Ski towns to red rocks

We spent a few days in a place called Bear Creek Lake Park, a regional park on the outskirts of Denver. Nice place and the sites were enormous. We could have fit badger and his mate into our plot, together with a few cars and tents too. There were signs up advising that rattlesnakes were in the area which is to be expected in this part of the wilderness. What we didn't count on were warning signs saying to avoid the smaller animals and to report any sightings of dead ones as the ground squirrels had Bubonic Plague - well, those that hadn't been eaten by the rattlesnakes! We drove into Denver on the Sunday afternoon only to find that the Tourist Information office was closed (2.30pm) and there was nowhere to park, so we went back to our campsite and had a lazy afternoon. The next day, we decided to use the Park 'n Ride system to visit the city - big mistake. After driving around for an hour, finding different stations but nowhere to park, we were so fed up we gave Denver a miss and headed for the hills - Breckenridge to be precise. Mark has already commented on the ski towns and I really liked Aspen although its probably a bit posh for us. Lots of little shops, designer boutiques, art galleries and antique shops. From Aspen we drove up to Independence Pass and the Continental Divide at 12,095 feet, which was lovely and cool with snow still on the hills

We crossed the border into Utah (again) and have spent the last week in Moab hiking Canyonlands and Arches National Parks and Dead Horse Point State Park. The heat has been quite something but the views have been incredible and here are just a few:

Dead Horse Point State Park

Canyonlands National Park

Mesa Arch  (Canyonlands)

Arches National Park has over 2,300 arches but here are just a few that we hiked to:

Tunnel Arch

Pine Tree Arch

Landscape Arch

Partition Arch

Delicate Arch

Double Arch

Turret Arch

North and South Window

Rock Art

Another sunset through the rocks below the three gypsies

Sunset (and moon rise) at Balanced Rock

Tomorrow we head further west towards Escalante and Capitol Reef National Park, then to Red Canyon before heading to the Grand Canyon North Rim. More photos of red rocks and big holes will be in my next blog :-)

High (T)here

this marks the high point of the trip so far - literally. From here water on the left of the side eventually runs down to the atlantic, to the right it runs to the pacific. Either way its all down hill from here. And yes, that is snow in the background, but we're too far south for proper glaciers so I guess it must melt by the end of the summer. This will be our last naturally cool day for a while - back down to the 4000 ft desert tomorrow and forecast clear skies and 100f temperatures in Moab for the next week

We;ve been visiting the colorado ski towns - Breckenridge, Vail and Aspen, as I will probably never get to ski them. They are all nice in their own way - Breck and Aspen are late 1800s mining towns, Vail is a 1960s construct like Whistler, but it brings it home to you that they are all very similar - pedestrianised walkways, lots of wood and stone and dubious public art and all the same mountain bike/ski gear shops. Makes me appreciate the convenience of whistler a bit more as we're going to be staying in the village again next season so I can walk to the lifts

Year 3 - done

Yup, its that time of year again - the third anniversary of our departure from the UK and start of life as nomads.Glad to say its still pretty much going to plan and we're going to keep going.

Highlights for me were the glaciers calving in Alaska, the aurora and the earthquake, the bears in BC and spending my first season skiing - even if the weather was warm and the snow a bit iffy at times, I had fun and its something I've wanted to do for a long, long time.

It was different being based in one place for 6 months, and its good to be back on the road again now, but its also a taste of how we may tackle other parts of the world where camping is not an option - have an apartment as a base and do trips out, or alternate 6 months backpacking and 6 months static.

The next 9 months is pretty much planned out - we are as far east as we will get this trip, so its now back west, meet up with Lee and family in a couple of weeks time, then and up the west coast through the fall and then we've booked another apartment in whistler for the winter. So far Knees & Clive and Kevin have committed to come out and see us next winter, and hopefully we'll see Gary & John again somehow depending on what is happening at Lloyds, and Blair and maybe Philip Harrison. Next summer we'll plan to head over to the the east coast, but details can be worked out this winter

Our 25th wedding anniversary...

