Category: National Park Tour
A Day of Monuments

A Day of Monuments

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Hey Guys! Since we’re on a National Park Tour we decided to cram three National Monuments into one very long day. Three. I’m not sure that was one of our better ideas…but we did it and we all survived…barely. Ha!

Our first stop was in the Shash Jaa Unit of Bears Ears National Monument. Bears Ears is made up of two different units and is bursting with ancestral dwellings, rock art, and amazing rock formations. The whole National Monument is contained within about 228,000 acres. The Shash Jaa Unit has some incredible cliff dwellings tucked into the sides of cliffs and in caves.

Bears Ears NM is so big…and we were trying to squish three different National Monuments into one day…so we had to pick and choose what we made time for during this visit. My main interest was a place I’d found out about several years ago…House on Fire. The trick is to get there during the right time of day so that the sun bounces off the canyon floor and hits the cliff dwelling giving it a fiery glow. We got there too early and joined the small group who were also there to see the phenomenon of House on Fire. While we waited I took pictures from several angles at several different times. I took some with my good camera…I took some with my phone camera…I took some up-close…far away… You get the point. I was covering all of my bases trying to capture the amazing effect I’d seen on the interwebs. I got it! I had several different pictures that I deemed worthy. And, honestly, my phone camera picked up the effect just as good as my expensive camera.

Bears Ears National Monument is a newer National Park. There’s not an official visitor center yet. It seemed to us that the area BLM Rangers and National Park Service Rangers were all kind of sharing the stewardship of this particular park. We hope to one day go back and explore more of this amazing park. BTW…Bears Ears NM is named for the two towering buttes that stand out against the surrounding landscape. You can see them in the picture on the right.

Natural Bridges National Monument was our second stop of the day. This might be a good time to tell you the difference between an arch and a natural bridge. An arch has to have an opening of three feet and is the remnants of geological stone formations such as fins, ridges, or rock cliffs. A natural bridge is formed when running water cuts through a canyon wall. Natural bridges are actually more rare than arches. Another noteworthy difference is that bridges tend to be lower in canyons while arches are usually higher up and easier to spot. Both are formed from different types of erosional forces.

Natural Bridges National Monument is the home to three of the world’s largest natural bridges and all of them are within the same canyon. Sipapu Bridge is actually taller than the National Capitol Building. There are short but steep hikes down to each of the three bridges. You can see them from some well placed viewpoints as well. We’d already done some hiking this day and the boys were starting to make noise about lunch, so we opted to gaze at the natural bridges from afar instead of hiking down to each of them.

Our last stop of the day was Hovenweep National Monument. This National Monument tells the story (or at least what we know of the story) of a group now known as the Ancestral Puebloan people. There have been people living in and around Little Ruin Canyon for thousands of years. They started out as hunter/gatherers and somewhere around AD 900, settlements began appearing along the cliff walls and around the top of the canyon. In the 1200s, the Ancestral Puebloans started adding pit houses, kivas, and pueblos to the community that was now around 2,500 members strong.

Most of the ruins you can see standing today were built in the mid to late 1200s. This little community was just one in a whole system of settlements. Each community was a days walk to the next community. There’s a bit of a puzzle as to why so many stone towers were built in this particular location and why they were placed in sometimes precarious positions along the canyon rim or within the canyon. No one knows why the Ancestral Puebloan people seemed to suddenly disappear or why they left or even where they went.

We’ve always enjoyed learning about our country’s history. Some of our favorite National Park Units tell the story of the first people to call our country home. We had several great conversations as we walked through these ancient dwellings. Where did they go…why did they leave…why did they build the towers? Sometimes we leave a National Park with more questions than when we got there and that’s ok. One of the reasons we go to National Parks is to learn and sometimes you have to learn what questions to ask before you can find the answer.

Well, Guys…I think I’m going to hit the pause button again on the Moab area adventures. I’ve got more to share with you so stay tuned!

See y’all down the road!

#NationalParkTour
Arches and Canyons

Arches and Canyons

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Hey Guys!! We made it to Utah!! We loved Colorado quite a bit and we’re totally going to miss it, but we were ready to adventure into a different state…at least for a little while.

