We met the fox in the parking lot of the American Eagles Overlook he was very bold and followed us around while we tried to use the morning light to get some better photos of this amazing hole in the ground. I am not sure we improved on our previous efforts in regard to the open pit but we did get a better look at some of those dump trucks this morning; they make our Mog look small.

Our plan for the day was to try The Shelf Road,another leg of the Gold Belt Tour from Cripple Creek to Canon City. At the Cripple Creek Heritage Center we were advised against such a plan and were given many reasons that the road was not for us including, "its an old stage coach road and has not been updated since then", and "there is no phone reception". Never the less we proceeded with our plan and our usual caution of don't go into anything you are not sure you can get out of. The road proved to be narrow and exhilarating, and as its name implies a long stretch ran along a narrow man-made shelf high up on the wall of a modest canyon. We met only two other vehicles along the way and managed to negotiate our way past them. But at a busier time (say a summer weekend) the narrowness of the road and traffic would have made the road a little more problematic for us.

Just to prove that life is full of strange coincidences, we met an Australia musician named Barry along the Shelf road. His motorcycle was parked beside the road and he was just sitting taking in the view. He lives in one of the nearby towns, plays music in one of the tourist trains and comes to the Shelf often.

Late in the day we climbed into the mountains of the San Isabel National Forest and found a little campground.