Mesa Verde, Albuquerque, and Colorado Springs

Have had a lot of things going on the past couple of weeks. Here goes with an update:

After Canyon de Chelly we continued on to another of the lesser-known National Parks (at least to us), Mesa Verde in Southwestern Colorado. Turned out to be another of those unexpectedly lucky discoveries for us - we didn't expect the park to be as terrific as it was. This area of the Southwest has a lot of old cliff dwellings dating back about 1,000 years, and Mesa Verde is the home of a high concentration of extremely well-preserved examples of the Pueblo culture. The park is just a pleasure to visit too - easy to get around on good quality park roads, lots of great scenery, plenty of parking, good hikes, and even an efficient tram system and guided tours of several of the ancient sites. Gotta return soon.

Looking down on one of the many cliff villages that dot the landscape here. It's assumed that the Indians built these sites as protection from enemies, but exactly why they were later abandoned remains a mystery.

Several of the ruins require pre-booking for a guided tour, mainly to keep the touristas (meaning us) from overrunning and possibly damaging the sites, but this one was easily accessible and, early on a pleasant summer morning, made for a nice side trip. 

These little niches were all over the place.

Then it was on to Albuquerque to visit Mike, Jennah and the grand kids. They had just arrived themselves about a week earlier from Valdosta, but had already organized the household so that there was really nothing for us to help out with. It happened that it was the first week of school for Makenna and Shane, however, so Nana and G'pa assisted in getting them to and from their new schools the first week of the term.

Off to school with Makenna on her first day of the 3rd grade.

And a nice shot of Jennah with Makenna.


After a pleasant 10 days with the family we pushed on to Colorado Springs for a few days. We had been here during last year's Great Western Tour and sort of fell in love with the place. Fact is that the idea of maybe relocating here started percolating in our minds, and now that Mike & Jennah are only a 5 hour drive away really got us thinking..

One of the features we like about the city is the fact that the Garden of the Gods park is located virtually smack in the middle of it. It's a beautiful area of red rock sandstone formations with numerous hiking and walking trails all around...and access to it is free, thanks to the gift of the land to the city by a local philanthropic family many years ago.

The city is located in a beautiful setting, with the mountains of the Front Range framing it prettily to the west. The fact that there are several military bases located here didn't hurt either. The Air Force Academy is located just north of the city and certainly must occupy one of the most dramatic settings of any campus in America.

Long story short: we started looking at apartments, condos and townhouses - casually at first as we idly entertained the idea of how nice it would be to actually live here. After looking at a number of neighborhoods and finding nothing of interest we chanced upon an ad on a website specializing in military rentals, made an appointment with the owner... and found a place that was ideal for us. So...we signed a contract and will be moving to the little townhouse below on October 1st. It's been a bit of a scramble for the past week or so trying to sort all this out while we're in the middle of a summer trip, but Rita flew back to Vancouver the other day to interview movers for a prospective pack out at the end of next month. Once everything is resolved and we've contracted for the move she'll fly back to Denver (we're in Rocky Mountain National Park at the moment), I'll collect her at the airport, and we'll continue with the trip. We're supposed to get home around Sept 16 after a week in Yellowstone, and then will have about 10 days to gear up for the big move to Colorado.

Told you there was a lot going on.

Our new townhouse in Colorado Springs. 

To The Grand Canyon

From Escalante we made the long drive back thru Bryce and then on to Northern Arizona and the Grand Canyon where we spent a few days. The crowds weren't as bad as I expected, and the weather cooperated for the most part - ie. not too hot - although the fact that we were up and about pretty early in the day (out the door by 7:30) helped a lot on both counts, and we were able to avoid the late afternoon thunderstorms too. 

Driving around southern Utah is always a treat, with one amazing vista after another opening up as you round every bend in the road. This was a pretty typical scene just driving along the highway near Bryce - not in the park but just along one of the many scenic byways in the state.

