RVentures with Doug and Chris: There Are Golden Treasures in These Mountains!

Leaving the Black Hills, we continued our southwestern journey along the Front Range of the Rockies. Like the early pioneers who made their way west in search of adventure, religious freedom, and gold, we are excited to search out the ¨golden treasures¨ that await us as we approach the foothills of the Rockies.

We passed through Scottsbluff, Nebraska and saw our first hint of changing landscape. The large rock formations making up Scotts Bluff National Monument were important markers for the early travelers of the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. Today visitors to the Monument can hike along stretches of the Oregon Trail, and hike/drive up to the top of the bluffs and enjoy spectacular views of the North Platte River and surrounding area.

Heading west, we came to Cheyenne, Wyoming where we found another ''golden treasure'' while staying for a few days at Curt Gowdy State Park.

Golden hills and hiking trails surrounded the campsites along the reservoir. A beautiful sunny day beckoned us to explore the popular trail leading to Hidden Falls.

This park has miles of hiking and mountain biking trails. As we walked along the Crow Creek Trail, the leaves were just beginning to change providing colorful views as we climbed up, around, and through giant rock formations.

We passed by a number of mountain bikers and hikers of all ages. As we got closer to our destination, Hidden Falls, I saw some young hikers returning on the trail. ''Were the Hidden Falls pretty neat?'' I asked one young hiker. He looked back at me as if wondering about the sanity of this old lady. ''They are called 'Hidden Falls' so, of course, you can't see them,'' he replied matter-of-factly. Well, duh!

Yes, as we found out, you have to wade through knee-high, freezing cold mountain spring water to get to see the Hidden Falls. Too cold for Doug to venture much beyond the bend in the creek. We will just have to assume that the elusive treasure is back there just waiting for someone tougher than us to discover it.

From there we headed south into Colorado where that cold mountain spring water is famously used to make that beloved ''golden treasure'' ... BEER. We met up with our friends, Joanne and Gary for some urban exploration that included a tour of New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, lunch at Golden City Brewery in Golden, and a tour of the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum and Burial Site on Lookout Mountain that overlooks the city of Denver.

Ride 'um, Cowgirl!

From there, we decided to give Baby Beest her first taste of mountain climbing as we drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park.

Our ''golden treasure'' was found with the aspens' autumn colors popping out amongst the forests of green pine as we hiked around Bear Lake.

The four mile hike lead us to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, and Emerald Lake with even more spectacular colors and views. It is no wonder that Rocky Mountain National Park is a ''golden treasure'' for millions of tourists including us. Beautiful autumn days like this tend to fill up the park. Our advice for you: Either get there very early in the morning or wait until later in the afternoon if you want to attempt to get to the popular trail heads.

The roads and shuttle lots were very busy midday, but if you can get to a quiet trail, the serene beauty is worth the effort.

After finding a stealthy parking spot overnight in Estes Park (brewery parking lots are our friends), we continued our search for ''golden treasures'' by driving the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway. I am thankful for my skillful driver behind the wheel as we further tested out Baby Beest's mountain maneuverability ... they both passed! The end of this drive brought us into Denver where we connected with friends whose ''golden'' lab brought photo bombing to a whole new level!

Almost to the southern edge of the Colorado Front Range, a stop in Woodland Park, CO would show us the ultimate ''golden treasure'' of friendship.

High school buddies, Diane and I have managed to keep in touch through the years. A few years ago, cancer took her husband, leaving Diane to raise their daughters and keep up their beautiful mountain home. I am in constant awe of her resilience as well as her home fix-it skills. But upon hearing that she had run into a road-block when re-doing her deck, I decided that we needed to pay her a visit ... sort of a personal ''Habitat for Humanity'' project.

Her daughter was eager to learn some of the construction techniques that her dad had been so skilled at. So with Doug as her patient teacher, they worked together to put up the deck railing, construct the stairs, and side the edges of the deck.