The first official day of the tour gave us a quick drive around the Denver downtown area for a bit of sightseeing before heading out of the state into Nebraska where we'd visit the Chimney Rock National Historic site, a rather unique geographic landmark. The day would end in the small town of Broadwater.
The State Capitol building was our one stop where we could get off the coach for a little explore. The building was undergoing some renovation so not particularly photogenic on this occasion but I'd been here before.
What I hadn't realised is there is a marker on the steps indicating where we're exactly one mile above sea level, giving the city it's nickname of the Mile High City. I guess making it to these steps makes me a member of the Mile High Club, right? Actually as the measuring got more accurate the marker step changed and there are 3 markers now. The most accurate is deemed to be the 13th step and not the 15th, which was the initial guess.
The building in the background is the City and Council building, grand but probably boring to work in.
This is the state seal and there's some confusion around what the latin translates to but the Eye of Providence is probably enough to keep the conspiracy theory fans happy.
Across the road from the Capitol Building is the old Argonaut Hotel which at one time looked to be the only big building with the Capitol building. It is now becoming some apartments. I bet they'd cost a fortune!
A quick drive past the Frederic C. Hamilton building, part of the Denver Art Museum. This was designed by Daniel Libeskind and opened in 2006. Apparently when they designed the building they didn't think how pieces of art would be hung on the walls and this led to much mirth from the locals. It's a cool building though.
A quick drive past the country's mint. It's been creating coins since 1906.
For lunch we stopped in the city of Sterling, Colorado where we were given our own room for a rather nice lunch.
Afterwards, some of us took a few minutes for a quick explore of the area. The grand building is the city tax office. Well you can see where the city taxes are spent, on the rent I guess.
The city has a bit of a cycle thing going on. Nice!
After a further drive we ended up at the Chimney Rock National Historic site and heeding the rattlesnakes warnings we entered the small museum complex which gives a history of the trails that the early settlers would take to cross from the east to the gold in the west. There was an acknowledgement on the overthrowing of the native Americans which could have been ignored so that was good.
The reason why the trekkers would come this way is because Chimney Rock served as a marker for the journey. Standing 300ft high it could be seen from afar and would act as a perfect natural beacon and marker for those making the unknown trek across the country. There used to be a town at it's foot but not any more, now the area is protected and this is as close as we could get from the centre.
Chimney Rock can be found on the Nebraska quarter, such is its importance.
Obligatory funny named food product.
Our day ended up in the small village of Broadwater, which must have no more than 2 dozen streets. We were staying in two different locations as there was no hotel here big enough for us all. I joined some of the group in this charming converted house with a big cock outside, fnar! There was a church building behind it that was also the local gun shop; I wasn't sure what to make of that.
I'm glad we weren't staying in this motel. Sketchy as...
For dinner we went to the community hall which looked like a converted bunker-style building. The food here was as great as the decorations filling the interior. You could spend ages just exploring the knick-knacks that were everywhere.
The organisers of the trip had been keeping a close eye on the weather forecasts to ensure we had the best chance of seeing the eclipse the next day. Initially we were going to head to carhenge, a stonehenge style structure made of painted cars, however with just a 40% chance of seeing the eclipse a new location had to be found and this meant an early start the next day.
...and they say the Brits talk about the weather all the time. There's a group of people who do it more :)
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