Had a good day here in the Denver area. Slept in late and felt like I finally got caught up on my sleep. Had lunch with some friends at my favorite middle eastern restaurant and talked with them for several hours.

   This evening it was off to another contra dance here in the Denver area. Tonight was the once a month 'Zesty' contra that CFOOTMAD, ( Colorado Friends Of Old Time Music and Dance ), puts on. Paul S. was calling and the two people from Portland, OR who played at last nights contra, also played this evening, along with the addition of another local musician who sat in with them. Was rather surprised at the turnout.... three full lines for the duration of the whole dance. The zesty is for more advanced dancers and with Paul calling there is usually only one walk through at the most, and often times only a partial walk through or none at all. As a result you get to dance a whole lot more of the evening, although it seemed like Paul was letting the dances run a little longer than he usually does. Got to see lots of people who I haven't seen in a while, and had a chance to dance with some very fun partners.

Here are pictures from our 3rd day on the river, August 3rd if I'm not mistaken.

I took this photo back over my shoulder without looking, so it is a bit of a surprise that it even came out.

A nice view of the river showing what the vegetation looks like along a lot of the shoreline in this area.

We pulled over at one of the BLM campgrounds along the river to stretch, go to the bathroom and take a short hike.

Here we have the sign and mileage marker for the campground.

A boy and his dog!

If you look closely you will notice that a lot of the rocks in this picture are arranged in a circle. The reason for this is that indigenous natives, ( Indians to us non natives), used them to hold down the edges of their teepee's. They would camp up here on these exposed hill tops for many reasons, including the ability to see farther and spot game or enemies easier, and to catch any breeze that would help keep them cool as well as blow the bugs away. Granted, it was farther to go to get to the water, but it also meant fewer skeeters in an age where the only bug repellent was smoke or rancid bear fat.

We are starting to enter an area where evidence of ancient volcanic activity is prevalent. In the background is the solidified core of what was once a volcano. The harder 'plug' is now being exposed as the softer cinder cone around it is being eroded away.

Along with the ancient volcanic activity we are also starting to see some of the white sandstone cliffs and formations that make this next area so beautiful and unique.

More and more cliffs and outcroppings are starting to come into view.

A nice cliff right along the edge of the river. You can start to see a few 'mushroom rocks', or formations, where a more iron rich, and therefore harder, sandstone layer was laid down over a softer sandstone layer. 

Now you are really starting to see cliffs and formations every where.

Had a pretty good down river wind there for a while so I got the mast and sail out again and got them set up. It's hard to believe how fast you can go when the wind is blowing the right way. Our average speed paddling the boat was right at 5.5 mph. Where as our top speed with us both paddling, the current going faster and a good hard wind from behind, that got pushed up to a bit higher than 15 mph.

LaBarge Rock, another volcanic plug at the end of this line of cliffs. Named after a famous river boat captain and pilot it is always good to see it as it means we will be near our next camping spot.

Looking back up river at the cliffs along the west side of the river.

More neat formations on the other side of the river.

We have arrived at our next camping spot at about 73 miles down the river. This area is called Eagle Creek after the stream just up river of here that Lewis and Clarke camped on. Across the river is the cliff where a signature rock formation, 'Eye of the Needle', once stood on top of the cliff.

A closer view of the cliff from the previous photo. The 'Eye' use to be on top of, and right at the edge of, the cliff, right above the dark vertical line that you see in the picture. The line is actually a groove worn in the sandstone by water that had once formed the eye and then continued down off the top of the cliff.

This is an old picture of what the 'Eye' once looked like. Some time around 1997 the top 1/4 of the arch broke away and left only two side pillars overlooking the river. Rumor had it that a group of Boy Scouts had smashed it, but I think it finally just cracked up enough to fall apart. We didn't hike/climb up to the top of the cliff this time. There is one section along the way that is to high and steep for the dog to climb up or be carried up. The guy in the picture is my friend George.

A view of LaBarge rock from our campsite across the river.

Not a bad view to wake up to or go to sleep to is it?

Dinner that night was gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches, 3-bean salad, gazpacho, ice cold beer and mint cookies for dessert.

The view from our chairs as we sat and watched the sunset.

Sorry for the number of shots of the same scene, but every few minutes the light would change and make it look totally different.

My tent and the view downstream from it.