This small pond was built about 1900 to provide water for the large herd of sheep that were raised at this ranch. Today it is visited by scores of birds and animals and feeds a stream across the landscape and gathers in yet another pond about three miles away. This is all at the Valles Caldera National Preserve in NM.
The Longmeir House is just behind me so if you watch that show this pond might be visible.
…and yet one more park! For number 381 we stopped at the Ulysses Grant farm in St Louis. It is on land that abuts the former home of the farm where Anheuser-Busch raised and kept the famous horses. It is still a popular park.
The house that is the center of the Grant Park was the home of his wife, Juila. They lived here for 8 years and than after the Civil War they purchased it but did not live in it any longer. The NPS site is small but in addition to the house there are two outbuildings, a barn turned into a museum and the VC itself. The house is painted “Paris Green” but maintained the original name of White Haven.
Then we were able to get through St Louis so well we chose to not stop for the night but go on to Bloomington. Unfortunately, we had the wrong Bloomington in the GPS and spent over an hour heading to Bloomington, Illinois. When we discovered the error, we were still the original 3 hours and 45 minutes from the correct town and so we got in very late. We solved that issue by sleeping late the next morning. It was all worth it to wake up to the smiles of Mary Evelyn.
almost the last day, we still need to return to Knoxville.
Pleasant setting
Yes, it really is that color
Wildflowers on the property
Two more parks that I wish did not exist for they are reminders that people can be very cruel to each other, and often beyond cruelty. The first stop that morning was near the very small town of Granada at the Amache Japanese Relocation Camp - for “relocation” read internment and it is more accurate. 10,000 people of Japanese ancestry mostly from Los Angeles were housed here in barracks for the duration of WWII. I understand the anxiety of the potential threat however, the solution was excessive and too often those who were sent to these camps did not recover their homes or businesses.
The second stop was much worse. Here after an hour drive on very rural roads and miles of dirt roads as well, we came to the site of the Sand Creek Massacre. There is zero rationale for this. A large band, 750 estimated, of indians mostly women and children and elderly men who were in the last stages of peace negotiations with the US government, were attacked and slaughtered. Rather than recap this disgusting event, if you wish you can read about it her:: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Creek_massacre.
From here we made our way to Salina Kansas where we had dinner with some of Jill’s relatives and stayed the night with Jill’s Sister-in-Law, Greta Lagerberg. It was nice to spend some time there.
Crossing Colorado from Mesa Verde we stayed mostly on two lane route 160 through beautiful scenery and a neat pass across the Rocky Mountains that crested at 10860 feet. We arrived at about 4 hours to Great Sand Dunes NP. This is the next to the last NP (not NPS site) I need for all the lower 48 states. The last one is Lassen Volcanic in Northern California. But back to the Sand Dunes. It is an odd site to see these dunes reaching up to about 900 feet over the desert floor against a mountain backdrop. The primary activity is boarding down the dunes and lots of people were. It was otherwise a beach with no ocean! We took a neat hike along a nature trail and a bit of a walk on the dunes. Then across miles of eastern Colorado desert to a tiny town where we spent the night in preparation for two more parks in the morning.
A long shot of the Cliff Palace as we approached the ‘village.”
I miss scheduled the posts. So two are up today, therefore none tomorrow.
We were up at on the way early today. The Wetherill Mesa is not open all the time. I have not been here when it was open so this was an opportunity but we had tickets for a 12:30 tour so we had to go early as it is 45 minutes drive one way and an hour back to the tour site. This is a remote section where you drive on several “knife edge” ridges. When we arrived, we walked to several pit houses AD 600, a pueblo AD 800, and an overlook to another interesting cliff dwelling. We tried another hike but were out of time. So back to the main center where we had time to glance around the museum and then on to our tour. The tour is down a couple hundred feet - steps and trail and up a ladder to the largest of the cliff dwellings, Cliff Palace. A name the guide disliked as it was never anything other than a large housing complex. It is so neat to hear the lecture of the well-versed guide while standing in the midst of the dwelling. Getting out after is a neat part of the experience too, as you go up very narrow stairs set in crevices along the rock and up three ladders. Off to lunch and then back for a lecture about the Spruce Tree House. It is currently closed as they are trying to secure the rock “ceiling” above the dwelling and have not been successful for 10 years. They are ready to try another “fix.” We had walked about 7 miles at this point and so we called it a day and ate leftovers in the room. Tomorrow we head East.