This was Rita's first trip to the Grand Canyon. I had been here years ago (actually, a lot of years ago) when I was a kid during summer vacations with my parents. I also had the opportunity to fly thru the canyon (below the rim) when I was a young Naval Aviator back in the early 70's...back when that sort of thing was legal (sort of). It's still an impressive place.

We had no sooner checked into our accommodation when we looked out the back window and saw two big bull elk grazing just across the street. They were pretty acclimated to people, and kept returning to the same area in the afternoon to feed.

The canyon really is one impressive hole in the ground...5,000 ft. at this point down to the Colorado River below. There was a nice, level rim trail that paralleled the canyon drive for about 8 miles, and which you could access via a very nice shuttle bus system that was essentially a hop on, hop service for us. It helped that we caught the bus at 7:45 one morning - no problem with crowds at that hour, although I noticed as we were walking back to the starting point that the buses were pretty stuffed with tourists by about 9:30.

Rita hanging on for dear life at one of the overlooks.

And she about passed out watching these rangers doing a practice rescue during a training exercise that we happened upon as we made our way along the rim trail.

I wanted to do some hiking, so early one morning (5:45 at the trail head to beat the heat) I set off on the Bright Angel trail. Here's a look at the start of it from the top of the rim. Wasn't too bad, and I was carrying plenty of water, but I was a bit leery about overdoing it and starting back up the trail too late in the morning - there were lots of warnings posted at the trail head about it so it was much on my mind. As it was I only walked down to the 3 mile point where they had a rest cabin erected so you could replenish your water supply and generally take a break out of the sun, which really does get intense in a hurry as you descend. Although it was only in the 60's when I departed, the forecast temp that day down at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon was a sultry 104 ...so I was taking it real easy. Interestingly, most of the people I encountered on the trail going in both directions seemed to be foreign visitors and their families. I heard smatterings of German, French, Italian, Dutch and Japanese as I passed.

After an enjoyable few days we proceeded on to a couple of the lesser-known National Parks in this part of the country - Canyon de Chelly and Mesa Verde. Both are elements of a rather extensive complex of ancient  Pueblo Indian settlements that stretch from northwestern Colorado to southern Utah.

Along the way from the Grand Canyon to Canyon de Chelly we stopped off at the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert National Monument. Nice place to stretch our legs and have lunch.

Canyon de Chelly really was a terrific place. Guess there are still Indian families farming and ranching the valley floor below so access is restricted, but the views from the rim were extensive.

There were pueblo-type cave dwellings dotted all around the canyon. Near this spot there was a sign board describing an encounter between the Indians and a band of Spanish Conquistadores in the early 1500's. The Spaniards chased a group of about 115 Indian men, women & children down into one of these declivities, then stood near this spot on the rim and shot them. We Americans have a lot to answer for regarding our treatment of the Indians, but at least we can take some comfort in the fact that, compared to the Spanish, we were gentle and enlightened.

After a couple of days exploring Canyon de Chelly we headed up the road a bit to Mesa Verde. As soon as I figure out what Rita did with the photos I'll update the blog.

Southern Utah

Our next stop was the scenic little town of Cedar City, Utah, which sits close to both Zion and Cedar Breaks National Parks. Plan was to do a lot of hiking in both places, but Rita sprained her ankle our last day in Great Basin so we shifted to Plan B which was to exercise the Outback on several scenic drives in the area. I did a couple of solo hikes in the Kolob Canyons section of Zion - starting at dawn so as to beat most of the heat of the day. 

Kolob Canyon is sort of the "back door" of Zion, and is located about 45 minutes from the main entrance to the park...but only 15 minutes from Cedar City. Most people tend to overlook it since it's a bit out of the way, but it's a terrific destination in its own right. My first solo excursion was early one morning - an attempt to make it to a remote feature called Kolob Arch about 7 miles into the back country. Didn't quite make it - had to turn around when the route became impassable due to a lot of debris washed down and blocking the trail thanks to a rain storm the night before, but I did find a nice place to have lunch and take a short snooze in the shade before turning around and heading back up the canyon. 

