Madden Family: Colorado Vacation (Second Day): St. Elmo's Mining Ghost Town and Leadville

On the road again for our second day. It was a beautiful day to be traveling. The weather was perfect the whole time we were in Colorado. With the exception of it getting down in the upper 30's at night while we were camping for two nights.
We made a stop by the river to see some rafters going by and for the kids to feel how cold the water was. They had a good time climbing on rocks, throwing rocks and waving at the passer byers in their rafts.
We made a stop by an old Mining Ghost town called St. Elmo's. It was pretty neat to see how peopled lived back then. Makes you grateful for a few things. We walked the town, looked in some buildings, walked down by the water again Brooks walked all the way across to the other side in the freezing water.
We then went back up through the town and noticed that a few people were gathering in one spot. We quickly figured out why. They were feeding little chipmunks sunflower seeds right out of their hands. One lady was laying down on her belly and they were sitting on her back. Chipmunks were everywhere we went in Colorado. They are like squirrels here in Kansas. The kids had a ball feeding them. Brooks liked to scare them away but just a few seconds later and they were back to get more food from him.
We drove through town and stopped at a gas station to fill up and get a few snacks. We saw this wood all bundled and put in a "jail" like cage. We thought it was funny! Blake and I kept saying," bad, wood, bad wood!!" The kids didn't notice! Then we were talking about how we really haven't seen any wild life yet except for the chipmunks . About that time we look up and there is a dear running right thru the middle of the town we were in. Blake said that he didn't count as "wildlife". I thought it counted. The deer was pretty wild to me, it was scared, lost and running thru the middle of a town.
It was time to head to our Campground. We got there and walked up a few steps and up over the hill was the most AMAZING view ever. It was the best and most beautiful spot i had ever camped in my life. It was breathtaking.
We camped for two nights there and it got a bit chilly at night. Thank goodness we had a tent heater. The second night it got down to about 37. The kids slept perfectly. Blake and I on the other hand got a bit cold. Was not miserable but a bit on the cool side.