Y’all know we’re on a National Park Tour so it shouldn’t be a surprise that our first stop in Moab was Arches National Park. We stayed pretty close to Arches, so we were in and out of the park on a fairly consistent basis during our two weeks in the area. We would head there in the late afternoons to get some hiking in and it worked out pretty well because most other explorers were headed out about that same time which meant…fewer people in the park.

Arches National Park is home to over two thousand natural arches made out of sandstone. There are several arches you can see right from the paved road that winds its way through the park. But, if you want to really experience an arch…you’ll need to get out of your car and get some sand under your feet. To photograph an arch, you’ll want a little distance so you can get the whole arch in the shot, but to get a good feel for how big some of these arches are, you’ll need to get up close to one. This can be easier said than done on most days in the park. Arches NP is super crowded with tons of other people trying to get “the view” of that same arch you’re trying so hard to get “that shot” of. It can be frustrating. We try to avoid going into a busy NP during the weekend or over a holiday. We had better luck with crowds by going during odd times…usually later in the afternoon/evening throughout the week when most people were leaving.

Arches are the main attraction at this National Park, but they aren’t the only attraction. There are also towering sandstone spires, pinnacles, fins, and balanced rocks. Some formations look like elephants! To get to Sandstone Arch, you have to hike between two sandstone fins! It was a really short and neat hike.

It takes a lot to make an arch. You have to have the right kind of rock and it has to be exposed to just the right combination of environmental factors…and time…lots and lots of time. In order to be considered an “official arch”… there has to be at least three feet of space within the opening of the arch. Becoming an arch is no easy task.

If you’ve ever seen a postcard or a sticker or sign for Arches National Park, chances are…you’ve seen Delicate Arch. Delicate Arch is the poster arch for all arches at Arches National Park. It’s the arch that all of the other arches want to be. It’s a stand-alone, complete arch with an awesome view. There are two ways to see Delicate Arch. You can go to one of two viewpoints or you can go to the trail-head and hike the mile and half up, up and up to get to the actual arch. We did both. We stopped by the viewpoints first, but when we saw how far away we still were…we went back on a different day to hike up to Delicate Arch. I’m so glad we hiked it…the view from the top is spectacular and while there was quite a lot of up to this hike, it wasn’t too horrible.

Our favorite hikes at Arches National Park was the Devils Garden. There are several different trails and arches you can get to within the Devils Garden. We did the four mile Double O Arch Trail and it was awesome! When you first start this trail the crowd can be a bit thick, but once you get to the good stuff…the part where you climb up the back of one of the fins…the crowd starts to thin. And then when you walk across the back of a different fin…Guys…the views. I caught the boys with their mouths hanging open and their cameras out trying to capture the amazingness of this hike. I know, I know, some of you don’t think amazingness is a real word…and if it’s not…well, it should be. It. Should. Be.

We timed our Double O Arch hike just right. We got there ogled all of the views, shimmied down the back of the fin and made it to the trail-head right as the light show started during that evening’s sunset. We stopped the car several times so we could all sit and watch the sunset. Mother Nature was not playing around that night…no…she was showing us some of her best stuff. She always wins. Always.

We only spent a day at Canyonlands National Park. We were a little farther away from it and there was so much to see and do in the area that we didn’t want to take the time to drive all the way back. We only had time to visit one of the three sections of Canyonlands NP. We spent time in the Island in the Sky section. We’ve already discussed the need to go back and see more of this park. It is, after all, the biggest national park in Utah and that is saying something.

We did the scenic drive, stopped at all the stops, and got in a couple of short hikes, but we were really wanting to drive down into the canyon and then find our way over to Potash road where we could drive back to Moab…on a dirt road…following the Colorado River for most of it. Y’all know how we are about dirt roads. Ha! Canyonlands National Park has a canyon within a canyon within a canyon. I’m not even joking. There are three layers of canyons at work in the picture above!

