Travels with Ann and Ken

After our stay in Denver we turned our sights further west toward the left coast of this great country. We headed up through an area of Colorado, west of Rocky Mountain National Park, following a route taken by John Wesley Powell in 1868. If you are noticing a trend here (my second reference to Powell) it is because Kari loaned me a book by Wallace Stegner, "Beyond the Hundredth Meridian" that is a biography of Powell. When Powell was still very young he headed an expedition to the Rockies and his route took him west from Denver, over Berthoud Pass and up into the area known as Middle Park and specifically Hot Sulfur Springs and the head waters of the Colorado River (there and then known as the Grand River). We were retracing part of his journey along the river. We went over Rabbit Ears Pass then on down into Steamboat Springs. We were just astounded by how green it was here. We then continued onto the Western Slope and on into Utah (again). We stayed a couple ...

We have been very busy recently, mostly in the Denver area visiting friends and having fun with them. So this post will be about the fact that we have been catching up with them but also catching you up with what we've been doing. First of all, speaking of catching up, we had a request from a loyal reader asking about our cats. I had mentioned them in a post and this reader wanted to know how they are doing. Well, as cats are prone to do, they sleep a lot. When we are home they are indoor-outdoor cats but while we are travelling they never leave the RV. They don't want to. Home is very quiet and very well known to them. We don't have many visitors back in the woods so they are not used to people and cars coming and going. When they do, Millie and Mollie, if they are outside, find a safe place to observe. They are skeptical of people they don't know. When we first started travelling with them last year we bought harnesses and leashes and even a screened enclosure, ta...

From Durango we headed into the San Luis Valley over Wolf Creek Pass. The San Luis Valley is just north of the border with New Mexico and is a big agricultural area. The Rio Grand River originates up near the top of Wolf Creek Pass and runs down into the southern end of the San Luis Valley providing much irrigation water. We spent a few nights in Del Norte just on the western edge of the valley along-side the Rio Grande. In the picture below, the river is just beyond the trees. We went for a bike ride in the foothills just outside Del Norte. From Del Norte we went to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. The highest dunes are over 700 feet above the valley floor. No, we did not climb to the top. Just getting from the parking lot to where the dunes really begin is about 1/3 mile walking in sand (it is actually a dry creek bed). Ann and I both do NOT like walking in deep sand so we just got to the first dunes and stopped. We had hoped to camp at the park but it was full...

Not far from Mesa Verde is Durango, CO home of the famous Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. This was high on our list for this trip since Ann & I both love train rides of just about any kind, but especially scenic ones. We reserved a spot at an RV park that the train goes through. The photo below was taken from the RV park. The park was also on the town's trolley route meaning that the day we would be taking the train there was no problem with leaving the RV in the park all hooked up (for the cats' comfort). We just had to get up early enough to catch the trolley to the train depot before our departure. We had booked our selves seats in the parlor car which was wonderful. It was limited to those 21 or older because the car had it's own bar. We had Rusty Spikes, a coffee drink with 3 kinds of liquor (don't ask me which :-). We had our own steward, Christina, for the trip who was very informative and helpful. This is her trying to sell u...

Mesa Verde National Park sits on a plateau in far southwestern Colorado. It was made a protected site by Teddy Roosevelt in 1906. I visited here shortly after moving to Colorado in 1974. At that time you were allowed to wander through many of the ruins on your own. It was also believed to be the home of a people called the Anasazi or the "Ancient Ones." At that time in the 1970's we were told no one knew what happened to those people. What we learned on our visit this time is that the people that lived here are the ancestors of the current-day Pueblo Indian tribes. Things change, huh!? The photo above is of the Cliff Palace, the largest of the cliff dwellings. It was closed due to stabilization work. Forty years ago my friends and I crawled all over this. We were able to go on a guided tour of another of the cliff dwellings called Balcony House. The tour was led by a Park Ranger who never let us out of his sight and had lots of instructions about what not to do (ba...