Intro

This trip was our first trip to visit the the National Parks we have not yet visited over the years.  We were hoping to visit 7 new ones: Colorado - Great Sand Dunes and Mesa Verde; Utah - Arches, Canyonlands, Capital Reef and Bryce Canyon;  Nevada - Great Basin.  We hoped to cover it all in a little less than 13 days, June 5, 2019 to June 18, 2019.

The route was to be something like this:

Denver to Fort Garland (B)
Fort Garland to Mesa Verde (C)
Mesa Verde Canyons of the Ancients (D) to Canyonlands (E) to Moab (F)
Moab to Capital Reef (G)
Capital Reef to Grand Staircase-Escalante (H) to Bryce Canyon (I)
Bryce Canyon to Great Basin (J)
Great Basin to Delta (B) to Glenwood Springs (C) to Denver

We made a list of the National Parks we have visited.  They included:

Acadia		Maine
Badlands		South Dakota
Black Canyon of the Gunnison		Colorado
Death Valley		California
Denali		Alaska
Everglades		Florida
Glacier		Montana
Glacier Bay		Alaska
Grand Canyon		Arizona
Grand Teton		Wyoming
Great Smoky Mountains		Tennessee
Halekale		Hawaii
Hawaii Volcanoes		Hawaii
Kenai Fjords		Alaska
Mammoth Cave		Kentucky
Mount Ranier		Washington
Petrified Forest		Arizona
Rocky Mountain		Colorado
Saguaro		Arizona
Virgin Islands		St. John
Wind Cave		South Dakota
Wrangell St. Elias		Alaska
Yellowstone		Wyoming
Yosemite		California
Zion		Utah

There were a couple of question marks in terms as to whether we have visited them officially:

Redwood National Park		California
Shenandoah		Virginia

Indiana Dunes                              Indiana

That meant we had lots more to visit:

American Samoa		Samoa
Arches		Utah
Big Bend		Texas
Biscayne		Florida
Bryce Canyon		Utah
Canyonlands		Utah
Capital Reef		Utah
Carlsbad Caverns		New Mexico
Channel Islands		California
Congaree		South Carolina
Crater Lake		Oregon
Cuyahoga Valley		Ohio
Dry Tortugas		Florida
Gates of the Artic		Alaska
Great Basin		Nevada
Great Sand Dunes		Colorado
Guadalupe		Texas
Hot Springs		Arkansas
Isle Royal		Minnesota
Joshua Tree		California
Katmai		Alaska
Kings Canyon		California
Kobuk Valley		Alaska
Lake Clarke		Alaska
Lassen Volcanic		California
Mesa Verde		Colorado
North Cascades		Washington
Olympic		Washington
Pinnacles		California
Sequoia		California
Theodore Roosevelt		North Dakota
Voyageurs		Minnesota

It is not probable that we will make it to all of them (some in Alaska are very difficult to get to, and not too sure about Samoa........

But we'll try.

Link to next post:  6/5 - To Great Sand Dunes NP

6/5/19 - Home to Great Sand Dunes

The flight to Denver was uneventful.  At the airport,  I had to make a choice of cars to rent (Emerald Club) and ended up selecting a Nissan Rogue.  It turned out to be a great choice (for me).  The seats were comfortable, it had all of the new driving aids (adaptive cruise control is still the important one), CarPlay and Sirius radio and 4WD.  And it got about 30 miles per gallon.

We stopped for a fast food lunch and a stop at a grocery store on the way down.

There were thunderstorms on the way down - there were flash flood warnings in the area.

We made it to Fort Garland and then immediately went to the Great Sand Dunes National Park (in the rain).  Took our first selfie.

Got our first selfie with a National Park sign - apologize for the glare from my head, but you can sort of tell it was overcast and raining....  (And I need to work on my selfie technique - or maybe I need a selfie-stick....)

And made it to the visitor center, but that was about all.  We were pretty tired.

Link to next post:  6/6 - Great Sand Dunes NP

6/6/19 - Great Sand Dunes National Park

We took some pictures of Fort Garland.  There was not much there, but Blance Peak towers over the town...  I had no idea there were 6 14'ers (peaks over 14,000 feet) in the Sangre de Christo range.