We seem to always find ourselves on a dirt road. What is it about dirt roads that we love so much? Well, they usually take us to some pretty dang awesome places and…not many people are equipped to drive them so the crowds tend to thin out a bit. We drove down out of Canyonlands on Shafer Trail then made our way over to Potash Road and back to Moab. Potash Road is one of our absolute favorite dirt roads in the Moab area. The views along this drive are breathtaking as it follows the Colorado River for several miles.

Well, Guys…I think I’m going to pause here for now and pick up with some more of our Moab adventures next time!! We crammed so much into these two weeks…So, stay tuned!!

See y’all down the road!

#NationalParkTour
Monuments, Dinosaurs, and Mesas…

Monuments, Dinosaurs, and Mesas…

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Hey Guys!! We spent two weeks in the Grand Junction area of Colorado and we enjoyed it way more than we thought we would. Sometimes we’re not sure what the area we’re heading to is like. We try to make sure there’s an actual grocery store somewhere close, but you never really know until you’re pulling into the park. We’ve had some places look great on paper and then when we pull in…the entire area was a big nope for us. I’ll be honest, I kind of expected it to be that way for Grand Junction. So, when we got to Grand Junction and saw it, we were pleasantly surprised. It’s that perfect mix of small town vibe with all of the stores we like and with more than 1.5 million acres of public lands in the area…we had more than enough places to explore to keep us occupied.

A whopping seventy-five percent of Mesa County is made up of public lands. Guys, that’s insane! To give you a size comparison…Mesa County is larger than the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. You’ll find areas for National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Forests, State Parks and even a few City Parks. I’m thinking we could easily spend an entire season exploring everything that the Grand Junction area has to offer.

The main reason we were staying in Grand Junction was to visit Colorado National Monument. We headed in to explore the plateau and canyon that make up the Colorado Monument on a few different afternoons. You can pretty much see all of the highlights if you do the 23 mile Rim Rock Drive, stopping at all of the well thought out scenic view points. Some will have short hikes to get to the view…most will not. We thought the Rim Drive was fantastic, but we like to get into the park and hike. We feel like you get a better feel for the landscape and the story the park is trying to tell/preserve.

Ten minutes down the road was the little Dinosaur Journey Museum. It was inexpensive to get in (even with five people) and it was stuffed with information on the dinosaurs that used to roam the Mesa County area. I’ve had songs from the animated show Land Before Time stuck in my head ever since. The animatronic dinosaurs seemed to all be characters from the show. Ha! We learned a lot in the museum even with me trying to get the boys to sing along to the songs of their early childhood.

The day after we visited the Dinosaur Journey Museum, we drove part of the Dinosaur Diamond Scenic Byway up to the Dinosaur National Monument. There are actually two parts to this National Monument. There’s the Colorado side, which has all of the grand vistas and geology information. This is the side we started on. We did a couple of hikes here, but since we were trying to get the entire park into just one day…we were kind of hoofing it. The views were absolutely amazing on this side of the National Park. We could have easily spent the entire day hiking and ogling the views here.

The Utah side of Dinosaur National Monument is all bout the dinosaurs and the petroglyphs. The first thing you’ll want to do is take the tram to the Quarry Exhibit Hall where you’ll come face to face with a huge wall of dinosaur bones. And Guys, these are the real deal…these aren’t the casts that you’ll so often see in museums. It’s hard to capture how big this bone wall is…it holds over 1,500 fossils that have been embedded within the rock. The scientist working the quarry that this rock wall is part of found over 500 different kinds of dinosaur remains along with some other animals who were alive during the Morrison time period. For the most part, you’re not allowed to touch the wall or the bones, but there are a few bones that the National Monument has set up so you can actually touch 149 million year old dinosaur bones. When we were done soaking up all of the dinosaur awesomeness…we headed back out to the park to find some petroglyphs and check out a cabin leftover from an early settler to the area. We saw quite a few lizards during our visit and if the petroglyphs are any indication…the lizards have been around for quite a while. There was a section of petroglyphs that had tons of giant lizards. I’m glad the lizards we saw were the little bitty variety and not the six foot beasts on the canyon walls.

