Rocky Mountain National Park

We had an extremely great day. Yesterday was pretty hazy with smoke from neighboring fires. Today was fairly clear, just a little bit of haze. We did a little bit of shopping downtown (t-shirt, fudge, Christmas ornament, some hardware), then boarded the Green Jeep Tour vehicle for a 3 hour ride through the Rocky Mountain National Park. Got some good pictures of big horn sheep, marmots, elk, mountains and high valley lakes. Also some pretty flowers, including the state flower, Columbine (didn't turn out very clear, but I kept it anyway). It got feeling real nice up on top, 12000 ft, 50F and 50 mph wind, maybe it'll help keep us cool through Kansas. We ended the day with salad and pizza downtown then a shuttle ride back to our little home on the hill. We're really going to hate to leave tomorrow, we're exchanging 80F day/50F night for 100F/75F night for a good part of the rest of our vacation.  We'll really be ready for fall when it gets here.

Estes Park

We enjoyed walking around town. A lot of chocolate, t-shirt, fudge and jewelry stores. Karl got a Rocky Mountain National Park t-shirt and Pat got a thimble. We really enjoyed walking along the Big Thompson River down in the middle of town. They've got all the shuttles running now, this was the first day for full complement of shuttles, so there's no problem getting around without having to drive the motorhome. We got just a drop or two rain this afternoon, but it was really breezy at times. We enjoyed a Mexican lunch downtown, but Pat got sick immediately afterwards. I guess the Mexican water doesn't agree with her. Tomorrow we take a jeep tour through the park and Sunday we head towards Arkansas

Colorado Springs to Estes Park

We finally said goodbye to the wildfires and drove up the mountain to Estes Park (Rocky Mountain National Park). Spent about 30 minutes driving thru Denver, the traffic fairly heavy - just stayed in the right hand lane and had no problem. We went from 100F and wildfires to 80F and flash flood warnings. It's raining, first rain we've seen in a few months. Actually feels good. We'll hang around town tomorrow and take a jeep tour into the park Saturday. Sunday we'll head out to Arkansas to visit Joe's family.

Another Smoky Day in Colorado Springs

Another lay low day. We've got the worst of two worlds. Our Florida home is under water and our Colorado RV is right up against the biggest fire in Colorado. Just  got a warning notice of smoke and potential fire danger. We're leaving tomorrow for Rocky Mountains National Park and hope we make it through the night. We did take a little bike ride on the walk/bike path along a cute little stream. Pat's got a taste for carrot cake so I gotta go back to the Safeway we found on the bike ride to pick one up. Vacations are tough but someone's gotta do it.

Old Colorado City

With the fire raging up the hill we've kinda hunkered down while we're here. Unfortunately the RV Park we're in doesn't have a pool or we'd spend all day in it. We did take a little walk around Old Colorado City, a kind of resort section of  town. Pat picked up some lace and a table setting.

Speaking of the fire, they have now evacuated the AF Academy, which we visited yesterday.

Air Force Academy

We had a ltttle meeting with Gordon Taylor about the direction TaylorAssociation.org is headed, then he drove us out to the AF Academy. We toured the Visitor's Center and the Chapel. The chapel is separated into different sections - Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and other. The Protestant section was the largest and had a big balcony with organ and choir seating. They graduate about 1000 2nd Lts a year with BS degrees. The classroom space are huge buildings, but classes are small so that students can have personal attention - the goal is to develop leaders.

The fire is still raging.

Cortez To Colorado Springs

We made it across the Colorado Rockies, no small accomplishment. The trip from Cortez to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park thru the Telluride ski area was awesome. The hills were nerve racking to drive but the views awesome.

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison had an awesome view of  a 1500 ft canyon - straight down. We stayed 3 nights but a one hour drive would have been sufficient unless we wanted to hike the 12 mile rim - then one day would have done the trick. It was cool though so it was pleasant. We enjoyed one Ranger nighttime presentation, but the second one wasn't that good. After the 1st one we got to view the stars through six different telescopes that they had set up. In the daytimes we saw several deer and some very cute birds.

The trip from Black Canyon to Great Sand Dunes National Dunes National Park was also awesome. The Blue Mesa Lake was large and scenery beautiful. The Blue Mesa RV Resort looked great and very full. The hills were quite a trial for my little 350 cu in engine. The drive down CO-114 from US-50 was really awesome. It went thru a narrow canyon, sometimes widening out into green fertile fields. The road was a narrow 2 lane road and top speed limit of about 35 mph for about 20 miles.We drove 62 miles on 114, it was awesome but not real steep except for about 5 miles of it. It was a great drive.

