Category: colorado

Deckers, Colorado

Two recent fires in Colorado, the Oxyoke fire near Deckers, Colorado, and the Hilltop Fire near Parachute, are both now 100% contained, thanks to the valiant effort on the part of the firefighters. I’ve been through Deckers, which is not all that far from our house as the crow flies, but is a considerable drive on mountain roads. As is my habit, when I heard about the Deckeres fire, I found it via Google Maps, and discovered that Deckers, Colorado has a street view on Google Maps. (Colorado Springs doesn’t rate high enough to be on Google Street Views.) Check it out if you want to see the proverbial one-horse Colorado mountain hamlet. Be sure to rotate the view (arrows in upper left) so you can see the mountain stream.

Black Bear Restaurant

June 13, 2008 – Click on image for higher resolution version.

While I was looking for a place for us to celebrate our 30th anniversary as well as Jack’s birthday, I came across the website for the The Black Bear Restaurant, a four-star restaurant a short distance from Colorado Springs of which I had never heard. The Chef’s Table (a fixed price meal) seemed interesting, so Jack made reservations.

I thought it slightly odd that there was no photo of the restaurant building on the website, and when we made the drive to Green Mountain Falls, I could see why: it certainly didn’t look like any four star restaurant I had ever seen before. Stated bluntly, it looked like a dive.

Appearances are deceptive. We chose the six course meal, and it was some of the best food I have ever had. We had fennel salad, which was very spicy; bison stew; caramelized onion frittata; a creamy pasta dish; Limousin steak and potatoes; and chocolate. I think it may have been the best steak I’ve ever had. The portion sizes were quite restrained, so we were full when we left, without being stuffed.

Tower

June 03, 2008 – Click on image for higher resolution version.

Colorado Springs has many old Victorian buildings downtown, most of them subdivided into multiple living spaces now. Many of them are wood frame houses, but there are some like this one in brick.