The cabin used to belong to Josie Bassett Morris back in the early 1900s. She moved to Cub Creek when she was forty to establish a homestead. Most of the time she was there alone, but her family and friends from a nearby town visited as often as they could to check up on her. One day when she was out checking the cattle she fell off of her horse and ended up breaking her hip. Josie drug herself the entire way back to her cabin to heal. She lived at her homestead in Cub Creek for fifty years before passing away in the cabin. The cabin is still there. Open for anyone to walk through. You can see the remnants of the wall paper she had up…the nails are still there where she hung pictures of her family. The fire place has a couple of logs in it. If you close your eyes you can imagine the braided rugs on the floor and the handmade quilts on the bed. I enjoyed looking though the rooms and thinking about Josie’s life there. She was definitely a strong and independent woman.

We took an entire day to do the Grand Mesa National Scenic Byway where we explored the world’s largest flat-top mountain. So, what the heck is a Mesa? I know you’re wondering. A mesa is a wide mountain with steep sides and a flat top. Mesa is the Spanish word for table. Grand Mesa’s flattop is due to the cap of volcanic basalt it acquired around nine million years ago when lava pushed up through cracks in the earth covering a valley floor with basalt lava. Eventually, the soft rock around the hardened basalt lava eroded away and Grand Mesa was born. Around 14,000 years ago ice caps went through the area rearranging the tabletop and forming more than three hundred lakes and reservoirs.

Can we take a minute to appreciate all of the pretties I found in the Grand Junction area?! I mean…Guys…I think I took just as many pictures of flowers as I did all of the other awesomeness in the area!! And…I found one of my absolute favorites…fireweed!

We had two pretty good weeks in Grand Junction! We didn’t even scratch the surface of what there is to do. I think we’ll for sure have to go back and spend more time in Mesa County, Colorado.

This was our last stop in Colorado before heading on to Utah.

See Y’all down the road!!

#NationalParkTour
Alpine Lakes and Mountain Passes

Alpine Lakes and Mountain Passes

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Hey Guys! Welcome to part two of our time in the Montrose, CO area! We did sooo much in the two weeks we had in the area that I felt like it made the post too long. So, I split the post up. And…I’m not going to lie…I’ve left the best for last.

The last National Park Unit we did in the area was Curecanti National Recreation Area. Curecanti NRA is made up of three reservoirs along the Gunnison River. Blue Mesa, Morrow Point, and Crystal Reservoir are all popular for boating and fishing, but there are some hiking opportunities as well. We did a short hike along Crystal Reservoir where the trail literally sparkled! I’m not sure what kind of rock it was, but there were tons of this flakey, sparkly rock all over the trail. Engine 278 had a new display after seven years of restoration. This engine used to pull trains up and down the Black Canyon for the Denver and the Rio Grande railroads.

Y’all know we love our National Parks. I mean, we’re on a National Park Tour! But, my favorite memories from our time in the Montrose area were the old mining roads we drove up to see the wild areas and the mountains. The Million Dollar Highway was built in the late 1880s. Technically, it’s only twenty five miles long, but this road is packed with some seriously winding mountain roads that are littered with the skeletons of Colorado’s mining days. We found this little alpine lake down one of the old mining roads that snaked off the highway and Guys…I think we found the best place in Colorado. This little alpine lake was amazingly gorgeous. We had the whole place to ourselves…

except for the chipmunks, marmots, and picas that call the area home. They were all too busy preparing for winter to bother with us though.

The main reason (besides the views) we headed down the Million Dollar Highway was to get to the Alpine Loop, a seventy five mile loop that follows routes first traveled by Native Americans. Later, these routes became roads as Colorado moved into it’s mining boom.

Last winter Colorado had a record number of avalanches. We saw the destruction they left behind and even drove through the remnants of one.

Y’all know we love driving down those dirt roads…but we’re not into technical 4×4 trails. The section of the Alpine Loop we drove is about as technical as we like it…in fact, it was pushing the limit of what we’re comfortable with. We started in Silverton and made our way up to Engineer Pass. On the last curve to the pass, Jerl got out of the car just to make sure we could actually make the turn. The road was…tight…and the drop off on one side was…steep. We were so relieved to reach the pass! And y’all, when we got to the pass, there was a mini-van!!! We were like…what-the-what?!?! Who in their right mind would drive a mini-van on those roads? Turns out it was a rental. They headed down the pass before us and we never saw them on the way back down. We still wonder how they did. Can we take a minute to admire that view though?