As I approached this spot on the return leg I looked over and saw a bushy black tail paralleling my route - just on the other side of the log on the left. All I could see was a tail sticking straight up in the air - couldn't see the creature it was attached to. It took a few seconds for my fatigued brain to register exactly what it was, but I finally noticed that the bushy black tail had a white stripe running down its length - Skunk! Since our paths looked like they might converge a little further along I quickly decided that the prudent course of action would be for me to retreat and give the little guy plenty of room to maneuver - didn't want to startle him and get sprayed for my trouble. So...I backed off about 10 paces and just watched him for a few seconds, at which time he reversed his course and started walking back down the trail...ie directly at me. At that point every newspaper clipping I'd ever read about rabid skunks returned from deep within my subconscious, and my concern shifted from getting sprayed to getting bit. I was imagining the article in the Salt Lake newspaper - "Rabid Skunk Bites Hiker in Zion: after doctors refused treatment because of the smell the man, aged 66 (but whom nurses all agreed looked at least 20 years younger) dies a horrible, lingering death."  Just as I was debating whether to retire back up the trail at a much quicker pace than I'd just been coming down it, the skunk finally saw me and crawled into the hollow log on the right to hide...much to my relief. After waiting a few seconds to make sure he was well inside (and wasn't about to re-emerge) I hustled on by and put as much distance between us as I could. Such was my critter encounter of the week.

Rita's ankle was still pretty swollen after a couple of days, but she was feeling well enough for a short excursion along the back roads and scenic byways of Southern Utah - of which there are plenty.

Our first stop was at Cedar Breaks National Park, located at an elevation of 10,000 ft and sort of a "mini Bryce Canyon", with colorful formations and hoodoos spread along the amphitheater below.

We continued along the scenic loop to Brian Head - a well known ski area in winter and a very pretty place to stretch our legs and have lunch.

The locals were out to meet us - several fat little marmots living in the rocks nearby.

The shelter was apparently built by the CCC back in the 1930's. The temperature on the plain below was 90+, but up here at 11,000 ft it was pretty brisk - especially with a fresh breeze blowing.


We continued the loop and returned to Cedar City via Zion - coming thru it from east to west for the first time after previously doing the drive in the other direction. Don't know if it was just our imagination but it seemed to us that the views were even more spectacular coming this way. We thought about stopping near the main entrance but the crowds were just too immense - couldn't even find a place to park - so we continued up the road a piece.

Next day we headed over to Escalante, which really is in the middle of nowhere except that it sits near the entrance of Grand Staircase National Park and Utah scenic route 12, both of which turned out to be terrific. The scenic route in particular was worth exploring at length, which we tried to do as best we could during the couple of days we were there. They had a gravel road off the main route called "Hell's Backbone" that of course we had to try with the Outback. Turned out to be not quite as bad as the name suggests. It wound about 45 miles thru some high mountain forests before re-emerging onto the paved surface of rte. 12. Had it all to ourselves. One of it's attractions was a cantilevered bridge at the top that spans the chasm between two peaks. Wanted to stop for a photo but Rita would have none of it.

Along the way to Escalante we stopped off in Bryce Canyon again (had been there last year) just to marvel at the beauty of the park drive. Surprisingly few cars on the road - guess it was still too early for the main horde of tourists. On one of our drives near Excalante we spotted the first Badger we've ever seen in the wild.

This was one of the scenic spurs off of route 12. The road snakes its way about 45 miles along this series of back-country canyons. The formations rivaled anything we've seen in Zion or Bryce but with about 1/100th of the traffic - a nice excursion on a sunny day.

Noticed on the map that there was an unpaved road cutting thru the middle of the park which looked like it might save about 60 miles of travel as a shortcut. Asked the lady in the visitor center about it and she assured me that was "usually passable" except when it was wet. Actually thought about giving it a try until I previewed it one day on one of our excursions. Looked like something out of the Aussie Outback and, since it had been raining the day before, we decided to save it for another time and take the long way (paved) around.

