Overnight @ One Binkley Gulch

Doesn't One Binkley Gulch sound like an address where John Wayne might have lived in one of his cowboy movies?  Actually, it's the neighborhood where my friends Cynthia and Bill now reside.

Their new home is about 30 miles from Cañon City in southern Colorado which, with just a few tweaks, could serve as the set for a Hollywood Western if you substituted hitching posts for the parking spaces.  

We met at the Bean Pedaler, a coffee shop which shares space with a bike store.  I hadn't seen Bill, a sportsman, in nearly three decades, since before the birth of their twins. Outdoor recreation topped the list of Bill's relocation priorities.

After catching up over some sandwiches, we headed to Royal Gorge, a canyon created by the Arkansas River and one of the deepest in Colorado.  Lemme tell ya, it's almost as grand as the one in Arizona.

We crossed the wood-planked suspension bridge which, from 1929 to 2001, was the highest in the world, nearly a thousand feet above the water.  

It swayed noticeably in the stiff breeze that had shut down the nearby cable car.  People from all over the country come to raft on the river.

After returning to their home, Cynthia proudly showed me her fully stocked, walk-in pantry--bigger than my kitchen!--which came in very handy when they were snowed in for six days last March. Welcome to Colorado! That never happened in Dallas where they raised William, Jr., who clerks for a judge on the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and recently-married Elizabeth, who followed in her parents' footsteps at PwC.  

Cynthia, always a terrific and inventive cook, served a magnificent Salmon Wellington, stuffed with spinach for dinner, along with a quinoa salad, sauteed mushrooms and snow peas.  I wished I hadn't eaten so much at lunch, but I did manage to pack away two slices of her superb cherry pie, too, the best I've ever tasted.  I don't know how the two of them keep the weight off.

Cynthia's an early bird.  She can see the sun rise over Pikes Peak while she's making sweet and savory breakfasts in a kitchen the size of my apartment.

Bill's a big game hunter. Their home lacks square corners but you never know what you'll find just around the bend . . . 

Lower Level

William, Jr. brought this trophy, his first, back from the family's ranch in South Africa.

Upper Level

Cynthia and Bill have great sunsets, too, from their western deck although cloudy weather and the brevity of my visit prevented me from catching one.  Like Pikes Peak, those mountains in the distance are snow-capped.  My rock-slide-plagued route through the Rockies later that morning would take me a lot closer to them.

Mt. Antero

Arkansas River, Eastern Rockies Corridor

Red Cliff, White River National Forest