We didn’t do the whole loop. We made it to Engineer Pass (12,800 feet) then headed toward our home-on-wheels by taking a different route. We stayed on the dirt roads and ended up going over two more passes. California Pass (12,960 feet) and Hurricane Pass (12,730 feet). The views were stunning but we were all ready for that paved road by the time we found it again.

Horsefly Brewing Company in Montrose, CO was one of our go to spots while we were in the area. They had the best nachos I’ve ever found at a restaurant. Seriously. They also had awesome burgers! If y’all ever find yourself in Montrose, head over to Horsefly Brewing for a meal. You won’t be disappointed.

That winds up our time in Montrose. We had an excellent adventure and will most definitely be back.

See y’all down the road!

#NationalParkTour
Canyons and Cliff Dwellings in Colorado

Canyons and Cliff Dwellings in Colorado

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Hey Guys! After two weeks fighting yellow jackets in Colorado Springs we were ready to move on. While we loved Cheyenne Mountain State Park…we got really tired of fighting for our food and running from the yellow jackets. It took us two days to drive to Montrose. The plan was to hit a state park during our overnight to get in a hike to a waterfall, but we got there later than we’d anticipated so we missed the hike. We weren’t too upset…it would have been another hour drive and we were all pretty done driving/riding for the day.

Our spot in Montrose was fantastic! We had shade pretty much throughout the entire day…which was welcomed with the 90° plus temps we were getting. I’ve started making notes on each of our spots. We stay at so many places they can get jumbled up in our memories. Did that place have good cell service? What were the sites like? Did we have a spot we wanted to get next time?

The main reason we stayed in Montrose was to visit Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. It’s called the Black Canyon because the walls are usually in shadows (there are parts of the canyon walls that only get about thirty minutes of sunlight a day) making the canyon look black. This canyon started forming millions of years ago as the Gunnison River cut it’s way through rock eventually making one of the steepest cliffs in North America. Even with the dizzying height of the canyon, you can still hear the Gunnison River at the bottom as it continues to carve away the Black Canyon. At somewhere around 2,000 feet high and only about 1,000 feet wide the Black Canyon may not be the deepest or biggest canyon in the US, but it definitely has a beauty all it’s own. Plus, it’s one of the least visited NPS units which means fewer people. We had most viewpoints to ourselves. We did a few hikes, made our way down the dirt road to see the Gunnison River at the bottom of the canyon and went to an astronomy program one evening. The park never felt crowded.

We hadn’t planned on going to Mesa Verde National Park from Montrose, but we realized if we waited until we were closer later on in our loop, all of the tours would be closed. We’ve always enjoyed the National Park Units that protect and tell the history of the Ancestral Pueblo people so we had high hopes for this park. Mesa Verde National Park protects around 5,000 different archaeological sites which include almost 600 cliff dwellings. The Ancestral Pueblo people made this area their home for 700 years. We saw so many cliff dwellings all along the walls of the cliffs that make up this park. Now, the most important thing you need to know about visiting Mesa Verde NP is that you have to take a Ranger guided tour to actually get down into one of the dwellings. We did the Cliff Palace tour and we definitely weren’t the only ones there. The tour was packed. Our Ranger talked so much that we didn’t get to do much looking. When we tried to lag behind to snag some pictures or look he would hurry us along. The tour was pretty disappointing. The NPS needs to either give more time between tours or make the tour groups smaller.

One of the cooler things we learned was that the Ancestral Pueblo people would use corn-on-the-cobs to chink in the spaces in the walls. We saw a 700 year old corn cob. We think we know quite a bit about the Anasazi people. We know they use to farm on the tops of the mesa’s that their cliff homes were built on. We know they made baskets and later on pottery. We know they lived in communities. We know they hunted. We even know how they collected water. What we don’t know is why they suddenly abandoned the Mesa Verde region.

