Finally home - July 29, 2011

We are home!  After driving 11,049 miles in 64 days we returned home this afternoon.  It was a great road trip.  We haven’t done one this long since 1977 when we toured Europe for three months (with girls) in a Volkswagen camper bus.

Our main highlight was seeing friends and relatives – some we haven’t seen in over 35 years.  To you, thanks for putting us up and thanks for putting up with us.

Other highlights (for me at least) were (in no particular order):

Royal Gorge
Devil's Tower

Glacier National Park

Banff and Jasper National Parks

Lake Louise and Lake Moraine

Vancouver and Victoria, BC

Crater Lake National Park

The Oregon Coastline

Monterrey and Big Sur areas

Death Valley

Lower Antelope Slot Canyon

North Rim of the Grand Canyon

Zion, Bryce, and Arches National Parks in Utah

Durango to Silverton Railroad

Mesa Verde National Park

There were many other nice places but I think these stand out in my mind for one reason or another.  Some restaurants, meals, micro-brews, and wines stand out too but I won’t go into those.  We packed a lot into those 64 days and probably didn’t give due homage to many of the places we visited but life is short and I’m getting old. 

Return to Mesa Verde National Park – July 27, 2011

We left Durango and headed back to Mesa Verde today with friends Keith and Mary Kay Jones.  There is an awful lot to see in this park and we want to return to take some of the ranger-led tours of the cliff dwellings.  

We started by driving down the Chapin Mesa to the Cliff Palace Loop drive.  We viewed from a distance the Cliff Palace, largest cliff dwelling in North America, and the Hemenway House cliff dwelling.  Then we drove the Mesa Top Loop where we viewed earlier pithouse remains which were occupied before the cliff dwellings.  We also viewed from a distance the Square Tower House and the collection of cliff dwellings seen from the Sun Point viewing area.  We could see the Sun Temple from that area as well.

From there we drove to one of the two restaurants and had lunch.  After lunch we said our good-byes to Keith and Mary Kay as they had arranged to take two ranger-led tours in the afternoon and one more tomorrow.  Rita and I visited the nearby Chapin Mesa Museum with artifacts from the hundreds of archaeology sites in the park.

After the museum we drove the long winding road to the Wetherill Mesa where we took a shuttle tram to some of the views of cliff dwellings on this mesa.  We saw the Long House and Kodak House cliff dwellings from a distance then had to leave as it was getting late in the day.  We drove to Shiprock, New Mexico and a short distance to view the large rock known as Shiprock.  Finally we drove to Farmington where we checked into our hotel.  We had a nice dinner at the Three Rivers Brewery.  What three rivers you ask?  The Animas, La Plata, and San Juan Rivers meet up somewhere in the vicinity.  We have crossed over all three rivers earlier on this road trip.

The Durango to Silverton Railroad Trip – July 26, 2011

We met Keith and Mary Kay for breakfast in our hotel then walked the short distance to the Durango train station.  We watched the 9:15 am train get ready, loaded, and then leave.  Our train was next at 10:00 am and we boarded about 15 minutes beforehand with nice seats in a nice car.

The distance from Durango to Silverton is about 45 miles and the steam locomotive takes about three hours with two stops to add water.  The train ride is great – those who have done it know this – and the photos do not give it justice.  Sort of like the photos of the Grand Canyon.  It’s difficult to capture the true majesty of the scenery.  The train chugs along slowly swinging from side to side making old train noises and almost lulling you to sleep except for the gorgeous scenery outside your open window.  You smell the steam and get black soot on your face but it’s all worth it.  

At the beginning of the trip the train takes a while to get out of populated areas and after about an hour it starts its ascent, slowly climbing higher and higher.  For the next hour you are hundreds of feet above the fast flowing Animas River.  Occasionally you see the engine turning a corner ahead of you as you are perched on the edge of a cliff.  Then, for most of the trip, the train descends again and runs alongside the river just a few feet higher than the river.  

We arrived in Silverton in a slow, cool rain about 1:15 pm and looked for a place for lunch.  Silverton is not a pretty town but it has character.  It looks like a town out of a western movie.  One main street is paved but the rest of the streets were muddy.  Some buildings are brightly painted and we chose to have lunch at the Shady Lady which was the last brothel to operate in Silverton, closing in 1947.  The food was adequate, if overpriced, but the beer was good and cold.

Our train departed for Durango at 3:30 pm and shortly out of town we spotted a black bear high up on a mountain ledge.  There was no time to try to photograph it.  Then the rain continued on the return and the trip became quieter and more solemn than on the way to Silverton.  The scenery was still spectacular but everyone became sleepy in the cool, wet conditions.  We arrived in Durango about 7:15 pm and were sorry the trip had to end.

We had dinner with Keith and Mary Kay in the Diamond Belle Saloon attached to our hotel.  A piano player kept us entertained with rag time and oldies music.  The small saloon was crowded with cowboys and tourists like us.  A nice end to a very nice day.

Mexican Hat, Utah to Durango, Colorado – July 25, 2011

Our motel in Mexican Hat did not provide breakfast and we didn’t see any place in this little town where we wanted to eat after last night’s dinner.  So we checked out and drove the 20 miles to the little town of Bluff which did have a nice place to stop for breakfast – Twin Rocks Café.  After a large breakfast (you don’t know what’s in store in these remote places) we headed south on highway 191 into Arizona where we picked up highway 160 east to Four Corners Monument where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona share a common corner.  We did the tourist photos with feet in each state (well two for Rita and two for me) then headed on.