We left Arches and headed to Colorado and the Mesa Verde National Park. Located on a high mesa, this park has several canyons, 600 cliff dwellings and nearly 5000 other sites ranging from pit houses built about 500 to farm terraces and pueblos from 1100.. There are so many still being discovered so the park has outlawed ANY off trail or road excursions. Some have been explored and filled in to protect them many have not. We arrived about 4 in the afternoon - but spent some time in Cortez at a famous trading post, Notah Dineh, Found a couple of things to bring home and ate a nice lunch in the town. We are staying two nights in the NP lodge, Far View. Old but great views and nice to be in the park. It is a drive once you get here, 15 miles to the lodge and 8 more to the old visitor center and still many more miles to other sites. We just explored the dwelling, Spruce Tree House and a drive along a canyon with several overlooks to see more ruins. Ate dinner in the lodge lounge.
I forgot to post this photo from Canyonlands. Want to get to the bottom, you drive this road and that road in the distance is NOT the bottom. No thank you.
Complex viewed from the rim drive
Spruce Tree House, a very famous landmark, 90 rooms
Spruce Tree close up. Note the white top, red bottom of the second tier of the left tower. All these rooms were plastered and painted. Inside and out. This was built about 1150
This morning we were up a bit earlier and out to Arches NP again. Today we did the major tourist arches, Windows, Double, Turret and Park Avenue. Except Jill and I gave many of the formations much more appropriate names: Prairie Dog, Mummy, Ink Well, Wise Men, Cathedral, Old Ladies Shoe, Elf Shoe, Lion Head and Lasagna Rock with Cheese. Make sure and look for the renamed features when you make your trip here. After a couple of hours, we returned to town and I had a disappointing coffee. Back to the hotel for laundry. We then took a drive to the Canyonlands National Park. It is due west of Moab but you go north 10 miles and then southeast. It is a stunning canyon. Wind was heavy but it also cleared the view. The sign said you could see 152 miles on clear days. We were close to that.
Back to Moab for dinner at the Baja Grill. It has been here 25 years and the food shows why it has sustained all these years. Fine food, another excellent choice by our scout, Spike. Spike will get his own page inn a week or so, stay tuned.
We pull up stakes (I am starting to talk western) and plan to mosey south to Mesa Verde National Park when the suns up.
Pictures today are most of the “Classic” arches most people view.
South Window Arch
Turret Arch
Double Arch - always looks like three to me
One of ten “hidden” arches in this area
Jill’s Arch
We were not off early today but still got to arches national Park before it was too crowded. We drove to the back, first, and started from there with a couple of brief stops on the way. We parked where there is never a crowd, at the end of the campground loop and took the Broken Arch trail. This 1.7 mile hike has everything. You get to see two arches, you hike through high dessert sandscape, over slick rock, through the broken arch and down a steep drop, naviate a long trail back that has elevation, rock scrambles and often uncertainty that causes one to wonder if they are possibly still on the right trail. The answer is, yes! After that we parked at an overlook, ate our “in-car” lunch and then went to the Fiery Furnace overlook and then the sneaky way to view Delicate Arch, the one on the Utah license plate, and then the old ranch nearby. We headed back to the hotel about 4 and off to a very nice dinner at Thai Bella. After a long walk though town we returned to the room and shared our second pie from the Gifford house at Capital Reef. Tomorrow, earlier, we are back to Arches.
We were just 10 minutes from Capital Reef and the first stop at the park (after coffee in Torrey) was at the Gifford House. They sell small pies that are pie perfection. Bought a cherry and a mixed berry. Lots more about the orchards and pie next week. The park is neat. We drove the scenic road to the end, then along a more or less one lane dirt and sand road another 3 or 4 miles to the parking area for our hike in the Capital Reef Gorge. This was once a road in and out of the settlement and you can still see an occasional pipe inserted into the canyon wall that held a phone line. About 1/2 mile in we arrived at the wall where both indian petroglyphs and settlers added names and dates to their journey thought this pass. We had nice morning here but rain started just as we returned to the car so after a stop at the VC and a second petroglyph site, we headed toward Arches. This is a road with no services, very few signs of any inhabitation for miles. Just high desert and canyons. Beautiful. We arrived in Moab about 3, settled into our hotel, very nice, and explored a bit of the town after an excellent dinner at Pasta Jo’s. Then a trip to Arches to see sunset. It was a bit underwhelming but still nice to be out on a very comfortable night. What was special were the Mammatus clouds and a rainbow. Just too cool.
