Richard Fleck

Deep Into a Colorado Gold Mine
ith my daughter, Michelle, and grandson, Ross, I drove high up into the foothills of the Rockies to about 9,000 feet in elevation between the two old...
Reaching for the Sky: Visiting the Garden of the Gods
Think Colorado! Think Colorado Springs! Think Garden of the Gods! And there we stood at 6, 500 feet on a warm November day, staring at the Gateway...
Experience the Old West on the Cumbres & Toltec...
My wife, Maura, and I booked a passage aboard America’s longest and highest narrow-gauge railroad from Antonito, Colorado, to Chama, New...
Hiking Hahn’s Peak, Colorado
A few days before my 79th birthday, my wife and I and two friends decided to hike Hahn’s Peak north of Steamboat Springs, just eleven miles shy of...
Hiking Hagues Peak, Estes Park, CO
The steep and winding trail begins in the forests of Endo Valley and rises above tree line to the alpine heights of 13,530-foot Hagues Peak, the...
Perot Museum of Nature and Science
In mid-April, my wife and I and friends visited the fascinating Perot Museum of Nature and Science in downtown Dallas, Texas. After it opened for the...
A Tour of the National Center for Atmospheric Research
We visited the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) with friends from Texas, one of whom was a young high school boy who wishes to become...
An Incredible Few Hours in New York City
My wife, Maura, daughter Michelle and I took a quick dash from West Nyack into New York City for my daughter’s business meeting at Penn One Plaza...
Come to Tarpon Springs, Florida!
Located half way down the Gulf Coast of Florida, Tarpon Springs is a magical little seaport town of 25,000 people. Believe it or not, it also has the...
Washington Park: A Village in the City of Denver...
Within three miles of downtown Denver lies a large city park of over 100, tree-lined square blocks called Washington Park. This wonderful area, which...
If Not Longs Peak, Then Chasm Lake
Longs Peak is a beautiful climb, but it is a very trying, sixteen-mile, round-trip hike. It takes a lot of energy to gain some 5,000 vertical feet...
On the Mount Pisgah Trail, Oregon
by Richard F. Fleck, Mount Pisgah isn’t as high as Mount Hood or even one of the Three Sisters’ snow-capped peaks, but it is a very peaceful...
Mystical Vedauwoo, Wyoming
If you drive Interstate 80 west of Cheyenne, Wyoming for thirty miles, you will see an exit for Vedauwoo, tremendous granitic rock formations that...
Country Rambles in County Monaghan, Ireland
Just this past summer, my wife, Maura, and I found ourselves back in her girlhood home of Tullyraghan and its magnificent views of Monaghan—the...
Explosive Beauty: Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
Seven thousand, seven hundred years ago Mount Mazama, in southern Oregon, erupted violently, leaving behind a gigantic crater six miles wide and a...
Deep in the Redwoods: Jedediah Smith State Park, ...
Traveling along the Oregon Coast and magnificent interior Douglas fir-Sitka spruce forests, we turned southward toward Crescent City, California on...