Going on a tour of one of the cliff dwellings is a workout. You go down stairs, up ladders, and on some tours you crawl through tunnels. The Ancestral Pueblo people didn’t have the luxury of stairs and ladders. They used hand and foot holds to make their way down or up the cliff faces. We were told by a visiting archaeologist that each trail had a story that went with it so they could remember what hand or foot hold to use next. It was also a type of security…if you didn’t know the story, you’d have a harder time finding your way. I’m not sure how they could know that…but, I’m not an archaeologist.

Let’s talk foodies. We found a few places we liked. One was a Mexican place called Mi Mexico. Guys, we were really surprised by this place. We went into it not expecting anything spectacular, but we liked it so much we ate there three times in the two weeks we were in the area. Another of our favorites was a little place called Crash Burger where we got some very tasty burgers and fries.

There were flowers everywhere! They were so gorgeous!! I might have taken a few dozen pictures of various flowers/weeds that I found. Y’all know how I like my pretties.

Well, Guys, I’m going to save the rest of our Montrose area meanderings for the next post. Stay tuned for an epic mountain drive, ghost towns, and another National Park Service unit!

See y’all down the road!

#NationalParkTour
Yellow Jackets, Ghost Towns, and Wildflowers.

Yellow Jackets, Ghost Towns, and Wildflowers.

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Our first visit to Colorado Springs left us wanting more time in the area so when I set out to plan this loop I made sure to schedule two weeks at the Cheyenne Mountain State Park.

We like state parks for several reasons. The views are better, there’s almost always a fire ring so we can have evening campfires, we see more wildlife, and the price per night is usually cheaper. Usually. We actually ended up paying more per night at this Colorado State Park than if we’d stayed at the KOA down the road. I can’t deny the views and the wildlife sightings were way better at the state park. The deer in the pics above were right outside our home-on-wheels. Our cats were loving all of the stalking opportunities.

Speaking of wildlife and stalking…we were stalked and bullied the entire two weeks by the resident yellow jackets. It was so bad that the park rangers let us put up some traps. Did you know that yellow jackets are carnivores? Yup. They’re attracted to meat and sugar…and purple shirts. They also sting just because you looked at them. They’re total jerks. The rangers tried to figure out where the nest was. Several of them worked on it and looked in on us to see how it was going. At one point they offered to move us to a different spot…but our spot had such an amazing view so we just put up with the little flying jerks. It was kind of amazing watching the traps fill up. We ended up with three traps at our site.

We took a day trip and explored up in the surrounding mountains. I had several goals planned for that day. The first one was the ghost town of St. Elmo. While it is considered a ghost town, there are still a few residents. The town was originally settled in 1878 as a gold mining camp and grew to a town with a population of around 2,000 before it died out as the surrounding mines were depleted. It might have started as a gold mining camp, but the area was also rich in copper, silver and ore. In 1881 a railroad through St. Elmo was established and a station was built in town making the town of St. Elmo a main source of supplies for the entire area. The train would bring in supplies and people on it’s way to the mines and then it would bring iron ore back through town on it’s way out. In 1890, at it’s peak, there was a fire that destroyed most of the business section of St. Elmo. Most of the businesses were never rebuilt and the town started its slow decline. By 1922, when the last train went through St. Elmo, it’s said that all of the residents who were left in the dying town rode out on the train never to return. A few families stayed. They tried to bring the town back, but it never recovered. Today you can drive up one of the old mining roads and check out what’s left of the gold mining camp. We enjoyed walking around the buildings and reading the stories. The general store is still open during the summer. We bought some souvenirs and chatted with the owners. The best way to get to know a place is to talk to the residents.

After we left St. Elmo we headed to Cottonwood Pass. We’d heard that the views were spectacular and Guys, they did not disappoint! At a height of 12,127 feet Cottonwood Pass is the second highest mountain pass in the state of Colorado. Surrounded by San Isabel National Forest and Gunnison National Forest the views are of wild and open spaces mostly untouched by human hands. Cottonwood Pass is the highest paved crossing of the Continental Divide in the United States. The day we went it was around 40° and super windy! It was also the first day the pass was reopened after some major road work. We didn’t know that until we got there and talked to some locals who were camping not far from there.