We will return to Arches in the morning and also a brief stop at Canyonlands National Park.
Rainbow and the forming Mammatus clouds.
Mammatus Cloud
balance rock from this perspective looked more like Nefertiti Egyptian Queen in 14th century BC, according to Jill. It is good that we are renaming all of these formations.
Arches sunset
It has been awhile but today I added a new park, Cedar Breaks the 377th park, to the long list of National Park Service sites I have visited and photographed. This was my third attempt to get here. I forget the reason why the first try did not succeed but the last one was because the park did not open until August (I was here late May when they still had 8 feet of snow on the ground.) Third time charm is how the saying goes. The park is a little over an hour north of Zion at over 10,000 feet. It is a huge 2500 feet deep and 3 mile across “amphitheater.” Jill and I also saw our first Bristlecone Pine, a relatively young one about 1600 years old, less than half the oldest of its kind. This tree started about the time the Romans left Britannia. We enjoyed the view, a hike on the upper Alpine Lake trail and the fact that the rest rooms opened on May 22nd for the season. The drive here from Kanab was really pretty but the drive to the next park, Bryce, was spectacular as we descended into a canyon from 11,000 feet about 2 miles out of the park, to 5100 feet in less than 10 miles. Steep 18% grade in places, winding, windy and raining. A great combo. Also made more interesting because I made a wrong turn and we missed the short way to Bryce and added 45 minutes to our trip.. Oops. If only someone told me (Jill did!) but off I went anyway.
We did finally arrive at Bryce with the residual crowds from Memorial Day Weekend lessoned but many people were still here. We did find a parking space, there were several by 1:30 when we got here. We hiked along the rim trail and then did 1/2 mile of the under the rim trail. Just enough to get a feel for the size and colors of the Hoodoos. We took a long way back to the car, my day for misdirection and headed toward Torrey, Utah. We settled in at a sort of okay hotel and had a good but very overpriced meal at a nearby Mexican restaurant. Tomorrow we will start the day with a visit to Capital Reef National Park Stay tuned for the PIE.
The deep amphitheater at Cedar Breaks
Alpine Trail
At Cedar Breaks you get to experience Spring again
with snow still on the ground
A bristlecone
Bryce Canyon
We were tired from the 18,000 steps at Zion and navigating the crowds, so we slept in. Or Jill did, I wish I did, but I did sleep OK. Up about 6:30. I worked on photos, jill wrote in our log, that is so much more as she processes a day. Fun to see things through her eyes. Then we watched Cedar Springs Church service as the options here seemed iffy at best. I cleaned up a bit of the car, Jill worked on some packing and then we went into town. Our plan included a few stops, a historic house, a visitor center museum and a coffee shop. After that the plans changed. We had been told a few times to go to the Best Friends Animal Society and take a tour. Well we did. Quite an amazing operation on 6500 acres of beautiful canyon land where the operate a no kill rescue facility that employs over 400 people with a budget in excess of 200 million dollars a year. Quite a free tour, beautiful scenery and a great story. They have dozens of buildings, a restaurant, lodging, RV park, cutting edge health care for all the animals and scores of volunteers. They influence shelters across the US with their ground-breaking policies and care. Not on our plan but a worthwhile 90 minutes. We returned to the house to complete packing and clean up, rode to a nice lake where we walked a bit and stopped in a grocery for a few things. Ate dinner with the leftovers from last night. Just one photo today, taken at the Animal Shelter’s porch.
Off in the AM for Cedar Breaks and Bryce Canyon and back to more hiking and photography. Thanks for peeking in and we are back on track for photos and parks tomorrow.
Zion on Memorial Day Saturday - good planning Dave. Well it is when were are here. Plus I did not realize Memorial Day was this weekend. Oops. Still we were up and out by 6:20 for our one hour trek to Zion. We entered from the East side with no delays, through the crazy rock hewn tunnel (built in two years starting 1928 - some of our current building projects should take a lesson). We arrived at the VC at 7:28 - there were zero parking slots! However, I recalled that there were a very few, maybe 30 spots, at the Human History Museum. And guess who got the last one! We shuttled back to the VC and got in line for the bus to the end of the canyon. Only took 35 minutes to get a bus. At the hike to the narrows, it was not too crowded but very busy. Still enjoyable. We veered off the trail and walked along the river a couple of times. Then back on the shuttle and a stop at the Weeping Rocks. This is a place that I have often had to myself, not today. Lovely spot however. Then to the lodge for a cold drink and the hike to the Emerald Pools. They were neither emerald or pools today, not enough water to make a pool of any color. Back to the bus stop and return to the car where I gave up my spot to a very grateful family. We stopped just before the tunnel and perched on the edge of the road - safely - while we ate our picnic lunch. We made it through the tunnel in pretty good time but the wait on the other side must have been over an hour.