The sand dunes are the big draw, but the dunes are separated from the parking and visitor center by Medano Creek, which was seasonal, but flowing pretty well when we were there.  The interesting fact is that it actually had a wave action going.  Evidently,  the water pushes the sand until enough is built up that it blocks the water, and then as more water flows in, it breaks down the block, creating a "wave".

The big activity is climbing the dune and sliding down on various devices (sandboards??, inner tubes, sleds??).  We climbed up the first, pretty low dune, and called it done...

We hiked a little up the Mosca Pass Trail and you can see the dunes in the background.  It was one of the few passes through the Sangre de Christos and was popular enough that someone (probably named Mosca) set up a toll booth at the top....  We only went a little way up (our excuse was adjusting to the altitude).

Susie suggested we drive the unimproved road up to the "Point of No Return".  It was only one land and very sandy at the beginning, and even though we had a 4WD SUV, I was a little intimidated (when we were overtaken by a Land Cruiser and then a Jeep).  So, I turned around after just a bit.  (And then we passed a group of hikers going up in a minivan.....

We took the long way back to Fort Garland and found Alamosa. Colorado (and this brew pub). 

It looked like a neat little town, much livelier than Fort Garland.  They even had a number of old British cars parked along the main drag.  But it didn't seem to be a car show.  It seemed more like a grand tour with these old cars.  Pretty neat....

We also began to see signs for the Old Spanish trail and were intrigued.  It turns out that this entire area (including the Great Sand Dunes) is part of the San Luis Valley, which is the headwaters of the Rio Grande River.  It is bounded on the east by the Sangre de Christo range, and on the north and west by the San Juan range.

Back in the 1820's, the settlers were looking for a trail between Santa Fe and Los Angeles.  They were trying to find a way around the major obstacles - the Continental Divide, the Colorado River and the Mojave Desert.  One of the routes went through the San Luis Valley, and another variation went through Durango and up to Moab.

Link to next post:  6/7 - To Mesa Verde

6/7/19 - Transit to Mesa Verde

We climbed out of the San Luis Valley and went over the continental divide at Wolf Creek Pass (named after some guy named Wolf) and got to see some snow up close and personal

Then we "discovered" Pagosa Springs.  It supposedly has the deepest hot springs in the world - not sure how they determine that....

We had to take a soak in the oldest hot springs bath....  There were three, all near each other.  The actual springs was right next to the San Juan River which ran through the center of the town.

We wandered around a little and saw signs about a music festival and a bunch of cars parked in a field near the hot springs.  Evidently, they were having a bluegrass music festival and the cars were parked, waiting to be let into the festival grounds, which were on top of a hill overlooking the river.  Sorry we had to miss it.....

Then we had lunch along the San Juan River - don't think they would be rafting today...

And then onto Mesa Verde via Durango.  (Maybe a little more glare,,,,,)

We were a little concerned that it would be very crowded (it was Saturday), but the visitor center was pretty empty.  We reserved one ranger tour for this evening and one for tomorrow morning.  We did not expect the climb up to the mesa (about 2000 feet vertical) and about 15 miles to our hotel (the Far View Motel) and then another 10 miles to the Cliff House.  We did our first ranger tour and there was a little climbing involved.....

To the Palace

We also (at least I was) surprised to learn that the cliff dwellings are all below the road.  You have to climb down to them.  The only (large one visible from the road is the Spruce Tree House, near the museum.

Our tour was OK.  The ranger leading is was a young guy and he seemed to be into the mystical part of it - imagine what it would be like to live here 1000 years ago.....

But, it was still amazing.  He did point out that one of the current theories as to why the Ancestral Pueblo people built these villages in the niches in the cliffs is that the niches were created by erosion, most likely springs seeping through the rocks and eroding the sandstone.  Therefore, it was likely there were active springs at each site, which made living there much more convenient.  The top of the mesa was used for farming, but had very little surface water.


And then we had refreshments at the lodge.

Link to the next post:  6/8 - Mesa Verde

6/8/19 - Mesa Verde

6/8/19 - Mesa Verde

We did our second tour in the morning - at Long House. We were "invaded" by feral horses.  The ranger pointed out that these were not the same as wild horses.  Wild horses will avoid people.  There horses will not and could get nasty (so keep your distance).

Note the burned trees.  Much of the top of the mesas were burned (there were signs about each of the major fires over the last 80+ years).  The ranger said it will take  at least 50 years for the trees to start growing again, because the fires were so hot, that much of the nutrients in the soil is gone.