... on 7th July was spent white water rafting :-) My uncle said that most normal people would have gone for a romantic meal and night out (thanks John), but since when have we ever been normal? Rafting on the Rio Grande was awesome. We did class 2 rapids in the morning, just to get used to how the raft moved and get us a bit wet. This was taken when we stopped for lunch

In the afternoon, we tackled class 3 rapids (apparently they go up to class 6!), which were enough for me. Here we are getting ready for the final big one, going...

going...

gone!

It was so much fun but I think Mark found it tame and would have liked bigger rapids. I've already told him if he wants to raft bigger rapids on the Colorado, I'll see him at the end...

Sandcastles at 7,000 ft

Great Sand Dunes is located in the San Luis Valley and covers and area of about 130 square miles. These huge sand dunes are the tallest in North America and are about 440,00 years old. They are quite amazing.

What we didn't expect was to see water flowing through them! Medano Creek runs down from the Sangre De Cristo Mountains behind the dunes.

Families were there at the creek with kids building sandcastles, paddling and splashing around. A great way to cool down on a hot day.

Some people were attempting to sled down the dunes, but it wasn't really damp enough for them to be able to slide properly. Too much like hard work, so after we sat at the top of the first dune and watched them for a while, we decided to go back down to the creek for a paddle instead :-)

Fun, food, fireworks, rocks, river and bombs

We’ve had Santa Fe booked since January as its one place that we’ve wanted to visit for some time. It was founded in 1610 and is the oldest capital city in the US and the oldest city in New Mexico. Sante Fe is also known as a ‘food lover’s paradise’ with over 400 restaurants and it didn’t disappoint. Mark has already commented on the types of chile and the food so I won’t go into it again. Suffice to say we had a great week and now it’s time to let our digestive systems get back to normality.

We did visit other places during the week, not just restaurants. We drove down to Albuquerque via the Turquoise Trail, a scenic byway that carves its way through picturesque rocks and juniper dotted hills, named for the rich turquoise deposits found in the area. We stopped in Madrid for coffee and cake, which was also where one of my favourite movies “Wild Hogs” was filmed. Maggie's Diner was built for the movie and is now a shop that sells memorabilia

Sandia Crest was a short detour off the trail, and at 10,700 feet, the views across the plain to Albuquerque were something to see

We also picked up Route 66 along the way

On July 4^th, there was a vintage car show around Santa Fe’s main plaza, bands playing in the plaza itself and lots of other stuff going on. The fireworks in the evening were really great and lasted for quite a while. The only drawback was that we had to stay so far back we didn’t get the reverberation in the chest when the really big ones went off. Still, it was nice of the city to do so much for me on my birthday J

San Miguel Church is the oldest church structure and was built c. 1610.

The Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi is just off the main plaza and was built between 1869 and 1886 (as you can see, the Spanish were busy!).

One day we visited Bandelier National monument which covers over 33,500 acres and preserves the homes and territory of the ancestral Puebloans. Most of the structures date from 1150 to 1600.

On the way back, we visited Los Alamos and learned more about the Manhattan Project and the first atomic bombs. The town was created to design the first nuclear weapons in 1943 and was known as ‘the town that never was’. It was under so much secrecy that all the scientists and their families as well as the military personnel lived at PO Box 1663, Santa Fe. Even the birth certificates of that time showed the PO box 1663 as their place of birth! All information about the town of Los Alamos was highly classified until the bombing of Hiroshima. 

We visited Taos Pueblo which is in the valley of a small tributary of the Rio Grande and is still occupied by the Red Willow people. Little has changed over the last 1,000 years and about 150 families still live in the ancient structures within the walls which have no electricity of plumbing. The homes are passed down from generation to generation to keep maintained.

On the way back from Taos, we crossed the Rio Grande gorge

We also had our 25^th wedding anniversary while we were in Santa Fe. We wanted to do something different so we went white water rafting on the Rio Grande. It was such a great day but really tiring – having fun is exhausting! We were lucky that it had rained so much over the previous couple of days (late afternoon thunderstorms most days) that the river was flowing really well. At one point, I completely disappeared under the waves – at least we all stayed in the raft. Photos will be posted at a later date.

We bid farewell to Santa Fe and New Mexico and now are in a small town called Del Norte in Colorado. Tomorrow we are going to visit the Great Sand Dunes National Park. The largest dune is over 750 feet (230m) and should be something to see. I don’t think I’m up to sledding down it though!