I was glad to visit Zion with Jill but I took only a few photos. Crowds were a factor, heat a bit and lack of opportunity to walk easily in certain places. Plus, I have four other trips worth of scenic shots and this was not the best day for taking time for good photography. We returned to Kanab, had a nice walk in town, ate a very good dinner at the Wild Thyme Restaurant and settled in for the night.
Oh, I almost forgot, since they are not open on Sunday, Jill and I managed to share another scoop of the delicious Bobbie and Nate ice cream from the Brown Box. The amazing Lemon-lavendar is one we will try and recreate once back in Knoxville.
Jill and the start of the Narrows along the West Fork of the Virgin River.
The meager drips of the Emerald Waterfall.
Along a hike
It was not intended to be such a slow day but a migraine made it so.
Not that we had too much planned for the day. It was one that we expected to spend exploring the area. We began at Duke’s a small clothing store in town to get Jill a sunshirt that would be comfortable and not as hot. Success. We walked the town, looked at the many movie information signs and ate a light lunch at the Brown Bo:, soup, bread and a cookie. We also walked through the historic Parry Lodge, where the casts of many movies stayed during the shooting in the area.
Then I needed to get into a dark place and ingest some more aspirin. Later that evening, feeling a bit better, Jill drove us into the Johnson Canyon about 10 miles east of Kanab. This is where many movies were filmed and the show Gunsmoke shot. The last of the long fallen-into-rubble set was removed a couple of months ago. Still neat to see where Marshal Dillon held sway.
We again ate dinner at the Rocking V. Amazing burger! Then a scoop of ice cream - Caramel with brownie bites. Bed early for we were going to Zion an hours drive in the early morning. Unfortunately- I slept little, an issue with my migraine meds.
Johnson Canyon
Graffiti on the wall, called “Cowboy” graffiti. There is an ‘ad” for Kodak Film and Jason’s Store and Garage that offers ice
This is where Gunsmoke’s town set was and all the episodes were shot here. (also F-troop at a fort set south of here and “How the West was Won” plus scores more.
We drove from Williams AZ to Kanab Utah. It was a bit over 5 hours of driving. It took us across miles of the Navaho tribal lands, where we stopped a bit to take in view points. We also stopped at the Glen Canyon Dam. It was 173 feet below full, at 23% capacity. No snow this past winter is tough on the water supply for millions of people. And while it is much less important it also meant that for the fourth time I did not get to see the Rainbow Bridge National Monument. The boats cannot reach the area with this little water in the lake. I believe I will X that one off my list.
We stopped at one of the scores of places to hike in the Grand Staircase Esclante National Monument at the Toadstool. It is a one mile out and then back the same trail. It was quite hot, about 88 degrees in full sun. It is a neat hike to a very interesting rock formation, actually several of them, that gives the hike its name. After, we continued on Route 89 to Kanab our base for four days. We arrived at a most perfect VRBO, just delightful with wonderful hosts next door who insisted we do not go into town for a laundry but use their own.
We ate an excellent dinner at Rocking V Cafe in town. Cowboy Chicken was mine with “to die for” potatoes and corn while Jill had the Grand Staircase, a multi-layered tortilla with veggies, cheeses, some greens and a green chili sauce. We had no leftovers to bring back to the house.
And Ice Cream. Yay, Spike. We had excellent homemade unique ice cram at the Brown Box. Jill had a lavender - lemon and I, a nutter butter. We will be back.
We are planning a slower, not too much drving day tomorrow to explore the town and the area. Then a long day at Zion.
The Grand Canyon is still here if you were concerned. But it sure is busy. Shuttle buses, parking lots with names and numbers, and lots of people but, surprisingly, it did not feel too crushed. I guess because it is a grand canyon. We arrived mid-afternoon by design having eaten a nice lunch and meandered through some shops in Williams. This way we avoided the long lines to enter the park, sometimes over an hour. We were in the park in less than 10 minutes and parked near the VC. First a long walk along the rim. Jill’s first visit here and she wrote: “It was much more than I expected. Walking from the parking lot and suddenly there it was in all its inexpressible majesty - peak upon peak of towering cliffs stretching away below us for 10 miles. ….Every step you took opened up new vistas and new perspectives.”