This ranger was much better.  His theme was to think about how it took a community to build a settlement like this - gathering food (farming, hunting, gathering), (stone) tools, water, construction materials, etc.  It was a nice way to think about all that it took to exist in a difficult place.  He also mentioned that one of the more accepted theories as to why the Ancestral Pueblo people abandoned these sites was that there was a prolonged drought (5 or 6 years) in the 12th century.  They just moved on......

We also did a little self-guided tour of the Step House, which is the only large site you can get to without being on a tour.

Then we drove over to the Museum and checked it out.  It was very disappointing.  It didn't look like it had been updated for 50 years.  But we also looked across at the Spruce Tree House village.  There was a little trail down to it, but you couldn't go into it anymore.

Link to the next post:  6/9 - To Moab (Arches and Canyonlands)

6/9/19 - En route to Moab and Arches/Canyonlands

Our first stop on the way to Moab was the Canyon of the Ancients National Monument Visitor Center and Museum.  This museum is worth a stop.  It is what the Mesa Verde museum should be.  They had a lot of exhibits about the native people, the migration routes, the different tribes and languages, and even some exhibits about how the white settlers moved into the area within the last 200 years.

After that, we headed north.  This is Church Rock, right on the highway.  It was one of the major landmarks for the Old Spanish Trail.

It is important to note that Canyonlands is really split into two parts, separated by the Colorado River.  The Needles Visitor Center, on the south side of the river, is pretty isolated.  We had to drive about 40 miles down a county road to get there.  (We did pass Newspaper Rick, which is a large stone wall with a lot of carvings, some old, some pretty new...)

Our faithful steed - we put 2400 miles on the rental car.  However, on the drive on the county roads, the car felt a little jittery.  I checked the tire pressure (on the dashboard - they keep track of those things) and it read 45 psi on all tires - it was supposed to be 33.  So, I got to purchase a tire pressure gauge (souvenir) and play with the pressure until I got it where I wanted it.  Other than that, the car performed admirably.

We took a short trail in the park where the directions consisted of "follow the rock cairns".  Pretty normal around there....

We couldn't see the Colorado or Green Rivers from where we were, but were told they were down in the canyons, about 2000 feet down.

Then we drove on to Moab and we "discovered" a brewpub for dinner.  But be aware, Utah only sells 3.2 beer...... (for now, anyway)

Link to the next post:  6/10 - Arches NP

6/10/19 - Arches

We tried to get to Arches National Park fairly early (before 9), but we still had to wait in line for about 30 minutes to get into the park.

We drove the park road, and we did a short hike at Devils Garden to a couple of arches.

When we got ready to head out, we drove back to one of the more popular sites, the Windows Section, closer to the entrance, but it was so crowded there was no where to stop, so we went back to town and wandered around the town a little.

Some local urban art...

And we did go out to a bar for entertainment (and BBQ).  It was nice.

Link to the next post:  6/11 - to Canyonlands and Capital Reef

6/11/19 - Canyonlands and onto Capital Reef

Canyonlands is really split into two parts, divided by the Colorado River.  The north part is called Island in the Sky.  It is a large plateau over looking the Colorado and Green River Canyons

Definitely on the rim of the canyon. The Colorado River and the Green River are down there somewhere.

Another arch.  This one had a sign to not climb on the arch.  What it didn't say is that the arch is on the edge of a cliff...

We then took a long drive to Torrey, Utah to our next hotel, the Capital Reef Resort.

Link to the next post:  6/12 - Capital Reef

6/12/19 - Capital Reef

There is really not much to do at Capital Reef, other than look at the landscape (which is pretty remarkable).  There is however, an old farm, that they have preserved and converted some of it to a campground.  It is along the Fremont River, which allowed us to walk among some trees for a while.

A nice cottonwood tree along the river

An attempt at a wide landscape shot.

Our hotel, the Capital Reef Resort, had a large selection of accommodations, including the wagons and teepees seen here.  The amazing thing is that they had a large "bath house", with a dedicated bathroom for each wagon and teepee...  (We stayed in the motel.)

And they had llama trips, but we just looked....

And Susie got a nice shot of the sunset....  We felt guilty not staying up to look at the stars (most of the trip was in a "Dark Skies" area), but our excuse is that the moon was pretty full during our trip....

Link to next post:  6/13 - To Bryce Canyon