorn sheep (though I thought they should have been called smallhorn sheep!)
Next to Estes Park is the Rocky Mountain National Park. Here we actually got to drive up into the mountains and saw snow flurries during the drive. T and I climbed up a rock at one of the scenic lookouts and with beautiful snow-capped mountains behind us. Unfortunately so much snow fell the previous day that they closed off part of the road for the rest of winter, but where the road ended we were at a place called Many Parks Curve at an elevation of 10,829 feet. The air was so thin up there, it was hard to catch my breath!
Near the end of the road were more scenic lookups and some signs that showed us what mountains we could see and T and I also read how the mountains and valleys were formed by large glaciers, which are solid blocks of ice, cutting through the land over many, many years The adventures of the day really tired out my good friend, T.
The next day we went to a place called the Butterfly Pavilion. I thought we were just going to see butterflies, but they had exhibits of insects and fish, too! We saw some creepy critters, like bees , scorpions, fiddler crabs, Madagascar cockroaches and they even let T’s daddy hold a live tarantula EWWWW! Of course, we also saw a wide variety of butterflies including some that hadn’t been hatched yet. These butterflies were in things called pupa where caterpillars change into beautiful butterflies. According to the sign we read the Pavilion gets these pupa from all over the world for their collection – they even had some from Florida 
Even in all this excitement, T and I were feeling a little homesick and missing our friends back at school. On our last day, we said goodbye to T’s great-grandmother and braved the freezing cold to journey back home, bringing with us treasured memories…
Even in all this excitement, T and I were feeling a little homesick and missing our friends back at school. On our last day, we said goodbye to T’s great-grandmother and braved the freezing cold to journey back home, bringing with us treasured memories…
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