Friday, October 05, 2007
Last Days of the Caravan
Be sure to click on the photos for larger views.
This installment covers Thursday (September 27) through Friday (October 5).
On Thursday we drove from Flagstaff to Monument Valley. There was no real sightseeing en route – other than some new views of rocks. After arrival at Gouldings Campground in Monument Valley, we caught a ride with Dwayne and Carolyn into the Monument Valley Visitor Center where we toured the exhibit on Navajo Code Talkers, the small museum, and visited the gift shop. On our return to the campground, we stopped at Navajo Village, a collection of small roadside shops. This evening the tail-enders treated us to a sloppy Joe dinner, followed by a short talent show.
On Friday our group boarded three large truck-mounted tour vehicles and did an all-day tour of Monument Valley. About a third of the tour was on roads open to single-family vehicles, the remainder was on 4-wheel drive roads open only to tour vehicles. In the morning we saw several small cliff dwellings, and drove beside a number of mesas. At lunchtime, our drivers cooked hamburgers in a remote valley. In the afternoon we stopped for a short visit to the visitor center, then drove into the park of the park that has a lot of tower-type monuments and a fair number of arches. We also stopped to tour a small Hogan where a 91-year old Navajo woman was carding wool, spinning thread, and weaving rugs. The trip was very dusty, and we all returned to the campground covered in fine red dirt.
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Saturday was our final group travel day, from Monument Valley to Durango, with a stop at Four Corners, where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado meet at a single point. It was very windy today – gusts were forecast to be 55 mph. Just before we arrived at Four Corners, our awning started to bounce in the wind. We limped into Four Corners, where we reset the awning. We then had our picture taken with Carol in two states and me in two others, kissing. This started a trend, and several couples who had already had their pictures taken came back and took one kissing. We did not shop at any of the Navajo shops, but did buy fry bread tacos for lunch. About 20 miles after leaving Four Corners, the awning began to bounce again. This time we pulled off the road and, with help from Joe Frey (who earlier had completely lost his awning to the wind), duct taped the arms and the ends to prevent further damage.
Sunday was an all-day tour of Mesa Verde. Our group took four 11-passenger vans to the park, which is about an hour and a half drive from the campground. In the morning we toured several sites of early dwellings – starting with pit houses and working up to an overview of the famous cliff dwellings. After a picnic lunch, we toured the park’s museum and took a steep, but paved, self-guided trail down to one set of cliff dwellings called Spruce Tree House. The tour of the park ended with a ranger-escorted tour of Cliff House, where we went down stone steps to the pueblo. Leaving the pueblo involved climbing up three flights of ladders. We had seen Mesa Verde with our kids in 1991, but this was our first climb down to Cliff House.
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On Saturday group rode the Durango-Silverton railway, which travels about 55 miles through some outstanding mountain scenery. Because we have taken this trip twice before, however, we took very few photos. After a couple of hours for lunch and shopping in Silverton – an old mining town which now exists solely to sell things to folks who take the Durango-Silverton train – we returned to Durango by bus. In the evening we had our farewell dinner in downtown Durango at the historic Statler Hotel.
After coffee and donuts in the campground on Tuesday morning, we drove from Durango to Taos. The route took us over the mountains, and at 10,500 feet we hit the highest point (in the RV) of our trip. We are temporarily burned out from sightseeing, so we took advantage of a couple of slow days in Taos. On Wednesday morning we toured downtown Taos where we continued shopping for gifts and souvenirs. On Thursday morning we did errands, including laundry, shopping, and vacuuming and cleaning the inside of the coach. Both afternoons we relaxed in the RV and in the evenings we watched some television.
On Friday we drove from Taos to Santa Fe. En route we detoured to Los Alamos where we visited a science museum about the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The museum covers everything from the development of the atomic bomb to current day missions such as ensuring (without weapons testing) the reliability of our nuclear arsenal, developing strategies for carbon capture, and performing sophisticated computer modeling. Our campground in Santa Fe has good Internet access, so I will update the blog this evening. The next stops (after 4 nights here) will be Carlsbad Caverns and Big Bend National Park in remote SW Texas. The next update will likely be over a week away.