One of our last side trips was to Kodachrome Basin State Park, which is notable for all of the "Sand Pipes" littering the valley floor. Must have been 25 or 30 of these things, in various shapes and sizes, within the small area. For some reason Rita insisted on having her picture taken in front of all of them. Said this was her favorite. Not sure what the big deal was, but she really liked it here.

After exploring Southern Utah for a week we're headed for the Grand Canyon. Will be staying in Tusayan, AZ just outside the south entrance for a few days. 

Great Western Tour 2013

On July 19th we departed Vancouver for this year's edition of our Great Summer Tour of the National Parks of the Western US. We'll be on the road for 2 months...not returning until near the end of September. Plan is to revisit some of the places we've visited and enjoyed before as well as to seek out some of the lesser known little "hole in the wall" National Monuments we haven't seen. 

Joseph, OR

First stop was eastern Oregon and the little town of Joseph. Actually, we stayed at Wallowa Lake about 6 miles outside of the town, at the base of  the Eagle Cap Wilderness. The town is named for Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce - the Indian tribe whose ancestral home was the Wallowa Valley, from which they were evicted by the Army in 1877, setting in motion a 1600 mile running battle as the tribe tried to escape first to Montana and later Canada rather than submit to reservation life. Not the proudest episode in American history.

Did a few hikes while we were there, with our favorite being this one up to a local feature called Ice Lake. It was a gentle uphill excursion thru some pretty meadows, with lots of picturesque photo stops along the way like this double waterfall.

Our lunch stop along the way.

We've met some interesting creatures along the trails during our travels, from Kangaroos, Koalas and Emus in Australia to Kiwis in New Zealand - even an occasional Llama now and then, but this was the first time we saw a "pack goat". His name was Zeke, and he was grazing his way up the trail with his family on a sunny Saturday morning.

One of many pretty mountain meadows. Even had a carpet of summer flowers along the trail.


Ketchum, ID

Next stop was Sun Valley, Idaho, mainly to break up the drive but ostensibly to visit Craters of the Moon National Park about an hour away on the plain below. Turned out that the weather was so bloody hot that the idea of tramping across a volcanic gridiron had little appeal for us, so we stayed in the mountains and found a local hike to occupy our time for the day we were there.

It really is a pretty area. If memory serves Sun Valley was a Winter Olympic site many years ago, and the valley is dotted with ski lifts and other outdoor activities catering to a winter crowd. It's nice in the summer too as you can see.

Great Basin NP

Next up was Great Basin National Park in Eastern Nevada. We were here last year and enjoyed it so much that we decided to return. Stayed in a remote ranch just south of the park itself.

Guess there's been a working ranch here for over 100 years, but they only built accommodations for guests in 1995. Lots of evidence of the old days littering the hidden canyon here.

It had one of those "middle of nowhere" signboards nailed to a  Cottonwood tree, and we were surprised to see that Kauai was prominently mentioned.

Since the ranch is the only oasis of water and greenery within a 30 miles radius it attracts wildlife from all around... like these wild turkeys grazing in the grass. Also had a pretty sizeable herd of mule deer about the place, and lots of jackrabbits hopping around the landscape, especially in the early morning.

The major attraction here was the hiking in the National Park itself located about 15 miles north of us. Some pretty dramatic landscapes as you can see. Since the trailhead was located at the 10,000 ft level and ascended from there, there was a bit of huffing and puffing (actually it was more like coughing and wheezing) involved in negotiating the trails. One of the rewards was a grove of Bristlecone Pines hugging the treeline, some of which were over 3,000 years old.

Closing in on the end of the trail. In the canyon just ahead is the remnant of the largest remaining glacier in Nevada...probably the only glacier in Nevada come to think of it. It really is a terrific National Park - one that's largely overlooked by most people unfortunately.

After a few days here it's off to Cedar City, Utah tomorrow for 4 nights. Plan is to use it as a jumping off point for Zion and Cedar Breaks.