I don’t remember where I first came across the cool Thomas Dambo Trolls, but when I heard there was one in the Breckenridge area…it immediately went on my list of things to see. Meet Isak Heartstone a mountain troll that sits at fifteen feet tall and greets visitors with a shy smile. After doing some digging I found out that the Denmark artist, Thomas Dambo, has made not one but sixteen different trolls in the US! I think I might have a new list of things to see and places to go. If you’re interested in learning more about Thomas Dambo and his many art installments check out his webpage.

Lets talk foodies! Colorado Springs is a huge foodie town and has some of the coolest joints we’ve found. Some of our favorites from this visit are The Omelet Parlor (where I had the best green chili omelet ever), Edelweiss (some amazing German food), and Fat Sully’s for some super tasty amazingly big pizza! Our friends, the Lowe Family, introduced us to Fat Sully’s and Guys…it was awesome! One of the best things about the Colorado Springs area is visiting with the Lowe Family.

Y’all know I love the pretties so I thought I’d end the post telling you about the Ranger Walk we did where we learned about the wildflowers in the area. It was kind of a gross morning with cool weather and on and off drizzle, but we had a great time! We learned a lot and we got to hike around a very cool archery range.

And just like that our two weeks in the Colorado Springs area is over. I didn’t get much video of our time…I’m out of practice…but here is a short little video of some Colorado Springs moments mainly of our spot in Cheyenne Mountain State Park.

See y’all down the road!

#NationalParkTour
Sand For Days

Sand For Days

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Guys!! We’re officially back on the road and it feels good to get some miles under our tires! Now that we’re done with our State Tour where we visited all of the states we could drive to, we have officially started our National Park Tour.

It took us two long days to get to Alamosa, CO and when we did…there wasn’t too much there. It was sandy and hot…but the views of the mountains from our “yard” were welcome.

I’ve always been curious about Great Sand Dunes National Park. It sounds odd to say that the highest sand dunes in North America are in Colorado…but, they are. Driving to the park, all you see is the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. You’d never know you were driving toward sand dunes until you turn a corner and then there they are stretching out under the mountains. Looking deceptively small.

The highest dune is close to 750 feet tall and called Star Dune. To get to the dunes you have to cross the Medano Creek first. The creek wasn’t very deep when we went, but it can have waves up to a foot deep depending on the time of year. We rented some sand sleds from a nearby store and the boys had a good time sledding down the dunes a few times. The sand at Sand Dunes is very different than the sand at White Sand National Monument. The sand at Dunes sticks to everything…including the boards whereas the sand at White Sands seems to slide right off of everything.

It’s hard walking in sand. You take a step forward and slide back almost as far as you stepped. It makes walking up sand dunes more taxing than you’d think. Add that to the fact that we’d just spent nine months at near sea level…and well, we definitely got a workout. I made it up to this point and decided my view was pretty darn good. Jerl, Charles, and Alex decided to try and go farther up.

Nicholas and I walked at a more leisurely pace until we got to a very steep section. We decided we’d just sit in the sand and have a snack…and people watch. The view from our snack spot was pretty amazing. It wasn’t the worst place to have a snack.

I sent my camera with Jerl up to the top. He got some great shots! When you visit the dunes, you’re really only seeing a small portion of the thirty square miles of sand dunes. In fact, the park itself encompasses woodlands, grasslands, 13,000 foot mountains, and alpine tundras.

It’s hard to convey the size of the dunes. Here’s a picture that will help give you and idea of the scale. Those little dots are people on the dunes. We’d been warned to get there early in the morning not only because the dunes get busy but because the sand gets hot fast. Sand temps can reach 150° when the air temp is only 80° to 90°.

On the way to Great Sand Dunes NP we kept passing this little gravel road that went up the side of a mountain…so…we had to see where it went. It was one of the bumpiest roads we’ve been on in our car! We never made it to the lake that was said to be at the end of the road, but we made it a good distance up the mountain before we turned around. The view was hazy, but decent.

