Second trip, fifth stop: Swetsville Zoo

Just outside Fort Collins, CO is the former farm now sculpture park by Bill Swets, the Swetsville Zoo. There are over 160 sculptures in the park. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/COFTCswetsville.html

This is Bill Swets. He is working on a very

large gate in this photo. He's a very friendly

guy. He's never sold a single sculpture, but I don't think it's for a lack of buyers.

Humpty Dumpty

Heavy Metal Band

Several of the sculptures move in the wind, like this one.

The Swets family home

Bill Swets also has a building full of bicycles he's created, but our photos didn't turn out. He's very famous around the area for his 6 or 8 man bike which has been in many, many parades.

Second trip, fourth stop: Chasm Lake

We hiked here years ago through fog and mist which caused icicles to hang from our eyebrows and lashes. Eric nearly made it to Chasm Lake, but the fog was so thick, he couldn't see it.

A much lovelier day was in store for us - the sun was shining, the sky was blue. The snow appeared on the trail well below the tree-line. It was really fun to walk on snow initially! Then it got a little old.

That's a cold drink of water!

Above the tree-line with Long's Peak behind me.

The freshest-smelling pit toilet in all the land.

Last time we were here, this part of the trail wasn't this bad, though it was not good, and we risked going across. These folks tested the trail and decided it was too risky. Chasm Lake eludes us again!

This is Ignatius. We named all of the chipmunks we saw alphabetically. After being denied access to the lake, we plopped down and shared our lunch with Ignatius - he loves Pringles. A fed chipmunk is a dead chipmunk. Oops.

Second trip, third stop: Wild Basin Trailhead

How dumb are we? We're fairly dumb. Many years ago we came to this same area of the National Park, a week later than we did this time, and were freezing cold and go snowed on. Did the memory of this trigger anything packing-wise? No.

We managed to find some hats, gloves and sweatshirts at a flea market before we set out hiking. When we set out hiking, did we take a flashlight? Matches? No. Did we titter at the warning signs about what to be sure to carry with us on the trail? Yes. Parts of this trail run along a portion of the National Park that burned a few years back.

At some point we realized the trail didn't seem to be heading back down, it kept going up, up, up, and the sun was going down, down, down, and the moon was new, new, new (no moonlight). Thus, we turned about and ran, ran, ran back down the trail.

Second trip, second stop: Tiny Town

This is Tiny Town in Tiny Town, Colorado, which claims to be the oldest kid sized village in the nation. Construction began in 1915 by George Turner for his daughter and opened to the public in 1920. More information and a live web cam can be found here http://www.tinytownrailroad.com/ .



In its heyday, Tiny Town had a lake and great landscaping. Flooding and fires have damaged the town severely. The Tiny Town Foundation, formed in 1990, saved the site and operates it today.
Several of the buildings feature Barbie and Ken dolls enjoying the 1/6th sized amenities of Tiny Town. The most disturbing scenario, the Chiropractic office, was too dark to photograph.
I was overly obsessed with climbing into the buildings.



There are no refunds at Tiny Town. Hrumph - it was small, but I wouldn't call it 'tiny.'

Second trip, first stop

Between our first trip and our third, which was our 'big' trip, we decided to slip in a quick trip to the Rockies.



We sped across the mid-west as quickly as we could. We have always meant to stop by S. P. Dinsmoor's Garden of Eden http://www.washburn.edu/cas/art/cyoho/archive/KStravel/GardenOfEden/ but never get the timing right - they have hours of operation, and we don't seem to be able to be there when it's open.



We also wanted to stop by the Boyer Museum of Animated Woodcarvings http://www.homestead.com/genada/Boyerindex.html but we had the same problem. Oh, Kansas, why must you be so timely?



We 'camped' (slept in the van) at Bonnie Dunes State park, where thousands of bugs struggled desperately to get in our car. They didn't seem to want to bite much, they just wanted to get in and possibly fly in our ears and up our noses.



The next morning we saw these birds' nests in the roof of a picnic shelter. They are swifts, and were very busy flying in and out of their homes.

Review of first trip

Wasn't that Fun? We saw all of these things in 2 days - we left Sunday morning and got home Monday night. Wow. Can summer get any better? It's not even June yet.

First trip, fifth stop: The Dickeyville Grotto & Shrines

Holy cow, let's all become Catholic! The Dickeyville Grotto and Shrines are in Dickeyville, Wisconsin (have I mentioned this state is a wonderland of visionary environments?), complete with shrines to a number of saints and Jesus, plus Christopher Columbus, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, AND they have a gift shop with traditional souvenirs! We got the snow globe grotto and a coffee mug.

Immigrant priest Father Wernerus visited the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend, Iowa (largest grotto ever built - it has a restaurant!) and got inspired. A speck of cement is hard to find, as Father Wernerus thoroughly encrusted every millimeter of space with rocks, minerals and glass shards collected by the barrelful from a glass factory in Kokomo, IN. The majority of the stuff was built between 1925-1929 - this man was busy, collecting rocks from local quarries as well as petitioning friends far and wide to send specimens from all 48 states (remember your US history). For example, the Tree of Life is made with petrified tree branches from the Petrified Forest in Arizona. Father Wernerus died of pneumonia in 1931.

Please view even better and more photos at http://www.agilitynut.com/h/dickeyville.html

First trip, fourth stop: House on the rock

We didn't take the triple tour and didn't take many pictures.
On the grounds there are several sculptures by Tom Every, as well as a gob of these funky-funky planters .

This interior photo was probably one of our favorite rooms. Overall we weren't swept away with House on the Rock, which the tour guides will tell you has nothing to do with the architect's feud with Frank Lloyd Wright, who's famous estate, Taliesin, is 5 miles down the road.

First trip, third stop: Grandview

Grandview just charmed the pants off us!
This is one of those do-it-yourself yard ornament projects on a large scale. Immigrant Nick Engelbert's concretia dementia began around 1937 just outside Hollandale, Wisconsin (wonderland of visionary environments) on state highway 39.



See NarrowLarry's write up at http://www.narrowlarry.com/nlgrand.html
his pictures are better than mine, too.

Photos from top to bottom: Engelbert Family Tree, Snow White and some Dwarfs, Neptune's Moat, a lion with the Engelbert family house in the background (yes, the house is coated with cement and encrusted with stuff), and the Organ Grinder with Monkey, where donations may be left.

Most of these statues are reproductions and a few original pieces are on display at a folk art museum in some Wisconsin town with a charming name like 'Sheboygan' or something like that. There's a preservation society protecting this place, and they really love it.


Nick Engelbert said something like, "If a man can't be happy on a little farm in Wisconsin, then he just doesn't have it in him to be happy."

First trip, second stop: Dr. Evermor's Forevertron

Tom Every had a fabulous career in the demolition industry. He has saved bits and pieces along the way and created the Evermore Sculpture Park adjacent to a scrap yard just outside Baraboo, Wisconsin (wonderland of visionary environments). He has also created a pseudonym, complete with background story, of 'Dr.
Evermor.' The gentleman in the wheelchair is Tom Avery. Please learn more about this great place at http://heart2art2heart.com/pages/theforevertron.html

When the time is right, Dr. Evermor will leave this world in the Forevertron, a fabulously huge sculpture created from a variety of scrap, including items from an old NASA Apollo launch site.

Tom Every has collected thousands of items over the years. Here's Eric driving off to help the crippled children. He will be sure not to use a silly clown voice, in the tradition of the Shriner clowns.

This was my favorite area of the park. Tom Every came into a large lot of band instruments and created a fabulous orchestra. He said he's just as interested in the way the sculptures sound as much as they look.