We then bused to the historic village and looked at some of the original Mary Coulter buildings and enjoyed more views. Then a bit of nostalgia for me. In 1960 my dad came to Phoenix to try for a job. My mom and I were in tow. He did not get the job but we came north to Flagstaff for the Indian Pow Wow, then to the Grand Canyon. My Aunt provided us with a bit of vacation as she had traveled here twice and knew I would love the experience. We stayed in the lodge, not a big deal back then. Just one night - i don’t recall much of the arrival but the next moring I was on my own for about 3 hours and ended up sitting most of the time on a rock watching the colors of the canyon change. I was awed. I had not been back to the lodge since. So it was very moving for me and Jill took my photo about the same place I sat for most of that morning. I think my love of travel began that day.
We then drove a bit east and found a perfect spot for our picnic and watched the sun go down. What a wonderful day.
We did a slower day today. Checked out the laundry facility and vetoed it - try at Kanab later this week. Explored a bit of the town, bought food for two picnics, one today and one tomorrow at the Grand Canyon.
We chose to drive into the Oak Creek Canyon that is just south of Flagstaff. Perfect choice. The landscape is so pretty and dramatic as you descend nearly 2000 feet. First stop was at an outdoor Indian market where we bought a nice Navaho made ornament for the Christmas tree. Then to a picnic area where we had massive cliffs rising over us, birds everywhere, blue skies and spring green trees. It was about 68 degrees and no wind. Perfect. Then off to our hike on the West Fork trail. It took us past the remains of an old small inn built here in the thirties and visited by many famous people over the years. Sadly it burned in 1980. The hike was really nice with simply glorious scenery. If this were Zion it would have had hundreds of people hiking the trail but here we passed only a few. Lots of solitude to hear the steam and the wind in the trees and the great variety of birds. Merlin ID’d 24..
We gave Spike two days off (picnic, remember) so he could fly north to Kanab, our next stay spot and redeem himself with a decent ice cream choice. So, along with our picnic we sought out a Chick-fl-A for a quick dinner. Clearly we do need guidance.
Finished the day with a walk up the old Route 66 street in Williams. Lots of neon.
Tomorrow is going to be a Grand view.
Breakfast was wonderful at the Pueblo Cultural Center. Jill had a blue corn meal porridge with nuts, seeds and fruit. I had Superfood pancakes - three massive ones. I gave one to Jill and ate one and a half of the remaining two. They also were made with blue corn meal and a host of healthy nuts and grains. Really good and this meal took care of lunch too, with the exception of a shared apple!
Off to the Painted Desert. Jill wrote in our log:
“The area for miles is flat prairie and then suddenly you are looking over a canyon that stretches for miles and miles. It is full of scrub covered rocky hills and valleys and the colors are those gorgeous desert shades of peach and salmon, red brick, lavender, indigo, sandy brown and gray. The grandeur of it is overwhelming. What God hath wrought!“
The wind was fierce the whole trip and tiring to drive with maximum concentration on the nearly five hour journey from Albuquerque to Williams. Nice to share the driving.
Our next stop was Walnut Canyon National Monument. This is a really cool place to visit and overlooked by most people who are here to see the Grand Canyon. Here you can walk the Island trail that takes you around a mile loop of an outcropping of the canyon that winds through the homes that were built under the overhanging rocks. (You get the added benefit of adding 800 stairs to your daily step count!) How these people lived was extraordinary. Water was obtained by a steep and long descent to the intermittent stream and carried by one clay pot at a time and stored in pottery vessels for the dry season. They farmed the flat land above, hunted and lived in a community of about 200-300 homes from around 1000 to 1250 and then abandoned the site. The people here merged into the Hopi but still revere the site and remember those “who stayed behind.”
Arrived in Williams at an unexpectedly large - read Disneyesque - hotel. Found a good dinner at the Pine Diner, once again Spike scores. The pie was so good that Spike is given a few days reprieve for not finding good ice cream. Still….
One of the overlooks at the Painted Desert
The VC at the Painted Desert portion of park was once a small hotel and restaurant and this is the restored 1940’s lunch counter.
Walnut Canyon
Did I mention the pancakes?