Anniversary Trip to Lake Chelan

On June 7th Rita and I celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary, and in honor of the occasion we drove up to Lake Chelan in NE Washington State to spend a few days. Had heard that it was supposed to be an exceptionally pretty place so, when the forecast looked promising, we decided to use our anniversary as a handy excuse to give it a go. Glad we did. Spent the first couple of nights in a terrific little resort right on the south shore of the Lake in the town of Chelan. Did some exploring, both on foot and in the car, to check some of the neat little neighborhoods and parks that dot that end of the lake. It was still pretty early in the year - their "season" doesn't officially kick off until the middle of June - but it turned out great for us since we were able to book the place at about half price compared to what the rates will be just a few days later. We also needed to do some shopping in advance of our trip further up the lake to the town of Stehekin, which is only accessible by ferry or be float plane -  no roads in or out. The place we were staying advised us that we'd need to bring our food with us on the ferry since there really were no markets in the town.

Stehekin itself is extremely isolated, remote....and picturesque. No telephone, TV or internet connectivity for 4 days. It was wonderful - one of most relaxing little side trips we've ever experienced. Here are a few photos:

Approaching Stehekin on the "Lady of the Lake" ferry after the 4 hour trip from Chelan. The lake is essentially a fjord - an extremely deep gap cut between two facing mountain ridges. The ferry made a few stops along the way to drop passengers and supplies at remote little out of the way places. The town (what there was of it) is just to the right. The place we stayed is straight ahead in the photo, nestled in the cover of the trees. 

Our only neighbors for the four days were several families of Canada geese. This was a pretty typical scene in the morning and evening...just watching the fat little goslings trailing along behind Mom and Dad as we drank our coffee.

Also had several families of Mergansers (ducks) like this Mama soaking up the sun on a log with her little puffball ducklings.

We made good use of the free bikes provided at our place to do some exploring up and down the valley. Here's Rita in front of the one room schoolhouse...a throwback to a bygone era (the school I mean).

Looking upstream from one of the remote bridges. Can't see it very well, but the sides of the stream behind Rita were covered by clouds of blooming wild dogwood - beautiful (both Rita and the dogwood).

And of course we did a couple of lengthy hikes. The first one was a level 8 miler along the Stehekin River. The trailhead was just at the approach end of Stehekin Intergalactic Airport - the grassy strip you see just in front of me - and wandered thru the soft Spring landscape to a sandy beach at a State Park on the lake, which made for a pretty picnic spot. Saw several piles of bear scat but no bears out foraging. We did see a couple of deer that didn't seem to be too skittish though.

Our second day hike was 7.5 miles along the shore of Lake Chelan itself. Very pretty walk and, since we happened to be on the trail around 12:30 PM, we got to see the Lady of the Lake pass by on her daily run.

After a very pleasant few days relaxing to the max we caught the return ferry to Chelan, picked up the car, and drove part of the way home to the town of Wenatchee where we spent the night. Next day was gloriously sunny for our return to Vancouver. We drove back the scenic way - past Mt. Rainer National Park. As you can see, the mountain was out in all her glory on the clear day.

Been home now for about a week and have no more trips planned until we start the big National Parks circuit in late July. Intention is to visit Yellowstone, the Black Hills, Rocky Mountain NP, the Grand Canyon, Zion, and several of the smaller and lesser known parks and monuments during the course of an 8 week trip that should finish up back here in Vancouver around the middle of September. Looking forward to that, and in the meantime we've been enjoying some of the prettiest weather of the year here in the Pacific Northwest.

Spring Visit to Valdosta

In May we flew east to spend a few weeks with Mike, Jennah and the grand kids. The occasion was Makenna's First Holy Communion or, as they call it now, her first "Reconciliation". Looks like this may be our last visit to Georgia for a while, since Mike & Jennah have just gotten written orders to Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque where they'll be stationed for the next 3 or 4 years. 

Had a great family visit:  attended several of Makenna's end of the school year events, helped out by running the kids to and from school and other appointments to give Jennah a break, and even helped get the house organized for the upcoming move. Kevin came up from St. Augustine for the last 10 days or so, so we had a good visit with him too.