We passed through Cortez and headed into the Mesa Verde National Park.  First we drove to the Park Point Overlook which, at the top of the hill, is the highest point in the park at 8,572 feet.  At the top is a famous fire lookout tower with views 360 degrees for nearly a hundred miles.  We continued to Far View Terrace and a small lunch.  After lunch we headed further into the park to see the Spruce Tree House, the best preserved cliff dwelling in the park and easiest to approach by a steep trail.  Rita and I both hiked to the cliff dwelling and we climbed down the wood ladder into one of the kivas.  It was very interesting and an important history lesson on what today are called the Ancestral Puebloans.  

We plan to return to Mesa Verde but for now it was time to head on to the town of Durango and our historic, haunted, and nice Hotel Strater.  We checked in and waited for our friends, Keith and Mary Kay Jones, to arrive.  After they arrived we first had drinks in the hotel’s Diamond Belle Saloon then walked the historic Main Street and had a nice dinner at one of the many restaurants.

Arches, Canyonlands, and environs – July 21-23

We left Salina behind around 9:00 am and headed east on Interstate 70 through beautiful scenic countryside which turned from green mountain vistas to red buttes and mountains.  We stopped at several scenic lookouts before stopping in the town of Green River for a couple of cappuccinos.  At Crescent Junction we headed south on highway 191 into the town of Moab where we had motel reservations.  However it was too early to check in so we picked up a sandwich and had a picnic at a pretty little city park.

We headed towards Arches National Park but at the last moment changed tack and took Scenic Bypass 128 along the Colorado River.  The road started out through a narrow canyon with red cliffs on both sides and the river next to the road.  We saw several rafters and kayakers and the further we drove the more rapids we saw.  There was one vineyard and a couple of very nice looking resort ranches along the road.  We could see the La Sal Mountains in the distance with small patches of snow on top and an odd rock formation called Fisher Towers.  After 25 miles we turned around and returned to Moab.  

We drove to Arches National Park and started our sightseeing.  First we stopped to photograph odd rock formations named Three Gossips, The Organ, Tower of Babel and others.  Then we saw the petrified sand dunes but decided they wouldn’t look impressive in photos.  We stopped to hike to Balanced Rock with crowds of Chinese tourists.  We took the road to the Windows Section and saw our first arches in the park.  We hiked a loop trail that took us to the North Window Arch, South Window Arch and the Turret Arch.  Returning to the main road we also saw the Double Arch and Cove Arch from the road.  The temperature was around 100 degrees and we decided to return to Moab for a drink.

We stopped at the Moab Brewery and had a couple of different beers to help cool us down.  We went to our motel, checked in, and unpacked the car.  After a little while we drove to a restaurant named Zax where we had dinner.  We drove back to Arches NP and, as the sun was setting, we drove to the Delicate Arch viewpoint.  Delicate Arch is the poster arch for Utah tourism.  We drove back to Moab in twilight with plans to see more tomorrow.

Friday turned out to be another hot day with plenty of sunshine.  We drove to Arches NP and straight to Delicate Arch where we hiked to the upper viewpoint for a good morning sunshine view.  Next we drove to the trailhead for Sand Dune Arch, a tough walk in thick red sand.  We could also see Broken Arch in the near distance.  On the way to Devil’s Garden we saw the Skyline Arch by the road.  We parked at the Devil’s Garden trailhead and hiked to Tunnel Arch, Pine Tree Arch and the imposing Landscape Arch.  We hiked back to the car and noted the temperature was 99 degrees.  We stopped at a store for beer and took it back to our air conditioned motel room to enjoy.

Around 6:00 pm we drove to see some Indian petroglyphs near the local golf course then headed north to drive the Scenic Byway 191 to the potash mines around 17 miles down the road.  The drive was nice along the Colorado River with red rocks, petroglyphs, dinosaur tracks, rock climbers and the occasional arch outside of the national park.  We returned to town, had dinner, and called it quits for the evening.

Saturday we visited Canyonlands National Park.  We are definitely getting jaded.  If we had visited this park first we would have oohed and aahed at the scenery but after Zion, Bryce, Arches and the Grand Canyon, this park seems rather ordinary.  The park setting is on top of a large mesa or plateau with canyon walls surrounding it – that’s why the major part of the park is called Island in the Sky.  We first drove to Mesa Arch and hiked to view the arch on a canyon rim.  Next we drove to the Grand View Point Overlook for super views of the Colorado and Green Rivers and all the surrounding canyons.  Finally we drove to the Upheaval Dome which is a large crater created either as a collapsing salt dome or a meteorite crashing to earth millions of years ago.  We drove back to our motel and finished off the beer we bought yesterday.  

Tomorrow we head south to see Newspaper Rock, Natural Bridges National Monument, Monument Valley and stay in the town of Mexican Hat.

Park City, Utah – July 20, 2011

We departed Salt Lake City this morning and headed east on I-80 to the pretty ski village of Park City.  We spent some time walking up and down Main Street.  The town used to be a gold mining town and nearly turned into a ghost town until it was brought back as a major ski village in this area.  In 2002 Park City hosted the Winter Olympics and the town turned into an upscale place with nice boutiques and restaurants.

We drove south on highway US 40 to Heber City where we stopped at the Tourist Center to ask about a place to eat lunch.  The lady there suggested a nice out-of-the-place deli where we had an excellent lunch.  Then we headed down scenic US highway 189 to Provo and drove straight through the center of town and the campus of BYU.  We continued south on US highway 89 through Fairview, Ephraim and Manti where we saw the imposing Mormon Temple, the third temple to be built by the Mormons after they reached Utah.

We continued on to Salina where we will spend the night.  Salina’s main claim to fame is that Butch Cassidy was raised nearby.  That and Mom’s Café where we had a greasy-spoon type of dinner.

Tomorrow on to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.