Jules' Summer 1960 at Estes Park YMCA Camp

In the summer of 1960 Jules worked at the YMCA camp in Estes Park, Colorado. He spent the summer working in the dining hall serving and bussing the meals for up to 500 people attending the camp at any one time. During the off hours his passion was to climb as many mountains in the Rocky Mountain Park around the camp as possible. The camp had many workers and all came from colleges around the country. He became very good friends with one boy from Texas and 2 girls from Mississippi. All had the same desire to hike and climb together as often as possible.

In the photos there are "ink dots" that point out the peaks of the mountains that were climbed. The tallest and "crown jewel" was Long's Peak at a height of 14,255 ft. The east face of the mountain was the most difficult challenge for even the most experienced of climbers. We watched once when several people attempted it and they had to spend the night suspended in bags as they were partially up each day of the climb. Naturally, we climbed the back side of the mountain, but the end result and the actual peak was the same. There is one photo of a very narrow (maybe 1ft or 18 inches wide) ledge that we had to inch across to get to the back side climbing area. Nothing below the ledge for thousands of feet.

While there, I was given a dalmation puppy that I named after one of the mountains - Chiquita.

We also would go down into a very small town on Saturday nights to go square dancing with the local people.

We did make a side trip to Royal Gorge Park.