June 23, 24, 25 -- Great Sand Dune NP and train ride

Headed to the Great Sand Dunes, which means back to a more arid environment. Went over several passes of 10,000 feet; very pretty, then slowly descended to the desert valley. The San Luis Valley varies from 10 to 100 miles wide and seems to be surrounded by mountains. Very fertile with irrigation; second largest potato producer in the U.S. We saw several forest fires in the distance, and realized they were right at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. We camped at San Luis Lake State Park about 10 miles from the dunes; very arid and almost deserted. Over to the national park and the fire was quite visible from the park, with big balls of fire and lots of billowing smoke. A slight shift in the wind pattern and they would be evacuating the campground, or if another direction it might cause our campground to close that is 10 miles away. It was actually pretty exciting. Next day we tried to take our preferred hike at the dunes, but it had been closed due to the fire. We took another which afforded great views of the dunes from up high in the surrounding forest. Then went to Zapata Falls, a half mile hike to a falls that can only be seen by hiking 100 feet through a roaring creek and entering a cave. That part of the hiking was pretty treacherous, so Sue declined. It was quite a view in the cave. On the return, I had to help an 8-year old get back; his Dad had gone forward with a little sister and the boy was terrified of proceeding. But we got back in one piece, and he was even enjoying it by the time we got out of the stream. That night the sunset was spectacular and the moon almost full and darting in and out of odd-shaped clouds. Quite a beautiful entertainment. Next day we took the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, but again got bit by the fire bug. Turns out some vandals had set fire to one of the trestles on the second half of the ride, so we could only go on the first half from Antonito to Osier. (And Emil, Grandma and Grandpa saw Thomas the Train working very hard; he took enough of a rest for us to get a good picture.) It was still quite nice, gradually moving up a series of plateaus until it entered Toltec Gorge with sheer rock walls. Big lunch provided in Osier, accessible only by train and unpaved roads. Up above 10,000 feet and rather inaccessible. All this was quite nice, but the national and state parks were plagued with no see ums and mosquitoes. We just about ran out of repellent, which was not always successful. Also, when we returned from the train trip, a Friday night, much to our surprise the campground was full.

June 20, 21, 22 -- Gunnison National Forest,, One Mile Campground

Finally into the trees at 8700 feet in the national forest, camped next to the Taylor River, which joins the East River to make the Gunnison. Drove a loop through the area, which took us to Taylor Reservoir set in Taylor Park (a valley on top of the mountains) which is gorgeous. Then on to the town of Tincup, which used to be a mining town but now is occupied in the summer only. We ate at Frenchy's, the only eating place in this one road town set high up in the mountains. Then we drove the Cumberland Pass, which is above 12,000 feet, on about 14 miles of unpaved road. Very scary road, but the views are unbelievable and you feel like you are on top of the world. There are a lot of ATVs up here; while at Frenchy's, there must have been 50 of them pull up for a rest. Dennis also took a raft trip down the Taylor River, a class III set of rapids. He shared a raft with two father-son teams from Finland. Both men are MDs, and the younger boy is just starting his studies to become an economist. So of course I had to tell them my favorite economist joke, which I will spare the readers of this blog. At any rate, this has been a relaxing couple of days, with no "spectacular" sights that just have to be seen. This morning was also a car maintenance day, so we drove into Gunnison to get our 45,000 mile service, which should see us through to the end of the trip. We have gone over 6,000 miles so far. We are sitting outside in a very nice and casual bar/restaurant/outdoor store in Almont just down the road from our campsite, which happens to have WiFi. We will reward them for their service by having dinner here. We move on to Great Sand Dunes NP tomorrow.

June 18, 19 -- Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Camping at the national park here; nice place. The canyon is impressive; sheer black walls rising more than 2000 feet from the river. We drove the rim road and visited all the overviews of the canyon, some of which involve a mile round trip hike. The views are uniformly impressive. Some of them are such a steep drop that you cannot see the river below. Others, the canyon twists so much that you just get a glimpse of the river. We took a beautiful hike at the end of the rim road, the Mark Warner hike, no not VA's former governor but the guy who was most responsible for getting the canyon set aside as a national monument, before Clinton made it a NP in 2000 something. Gave us a great view of a long stretch of river moving through sheer canyon walls. We also went to an astronomy program at the park. The ranger gave perhaps the best talk I ever heard in the parks. Learned a lot, and they had four telescopes set up and two set of powerful binoculars. We saw Saturn, the moon as I never saw it befor, with incredible craters, sister stars, and a dieing (sp?) star that looked like George HW Bush's thousand points of light. It was impressive. We also drove to East Portal, and 16 degree road down into the canyon where the diversion tunnel of the Gunnison is located. The day we left we took the boat tour of the upper canyon, which is quite nice but not nearly as high as the largely inaccessible lower canyon.