It wouldn’t be a proper post without some foodies. Guys, this burger…yes, there’s a burger under there somewhere…is firmly on our list of top five burgers. When I got this burger, I didn’t know it was an open-faced burger. Ha! I thought they’d given me the wrong thing, but it looked so good I was going to ask if I could just have it instead of what I’d ordered. It’s a smothered green chili burger with pepper jack cheese. We liked it so much we ate there twice in one week instead of trying someplace new.

Our first week back to being nomads went by quickly. We fell back into the usual rhythm of our traveling lives pretty easily.

See y’all down the road!

#NationalParkTour
A Slow Year So Far…

A Slow Year So Far…

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Hey Guys!! It’s been awhile!! The last time we chatted, we had just moved from the Houston area to the Kyle area. That was way back in April. In June, we moved up to Missouri for two months. I thought I could squish the four months we were in Texas and Missouri into one post…so here we go!

Let’s start with the BBQ…because y’all know we had some. We ended up eating at nineteen different BBQ places in the two months we were in Kyle. Yup, you read that right. Nineteen. And some of those places we ate at several times. Ha! It was hard to leave all of that amazing BBQ!! Jerl is still grumbling about having to leave all of those BBQ joints behind.

When we got to Kyle, the entire area was covered in carpets of bluebonnets. It was gorgeous! When I planned this part of our year, I’d hoped we would be able to see some bluebonnets. It’d been four years since we had been in Texas during the bloom and I was desperately wanting to get pics of the boys with the bluebonnets once again. During our two months in the area we saw the bluebonnets in all of their glory fade away to be replaced with the bright yellows and oranges and reds of the other wildflowers known in the area. It was beautiful.

We were fortunate enough to celebrate two Birthdays and a High School Graduation while we were in Kyle!

When we weren’t stuffing ourselves with BBQ or celebrating something, our days looked pretty…normal. Normal for us anyway. Work, school, and chores. The boys were all working on learning to drive. I left those lessons up to Jerl. I’m a reluctant and a bit nervous driver at the best of times. The last thing the boys need is a Nervous Nellie trying to teach them to drive.

We’d had grand plans of hiking every weekend, but the weather seemed to have other plans for us. It stormed so much that the hiking trails were either under water or a muddy mess. We weren’t able to hike at all, but we did take a day trip to Waco and visit Waco Mammoth National Monument to learn about when Colombian mammoths once roamed Texas.

Right next to one of our favorite BBQ places to frequent was a pie shop. Pie and BBQ…a match made in heaven. We actually found out about the Texas Pie Company while we were eating at a different BBQ place. These pies were sooo good! And there were tons of flavors! I think I ate my weight in BBQ and pie and then washed it all down with sweet tea. Gotta love the South!!

We headed for Missouri in June to spend some time with family and work on some projects on our home-on-wheels. Besides the many projects we had in mind…we also had some medical stuff to deal with. Eye surgeries were done (Jerl), wisdom teeth were extracted (Charles), and the many projects were…almost all done.

In between medical stuff and projects, we had some fun. The boys learned some new skills by helping their grandpa build a deck, we celebrated a birthday, and we took advantage of all of the space. Living in an RV gives us limited space and while we have a new “yard” every couple weeks or so…it’s different than having a real backyard where you can let loose and be free. The boys really enjoyed their summer.

We’ve been to forty-nine states and have favorite foodie spots in quite a few, but there are some foodie spots in the Joplin area that we always look forward to visiting!

Right at the end of our visit in Missouri we were able to squeeze in a trip to Branson. Some of my favorite childhood memories are of family vacations to Branson. When I was a kid, we would go every summer. We love sharing new places with the boys, but we also love to give our boys a chance to experience some of our favorite childhood places too. It was so fun watching the boys make some great memories with my parents this summer.

We were basically stationary for four months this year. It was both the longest and shortest four months ever! Ha! After four years of frequent moves, I start getting the itch to move along about three weeks into a stay. The first week of August we headed out on our next loop of adventures. We love our time with family and leaving Missouri is always hard, but (as the quote goes) “the mountains are calling…”

See y’all down the road!!

#nationalparktour