533. Travelin' Light in a Colorful Colorado Stupa
A stup-endous side-trip to a colorful colorado site of peace and happiness.

Before heading up to our first VOC trail work trip of the 2014 season at 10,000' to 11,000' on the NW side of Rocky Mt. NP, we thought perhaps that we "sea-level Rhode Islanders" had better take a day or two to acclimate to the elevation. So, after doing a couple of hikes at 8,000' around the Red Feather Lakes area NW of Fort Collins in the morning, we decided to take an afternoon tea break at the nearby Sham-bhala Mt. Center off county road 68C to visit the Great Stupa, open to the public daily from 10 to 6.

We parked in the designated visitor parking area, and from the kiosk immediately started following the gravel walkway lined with colorful banners (first white with yellow, then orange with red, shades of blue etc.) on about a 0.6 mile stroll toward the Stupa itself. Passing several buildings, we eventually saw the Great Stupa ahead of us, with its colorful swirled ornamentation that reminded us of the lollipops we had just seen on the Hammond Candy tour in Denver the day before. A small stone structure before the Stupa seemed to be the place where people traditionally leave trinkets - colored rocks, coins, jewelry, bits of artwork, etc. So, we thought that leaving behind a "colorful travelin' light stamp rock" that we just happened to have with us might be a suitable addition. However, we didn't want it to be too hard to find in the pile of other things, so we chose a somewhat more discreet location.

We walked off to the left to the visitors center, where we were welcomed with tea and oranges and a film about how the Stupa was built. Then we continued up the stairs on the left side of the Stupa to a semi-circular stone sitting area around a wooden-stemmed stone water fountain. This seemed to be a nice quiet stop to leave the anonymous "colorful carving" we had glued to the back of a small 2x2" brownish stone.

So, if you sit on the south side of the semi-circular sitting area near a large rough white stone and place your left hand on the flat triangular gray stone to your left, then gently walk your fingers down about a foot, perhaps you will find that small brownish stone that we left behind in a crevice, resting upon a pink stone that sits atop another rough white stone. If not, we hope have a wonderful visit to this colorful site anyway!

N.B. It might be a good idea for newer letterboxers to read the introduction to our "travelin' lights" at the top of this page before searching for these stamp rocks. Several people, who seem to have had trouble understanding the clues or "thinking outside the box", have expressed exasperation that they could not find the "box", when, of course, these rocks do not have a box!

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