What a lovely weekend I had with my friends Cher and Noble who live in the mountains west of Colorado Springs. Cher and I hiked on Saturday in Mueller State Park and then drove around Victor and Cripple Creek. Cripple Creek used to be a wonderful place until they allowed gambling. I have no problem at all with gambling, but it will destroy a pretty little mountain community. Keep it in Nevada!
On Sunday, we drove the Shelf Road, an old stagecoach toll road between Cripple Creek and Canon City in Noble’s new Ford truck with crew cab and room for a pony.
Then we drove to Florence, Colorado to the Desert Reef Beach Club. Oh dear…how to describe this place without being cruel. It’s a clothing optional facility and everyone there except for a four year old boy opted not to have clothes. Personally, I won’t go to a hot spring where you have to wear a bathing suit. What the fuck is the point? First and foremost, the pool and the water are pristine! You could not ask for more. The pool and the water was clean, wonderfully warm and just what the doctor ordered for these plenty-nine year old bones!
This place is literally in the middle of bum-fuck Colorado. The immediate surroundings are grim. It’s a desert and it ain’t a purdy one. The facility is rustic hippy and all the trappings that entails. There were dirty dishes stacked on a table by the side of the building that looked like they’d been there for a long time. The Koi pond was murky. Small koi could be seen swarming here and there. Once in awhile you’d catch sight of Nessie lurking just below the murk. Huge koi, but you couldn’t really see them. The pool area is surrounded by an earthen berm. Ugly to the max. Along the berm are some statues of nude women that have seen better days, much like the women that were there. Oh please…relax…I fall in that category too, but they didn’t have any statues of men. Cher and Noble were such a contrast next to this largely geriatric crowd. Slap me! I’m being bitchy and cruel again, but that woman that kept tripping over her tits made me nervous. It truly is my kind of place. You can go there and no one will pester you. In fact, that’s in the rules. No Kissing. No Hugging. No Hardons. Well…there was this one guy with a huge unit and it got a little unruly at times. I notice things like this. Fortunately. Oh! And no cameras or cell phones with cameras. Rules, rules, rules. I liked this place…but I feel more comfortable at Valley View Hot Springs. The only picture I could find of Desert Reef Beach Club was one I couldn’t lift off the website. It showed the Koi Pond and made it look like that was the actual pool. Maybe to scare people away? Why? There is no sulfur in the water. Looks like a lot of calcium from the deposits, but very soothing. Hmm…maybe some lithium! Anyway, I’ve included a shot from Google Earth of the place. The blue thing is the pool and the odd shaped black thing is the Koi pond. There is a quonset hut greenhouse with an earth mother décor. There are plants, nice seating and a refrigerator to keep you lunch cold and a microwave to heat things up. They also provide bottled water at no charge.