June 16, 17 -- Llama ranch

We celebrated our 40th anniversary a few days early at the Llama Ranch B&B on the slopes of the Grand Mesa, supposedly the world's largest mesa. It is very nice, about 7800 feet high and very green. The llama are very docile. Drove the Grand Mesa, which is chock full of lakes. There is a huge spur off the mesa called Land's End that we drove 12 miles, with spectacular views from the end of the Uncompaghre Valley and Grand Junction. Reminded us of Cape Kidnapper in New Zealand, except the views are not of ocean way below but of land. Very nice. We also toured through Colorado National Monument, with fantastic rock formations and colors. We were going to camp there, but decided to see it on a day trip from the llama ranch and instead camp in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and explore the canyon.

June 13, 14 -- Ridgway State Park, Ouray & Silverton

Moved to Ridgway state park a bit north or Mesa Verde. It was a beautiful drive. Several days ago, we went over Lizard Head pass with Gregg, and there was just a dusting of snow on the peaks. This time all the peaks were covered in substantial snow from the storm the night before (that delivered rain in Mesa Verde). We ate lunch in the car (45 degrees) with a great view of Vermillion Peak and a whole bunch of others. Really nice. When we got to the turn for Telluride, we went the other way and circled the mountain. The drive down into Ridgway was a long glide with many jagged snow capped peaks to admire. Our campground looks out over many of those peaks and a lake; great spot for morning coffee. Today, the 14th, we drove to Ouray and on to Silverton over the Red Mountain Pass. In our mind, it rivals the pass into Yellowstone we took years ago, I believe something like Beartooth Pass but might be wrong on the name. We ate at a place in Silverton with a guy playing the old time piano; he was very good. It was cold, so chili was the order of the day. We then visited the cemetery, which has many interesting tombstones, such as "He died drunk and friendless." Or it identified the mine disaster that caused death, or "He died shoveling snow for the railroad." During our tour, we got rained on, sleeted, and warmed by sunshine. To say the weather right now is a bit unsettled would be an understatement. But after weeks of unrelenting sunshine and weather into the high 80s to low 100s, we are not complaining.

We appreciate the comments some of you have made. This blogging is a new experience for us, so it is good to know it is not going into a black hole, like some of the papers I wrote about numerous economic topics occasionally (okay, frequently) did.

June 12 -- Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge RR

What a wonderful train ride, even though it was generally cold and rainy for much of the time. The Animas River, which the train follows, is at extremely high level and just roaring. The trip through the gorge with the river far below and the train on the cliff edge, was breathtaking. But the entire way is a combination of the river and the often snow capped mountain peaks. Silverton is surrounded by mountains and has maintained a western frontier town feel to it; dirt streets, board sidewalks, and of course tourists (not particularly western). We rode the open car up and back, and used every bit of layered clothing we brought with us on the trip. Most people moved inside as the weather worsened on the return trip. Dinner in Durango, and then back to the Esenweins to get ready for tomorrow's departure.

June 11 -- Mesa Verde

We spent a second day seeing the cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde. Today we took the long drive to Long House cliff dwelling and took the ranger-guided tour. It is quite large, lots of rooms. We followed that with an on and off the tram to see some dwellings on top of the mesa, then a hike down to visit the Step House cliff dwelling. The rangers here have been terrific, very friendly and informative. ON the way back, we had our first significant rain, with some hail. We are having a cookout with the Esenweins tonight, and tomorrow we will go off to take the Durango Silverton railroad trip.

June 10 -- Mesa Verde

We were supposed to move to Mesa Verde's campground today, but Gregg and Elise convinced us to stay and use their place as a base for exploring that NP. Today Sue and I took the ranger-led tours of two of the most impressive cliff houses. You have to climb down to them over ladders, and for one of them you have to crawl through a very small tunnel for about 12 feet. We enjoyed the tours very much and learned a lot. They must have been pretty tough folks to farm on the top of the mesa and live perched on the side of the canyon. Pretty amazing. The drive up to the mesa is beautiful and long. We visited the museum that explains the Mesa Verde community very well. We also visited a variety of housing sites on our own. Mesa Verde is an amazing national park. We finished the day with dinner at the lodge high up on the mesa, and then returned to Gregg and Elise's house.

June 8, 9 -- Touring with the Esenweins

We spent the days driving around the mountains of southwestern Colorado. Both days we took forest service roads to go over mountain passes greater than 10,000 feet. The first day we ran into impassable snow at 10,000 feet and had to turn around. We took a brief hike along the snow's edges, and then retraced our steps. The trip was full of spectacular scenery.

The next day the goal was to end up in Telluride, but we got there again by forest service roads over a 10,000 foot pass. This time we got through, and the view from the top was great; snow capped mountains all around while we stood in the middle of a huge meadow. We made our way over to Telluride and rode the chair lift. Telluride is an impressive place, situated in a box canyon. The huge temporary waterfalls created by the unprecedented early melting of the snow pack (unusually high temperatures and a few dust storms that coated a lot of the snow pack) were frequent and massive. We ended the day with a dinner in a bar in Dolores, then went across the street to play shuffleboard (Gregg and Sue beat Elise and me 21-20). During the game, the karaoke started, and some of those guys were pretty good, particularly the cowboys we had seen on our drive over the mountain who were moving their cattle to summer pasture. We had to spend ten minutes maneuvering the car through the herd, the cowboys on horse, and their herding dogs.