Took the kids to their horse therapy on Saturday mornings. There's a ranch about 30 minutes north of town that offers horse riding for autistic children, and Shane has been participating in that for a couple of years. They also allow Makenna to ride most of the time which makes for an enjoyable day out for both of the kids...Nana & Grandpa too.

Shane mounted up and raring to go.

Sunday May 21st was the big day for Makenna. Here's a nice shot of the brother & sister before we departed for the church.

Mom & Dad posing with the girl of the hour.

and a nice photo of the four of us.

And finally, Kevin and Makenna in front of the church after the ceremony. 

Since our return to Vancouver Mike & Jennah have started the process - movers came and packed them out in early June, and their new renters (another AF couple) moved in immediately after they vacated the place. The family is staying in a new TLF (transient housing) at Moody until the end of July when they'll be heading west. Guess they've already found a nice rental apartment in Albuquerque, so they'll have just enough time to complete their move and get settled in before Mike reports to his new job and Makenna starts school. We plan to stop by and see them in their new place in early August as part of a longer National Parks tour we're planning this summer.

Spring Update

Since our return from Mexico we've been taking it pretty easy...and basically waiting hopefully for it to stop raining here in Vancouver.

Before leaving on our trip in December we placed a special order for a new car, and our new Subaru Outback was waiting for us when we got home in early March. Had been looking at them for a couple of years and finally decided to buy one. We had noticed during our trip to Alaska a couple of years ago, and again more recently last summer in Colorado, that they seemed to be all over the place. The endorsement of people who live in some pretty challenging environments was good enough for me so we picked one up in expectation of future road trips around the National Parks of the west and, who knows, maybe back up to Alaska again. Been having fun breaking it in with exploratory drives in and around the area.

Looking forward to stretching the legs of our new Outback later this summer.


Our first side trip was down to Travis AFB near Sacramento - wanted to check it out for future Space A opportunities since it's the major west coast hub for military traffic...mainly heading west towards Hawaii and Asia. Along the way we stopped off in Gold Hill, OR for a night with Rita's brothers Rick and Ray. Spent an enjoyable dinner celebrating their birthdays.

Ray, Rita, Rick's wife Mary, and Rick waiting for Mexican food.

We also stopped off in Sacramento to visit with Marge & Dick Heintz - Rita's Aunt and Uncle and two nice folks that provided us a ton of useful information before our trip to Alaska a couple of years ago. They did it by driving an RV up the Alaska Highway many years ago, and after talking with them about their experience we've started thinking about doing it that way ourselves within the next couple of years...maybe driving up and then shipping the car home like we did last time.

Went out to dinner with the two of them, and then spent a most relaxing and enjoyable evening with them at their home. Unfortunately, after taking care to make sure that we'd brought the camera with us we got so caught up in the enjoyment of the evening that we forgot to bring it out and take some photos so, no pix unfortunately.

Our most recent excursion was up to NAS Whidbey, again to check out potential Space A opportunities since I noticed that they occasionally have flights heading east and then on to Europe. Made a 3 day trip out of it by then catching the Washington State ferry over to Port Townsend and spending the night. The weather cooperated - it was gloriously sunny - and the little town (one of our favorites) was just waking up from its long winter nap so there weren't too many (other) tourists about. Explored the petty little town on foot at our leisure, ate some great local seafood, drank gallons of great coffee, and then rode Highway 101 back south towards home. Made for a great excursion, and now the Outback is officially broken in and ready for its summer adventures.

It's really a quaint old Victorian town, and having the ferry dock right on Main St. only adds to the overall charm of the place.

After our return we had about a week before heading out again on a 3 week trip to visit the kids and grand kids in Valdosta...which is where we are now. The occasion is Grand Daughter Makenna's first Holy Communion on May 19. Looks like this may be our last trip to Valdosta for a while - Mike has orders to Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque this summer and it looks like a late July move, so our next visit will likely be part of our National Park circuit later this summer.