Poudre River

6/30/2007
We drove up Poudre River Canyon. The canyon is 10 miles north of Fort Collins. It appears to be a good fishing stream. There were campgrounds all along the river and fishermen out fly fishing. The canyon is just as pretty as Big Thompson Canyon but not as long.

View on the drive in the Poudre River Canyon.

Another view of the Poudre River.

Kayaking on the Poudre River.

Rafting on the Poudre River.

Rafting on the Poudre River. We stopped at the forest service visitor center in the Roosevelt Forest. The gentleman there told us about the Buda Retreat and gave us directions to it. He also told us that it was free but they did have a place for donations. He said that we should be sure to make a donation because he didn't as a soon as he got to his car it started raining and he didn't catch any fish for a week. :-) We had to go back down the road we came up on. Then we had to go about 15 miles on a forest service dirt road. The dirt road was the smoothest dirt road I have ever driven on and there was no dust.

When we got there the lady at the gate told us that it was a 2/3 of a mile walk. I told her I could not walk that far so she gave us a pass to drive there. She told us that we were welcome to eat lunch there in their lunch tent and that they served about 400 people every day. After visiting the Stupa we did eat lunch there. It was pork chops two vegetables and a salad. We did leave a donation.

This is the Great Stupa at the Shambhala Mountain Center. They offer residential programs in meditation, yoga, the arts, Buddhism and other spiritual traditions.

This is the statue inside the Stupa. I expected to see the Buda that you see in all the gift shops with the big belly. I don't know any thing about this statue, I e-mailed them and ask them about it but they haven't answered it yet.

These are some of the tents that the people stay in that are taking the classes. They also have some cabins people can stay in.