This installment covers Thursday (September 27) through Friday (October 5).
On Thursday we drove from Flagstaff to Monument Valley. There was no real sightseeing en route – other than some new views of rocks. After arrival at Gouldings Campground in Monument Valley, we caught a ride with Dwayne and Carolyn into the Monument Valley Visitor Center where we toured the exhibit on Navajo Code Talkers, the small museum, and visited the gift shop. On our return to the campground, we stopped at Navajo Village, a collection of small roadside shops. This evening the tail-enders treated us to a sloppy Joe dinner, followed by a short talent show.
On Friday our group boarded three large truck-mounted tour vehicles and did an all-day tour of Monument Valley. About a third of the tour was on roads open to single-family vehicles, the remainder was on 4-wheel drive roads open only to tour vehicles. In the morning we saw several small cliff dwellings, and drove beside a number of mesas. At lunchtime, our drivers cooked hamburgers in a remote valley. In the afternoon we stopped for a short visit to the visitor center, then drove into the park of the park that has a lot of tower-type monuments and a fair number of arches. We also stopped to tour a small Hogan where a 91-year old Navajo woman was carding wool, spinning thread, and weaving rugs. The trip was very dusty, and we all returned to the campground covered in fine red dirt.
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Saturday was our final group travel day, from Monument Valley to Durango, with a stop at Four Corners, where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado meet at a single point. It was very windy today – gusts were forecast to be 55 mph. Just before we arrived at Four Corners, our awning started to bounce in the wind. We limped into Four Corners, where we reset the awning. We then had our picture taken with Carol in two states and me in two others, kissing. This started a trend, and several couples who had already had their pictures taken came back and took one kissing. We did not shop at any of the Navajo shops, but did buy fry bread tacos for lunch. About 20 miles after leaving Four Corners, the awning began to bounce again. This time we pulled off the road and, with help from Joe Frey (who earlier had completely lost his awning to the wind), duct taped the arms and the ends to prevent further damage.
Sunday was an all-day tour of Mesa Verde. Our group took four 11-passenger vans to the park, which is about an hour and a half drive from the campground. In the morning we toured several sites of early dwellings – starting with pit houses and working up to an overview of the famous cliff dwellings. After a picnic lunch, we toured the park’s museum and took a steep, but paved, self-guided trail down to one set of cliff dwellings called Spruce Tree House. The tour of the park ended with a ranger-escorted tour of Cliff House, where we went down stone steps to the pueblo. Leaving the pueblo involved climbing up three flights of ladders. We had seen Mesa Verde with our kids in 1991, but this was our first climb down to Cliff House.
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On Saturday group rode the Durango-Silverton railway, which travels about 55 miles through some outstanding mountain scenery. Because we have taken this trip twice before, however, we took very few photos. After a couple of hours for lunch and shopping in Silverton – an old mining town which now exists solely to sell things to folks who take the Durango-Silverton train – we returned to Durango by bus. In the evening we had our farewell dinner in downtown Durango at the historic Statler Hotel.
After coffee and donuts in the campground on Tuesday morning, we drove from Durango to Taos. The route took us over the mountains, and at 10,500 feet we hit the highest point (in the RV) of our trip. We are temporarily burned out from sightseeing, so we took advantage of a couple of slow days in Taos. On Wednesday morning we toured downtown Taos where we continued shopping for gifts and souvenirs. On Thursday morning we did errands, including laundry, shopping, and vacuuming and cleaning the inside of the coach. Both afternoons we relaxed in the RV and in the evenings we watched some television.
On Friday we drove from Taos to Santa Fe. En route we detoured to Los Alamos where we visited a science museum about the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The museum covers everything from the development of the atomic bomb to current day missions such as ensuring (without weapons testing) the reliability of our nuclear arsenal, developing strategies for carbon capture, and performing sophisticated computer modeling. Our campground in Santa Fe has good Internet access, so I will update the blog this evening. The next stops (after 4 nights here) will be Carlsbad Caverns and Big Bend National Park in remote SW Texas. The next update will likely be over a week away.
