Craft Beer Crawl

Currently In: South Fork, CO
Headed to Bayfield (outside of Durango) and Antonito, CO next


Before we sampled the beer of the Pike's Peak area, we toured the Manitou Springs Cliff Dwellings.  The dwellings were inhabited by the Anasazi people who eventually became the Taos Pueblo Indians of New Mexico.  It reminded us of Montezuma's Castle which we toured in Camp Verde, AZ last April.
Native Americans danced for tourists and lived at these cliff dwellings until the mid 1980s.

We took a walk inside the Mesa Top structure.  It was built on top of the mesa so men could watch their summer crops.

This oven is made of adobe brick used for baking bread.   It could bake up to 30 loaves at one time.

Native Americans lived in the oldest part of the pueblo until 1984.  It was built in 1898.  Most of the pueblos were built with low doorways.

We were able to walk through several rooms including the room where food was stored as well as where the grain was ground into flour.

This room was called a Kiva and was a room for religious ceremonies.

Cross sections of the cliff dwellings allowed us to see how they were built.

The couple of museums they had allowed us see how the walls were constructed.
At this point we were ready for the first of the craft beer sampling.  We got back to our German roots and sampled some Wisconsin cheese!

We continued our beer tour with Keith Van Es, a former neighbor from Grayslake who has lived in Colorado for 25 years.  We met him for brunch in a historic Buena Vista building, about 70 miles from our RV Park.  I loved the brick arch.

We moved on to Eddyline, just a block away.  There was some live music at this one.

We took a walk around this historic town, and saw more historic train equipment.  The Depot was built in 1890 but the railroad closed in 1920.

The last place was really cool - the Jailhouse Craft Beer Bar.  It is located in a jailhouse built in 1880.  There were even some preserved, although illegible, scribblings from former inmates.

We and an interesting discussion with Keith regarding the deteriorating state of the pine trees in Colorado.  We saw many dead trees as well as hundreds of tree tepees in the National Parks.

A ranger told us that the winters were not cold enough to kill the beetles as Nature provides.  The trees have been taken down to protect tourists.  They will eventually be burned.

We had a very fun day with Keith and the craft tastings.  Needless to say, I drove back to the campground in Woodland Park!

One last note: you know I am an RV lover of Walmart now.  The nicest Walmart we have been to was in Woodland Park.  Even the exterior was inviting!