The Great Sand Dunes National Park was anti-climatic. May be a good place to visit with little ones who can run up the dunes, but for two old timers it wasn't a big thrill. A pretty good sight tho, the tallest dunes in the USA. In the springtime it has two streams flowing around it, but during the summer it's pretty well dry. We took about an hour to drive through it and see all there was to see. We stayed one night in an RV park just outside the park.

We are now in Colorado Springs for 4 nights. Wouldn't you know it - a forest fire is 6 miles away up the mountain. I guess it just started within the last couple of days. The whole valley is filled with smoke. In fact the Great Sand Dune valley over the mountain was also filled with smoke, maybe from the same fire.

We're getting together with Gordon Taylor, president of the Taylor Family Association, tomorrow to talk over the TaylorAssociation.org web site. We may also go out to visit the AF Academy.

Cortez

We had a nice R&R day in Cortez. Did our wash, did some walking, watched TV, napped and hung out. We visit Black Canyon of the Gunnison and Great Sand Dunes both are in the middle of nowhere, so we may be out of touch for the next 5 days.

Monument Valley To Cortez

Traveled from Monument Valley, Utah to Cortez, Colorado with no incident. It fact it was quite a good trip, some good scenery. Saw portions of the San Juan River, including Goosenecks State Park and the Mexican Hat Rock. Had lunch/dinner at Pancho's El Burro, not bad, not the best I've had either.

Monument Valley - Rest Day

We walked down to the Museum and gift shop this morning, about 1 mile. Then we jumped in the pool. Then we took the rest of the day off. We plan on going to the John Wayne movie tonight.Tomorrow we'll travel to Cortez, Colorado and be through with Utah for this trip. Be sure to catch Pat in the latest John Wayne movie, Stagecoach, made here in Monument Valley.

Monument Valley

What a day, we took an eight hour tour of Monument Valley. We wanted to break it up and take it in 2 days, but they wanted too much money to do it our way. Besides this way they served us a hamburger lunch. The hamburgers were cooked over a wood fire and were really good. We got lots of good pictures of rocks, some with holes in them and some with pictures on them. We wanted to go up to the lodge for a John Wayne movie but just couldn't make it tonight, maybe tomorrow night. We plan on spending tomorrow in the pool and R&R so we shouldn't be too tired tomorrow night.

Page To Monument Valley

We thought we needed some more rock pictures so here we are in Monument Valley, Utah at Gouldings Campground - a have everything RV park. We've registered for a whole day tour tomorrow and plan on resting up Sunday before traveling on to Cortez, CO.

Upper Antelope Canyon

We had a very nice day in the desert heat. Did our laundry, shopped at Walmart, did some laps in the pool, sat in the hot tub and took a tour of Antelope Canyon led by a local native Indian. The canyon is about 1/4 mile long and is very stunning. If you haven't been thru it be sure and catch our pictures in Dropbox - if they ever get uploaded (internet's not working very fast).

We're in Page tonight. Tomorrow we travel to Monument Valley and will stay there 3 nights.

Lake Powell

It was another hot day in the desert, but we beat the heat by basking in the air conditioning of the Wahweap Lodge then we took the 5 boat tour to Rainbow Bridge. The water was clear and smooth, the rocks red and the cliffs sublime. Rainbow Bridge was awesome. It wasn't as far from the boat as we feared it might be, less than 1/2 mile, fairly level. The lake seems higher that when we were here last, in October about 3 years ago. I guess the level drops all summer to feed the 25 million people downstream. As I was editing the pictures, it occurred to me that we have quite a collection of rock pictures, I guess they didn't name these the rocky mountains for nothing.

Tomorrow's another R&R day, we'll move from Wahweap into Page to save rent money and try to get our laundry done. Friday we'll head to Monument Valley to photograph more rocks.

Bryce To Page

Yesterday we walked the rim at Bryce Canyon fron Inspiration Point to Sunrise Point, about 1 mi. The best scenery in the world. Love it here. The internet & phone service weren't working very good tho. We had a big scare with the Microwave, we tried to cook rice and after about 20 minutes it shut down. I started to take it out to fix but discovered the bottom was very hot, so we decided to let it cool down first. When it cooled down a little it started to work again. We also discovered a blowout on our little trailer - one of the spares blew out, did serious tread damage - strange, it wasn't even on the road.