June 5,6,7 -- North Rim Grand Canyon & Natural Bridges NM

The temp was over 100 degrees at Lake Powell on the 5th, we had done most of what we 5wanted there, so we got up early and drove to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was a bit cooler. We took in the view and a few short hikes. We had been to the South Rim in 1971, pre kids; now at the North Rim, after kids. The drive there was incredibly beautiful, along the Vermillion Cliffs and miles of red-hued mesas. Back to camp in the early evening, and got a picture of Lake Powell at sunset. We slept with both the roof vent fan and a rotating fan on full blast all night; thank goodness this campground had electric hookup.

June 6 we packed up and drove to Natural Bridges National Monument in the Cedar Ridge area of Southeastern Utah. With Lake Powell in the way, we had to retrace our route back past Monument Valley; the drive took about 5 hours, partially because we could not get over a very twisty, steep pass with the Aliner, so had to circle around to get there. We met Gregg Esenwein at the campground in his Aliner. He worked with Dennis at CRS for many years. We toured around Natural Bridges that evening after the heat dissipated a bit, but took no hikes as still very hot.

June 7 we packed up and drove the Aliners to Gregg's. He retired early and built a beautiful adobe house on 10 acres that looks out at the mountains on which Mesa Verde NP sits. Literally you turn right to go to Mesa Verd, and left to get to Gregg's. We will be here three nights, touring around with Gregg and Elise.

June 3, 4 -- Lake Powell

Took a 50 mile ride up Lake Powell to Rainbow Bridge. The scenery is not to be believed. Pink canyon walls, mesas, buttes, and pinnacles (starts out as a mesa, erosion makes it a butte, and maybe it becomes a pinnacle). The occasional houseboat is chugging along pulling an outboard motor or skiddoo so they can explore the myriad side canyons. A short ride up one of those canyons takes you to the jumping off point for Rainbow Bridge, which is impressive. Next day we took an early morning hike to Horseshoe Bend in the CO river, which is just what it sounds like. Temp at 8 am was already in the mid 80s, forecast to mid 90s. Then we took a guided hike to Antelope Canyon, a very narrow slot canyon where the light filters in from above and produces an eerie sort of glow. Very crowded with photographers. A big money makers for the Navajo. Then visited Glen Canyon Dam, saw a few movies and toured the dam. A bit smaller than the Hoover Dam. Temp pushing 100 degrees.

June 2 -- Drive to Lake Powell

After breakfast, we visited the most unique small museum since the potato museum on Prince Edward Island. It was the Navajo Code Talkers Museum which honors the Navajo men who passed messages for the Marines in the Pacific during WWII. The son of the original code talker (Kins Mike) owns the Burger King and has established the museum. After arrival, we made arrangements to visit Rainbow Bridge on a cruise up lake Powell of a50 miles and Antelope CAnyon.

June 1 -- Monument Valley and Navajo National Monument

Well what do you know; not every day in the great southwest is sunny. Today we arose to overcast skies and it was a pleasant sight and a respite from the full glare of the sun. We went to Monument Valley and decided to drive our car on the 17 mile road through the "monuments" rather than take a tour. The road was rough but the rock formations more than compensated. I could post 30 pictures but will restrain myself. Suffice it to say the area is awe inspiring. We took almost three hours to make the drive with frequent stops to admire the formations. Along the way we met a variety of Europeans -- Dutch, Italians, Germans, English (one couple back for their fourth visit), no French, plus Israelis who encouraged us to visit their country. As when we visited Zion, Bryce, etc. the majority of people touring here seem to be Europeans; they love this part of the USA.

During the drive, I was expecting to see a stagecoach round one of the rock formations in a cloud of dust followed by the bad guys on horses, straight out of the 1950s westerns we all grew up on.

We then visited the Navajo National Monument which has the best preserved set of Indian cliff dwellings we have seen to this point. We saw them from on top of the opposite canyon wall, as you must take a ranger led hike to visit them up close, and none was available. The monument park is very nice and out of the way, more low key than the other places we have visited. The campgrounds, although very nice with spectacular views, were almost deserted. The visitor center was very informative and well done. A Navajo woman was quietly, rapidly, and I assume expertly weaving a beautiful blanket in the center. The two blankets on display were a cool $800 each. But as I tell Sue, we are in the decumulation, not accumulation, stage of our lives. We took several short hikes with wonderful views of the canyon.

We move on to Lake Powell tomorrow for four nights. Back to camping after two nights in a motel here in Kayenta AZ.