We din't want to - but we decided to come down off the mountain today. Now we're at Lake Powell - it's not cool, about 100deg but the AC's working good. We can live with that. Tomorrow we take a boat tour to Rainbow Bridge.

Bryce Canyon

It warmed up enough by 10 oclock for us to venture out of our cave. We took the shuttle up to Bryce Point and walked the rim trail down to Inspiration Point (1.5 mile). The cool, clear air is great, we may never come down from the mountain.
You can view our photo log at https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/16216952/1/Vacation?h=428edc

Zion To Bryce

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, Zion, 100 degrees, tonight, Bryce, 25 degrees. The wind was blowing much of the day, it was about 74 - felt pretty cool. We're camped at Ruby's RV Park, just outside the Nat'l park. With taxes it is $46 per night, but like Zion it has free shuttle to the park, pool, showers, rest room, store and more.

We took the shuttle to the visitor's center and then made the loop via shuttle. Tomorrow we'll take the shuttle to each of it's viewsites, may do a little walking along the rim too. We plan on spending 3 nights here.

Zion Canyon

Uncle Claude Hirschi named these four peaks.  The white pillars are the three patriarchs.  Left to Right: Abraham. Issac and Jacob, the red one in front of Jacob is Moroni, a prophet in the Book of Mormon.

Today Karl and Pat stopped at the three Patriachs and then tackled the Narrows.  We hiked up a little over one mile.  With the Red Cliffs towering overhead it was a feeling of indescribable greatness.  Being here in Zion has filled my soul with voices of the past.  Hearing my Dad tell us stories of CC Camp, hearing our own children splashing in the river as we went tubing to the camp ground.  The time all of us went way up the river into the Narrows. Voices of my heart.

Zion Canyon

We toured Zion Nat'l Park today. Took the free Springdale shuttle to the park entrance, then the free Park shuttle to the Zion Lodge where we took the trail to Emerald Pool. The day was getting hot so we decided to cool off at Weeping Rock. We enjoyed the walk, although it was fairly steep it was also fairly short. It's a great place to cool off and get a great view of the valley. The picture shows Pat waiting for the shuttle back to the entrance. We closed the day's activities with a double waffle cone at the Zion Park Lodge.

St George To Zion

We made the short trip to Zion RV Resort without incident. The park is really nice, $40 per night, it has swimming pool, showers, cable, wifi and it's in the middle of Springdale minutes from Zion Nat'l Park with beautiful cliffs all the way around. We have free shuttle to the park and free shuttle within the park. I believe this is what retirement is supposed to be like. We walked around town today and will tour Zion Park tomorrow.

St George Camping World

We called Camping World yesterday morning to see if they'd repair our refrigerator, they said if we brought it down right now they'd work on it. So we did, and they did. They ordered some parts overnighted, and now we sit with our motor home in near perfect condition and ready to roll. Tomorrow we'll drive to to Zion Canyon, the RV park in Springdale say they have plenty of spaces, so we plan on staying there for about 3 nights then head to Bryce Canyon. Our little pull behind trailer is packed and ready to roll.

Moab To St George

Drove to St. George today, will probably be here til Wednesday. Plan to go to a deaf branch tomorrow with Karl's brother. St  George was 104degrees today, should be about 72 tonight. Karl's brother lives about 1500 ft higher so it's about 5 degrees cooler. Wednesday we'll drive to Zion Canyon - not much cooler there. We have a little trailer here that we'll use to carry our bikes and other things that we want to get out of the motorhome to make everything more accessible, Picture is from one of the view sites along I70, East of Richfield; part of the reef system outside Capitol Reef Nat'l Park.

Moab - Graduates

Karl's got a new phone, same old number, and so we start rolling tomorrow. We've really enjoyed being in Moab. Visiting Canyonlands Nat'l Park, Mesa Verde, Dead Horse Point, Arches Nat'l Park and all the other great places around here. We got a great tour of the potash plant (a chance to look up at Dead Horse Point, instead of down to the river). Saw the location for filming the new Lone Ranger as well as Will Smith's new movie. We went to Kory's H.S. graduation Thursday night, and Skyla's 8th grade promotion ceremony this morning, see picture. Tomorrow we head out to St George.