Four Corners Trip: Misc En-Route Home

Below are some photos from the last day of our trip which was largely spent in the car. Luckily, Southeastern Utah is chock-full of natural wonders, so we never had far to drive between interesting sidetrips. We visited:

CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK: a colorful, geologically fascinating park,

full of immense vistas and interesting juxtapositions of rock

as well as Native American petroglyphs

and a bona fide ghost town. Known previously as Fruita, it was home to a small community of Mormon pioneers who first settled here in 1880. All that remains of Fruita today is the little one-room school house (top right), a farmhouse and barn (not pictured), some farming implements (right), and a peach orchard with over 2,000 trees (bottom and middle). The deer pictured does not date to historic Fruita.

What a spectacular setting for a little peach production operation. (Yes, I know I am romanticizing what was probably an incredibly difficult life). A sign posted at the gate to the orchard said visitors were free to wander through the trees and pick their own peaches. Doesn't that sound fun! Unfortunately, 100 degree weather tends to put a damper on orchard frolicking, so we decided to pass this time around.

As usual, I loved seeing all the different rock formations, and felt the urgent NEED TO UNDERSTAND the creation of each individual formation. ($100, right dad?)


I found the rock pictured at right particularly fascinating. The Canyonlands ranger who gave the geology lecture had said that some rocks had preserved rain drops which have helped determine the climatology of previous epochs. Could this be one of those rocks? Those sure look like rain drops. Click to enlarge and you'll see what I mean. Fascinating!

THE MOKI DUGWAY
not so much an attraction as a cool series of sharp switchbacks down a steep gravel road. It's less than three miles in length, but feels shockingly steep at times (esp for a gravel road) and overlooks some of the most spectacular scenery anywhere.


EN ROUTE
We also stopped at Natural Bridges National Monument and other random scenic spots along the way. For example, I was really taken with the lines of this badlands-ish mountain in the background of this image. I think it's quite pretty in its starkness.


In all, it was an action packed week and a lot of fun! Thanks for the visit Ken. See you in... Turkey?

Four Corners Trip: Monument Valley

Our final 'big' destination was Southeastern Utah's Monument Valley Tribal Park, famous setting for all those western films and tacky 80's commercials. We arrived just in time to catch the beautiful pre-dusk low light that truly makes Monument Valley come alive! Here are snapshots from our visit:

Four Corners Trip: Colorado

From Moab we headed into Colorado to take a ride on the...

DURANGO SILVERTON RAILROAD
Our first stop in Colorado was a ride on the historic 'Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.' It's a spectacular journey; in fact, it reputed to be one of the most spectacular rail journeys in the world. When you add the history to the scenery, I am inclined to agree.

Here's a bit of background on the railroad from their website:
"Durango was founded by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway in 1879. The railroad arrived in Durango on August 5, 1881 and construction on the line to Silverton began in the fall of the same year. By July of 1882 (amazingly, only 9 months after construction began) the tracks to Silverton were completed, and the train began hauling both freight and passengers.



The line was constructed to haul silver & gold ore from the San Juan Mountains, but passengers soon realized it was the view that was truly precious. This historic train has been in continuous operation for 126 years, carrying passengers behind vintage steam locomotives and rolling stock indigenous to the line. Relive the sights and sounds of yesteryear for a spectacular journey on board the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad."

We sat in one of the open cars, and luckily it was an absolutely beautiful day. The temperatures were cooler here than the previous days in Utah due to Colorado's higher elevations, and there were nice puffy clouds in the sky that added dimension to the passing scenery.



There was one downfall to sitting in the open air cars: the soot! This is a coal-fired train and the soot was a bit overwhelming at times. In the photo below, that's just 10 minutes of soot accumulation on my pant leg (right). We caught flecks in our eyes and felt coated in soot by the time we reached Silverton. And, of course, we did wonder what kind of consequences our poor lungs were paying for this little outing. Luckily was only bad on the ride up the mountain. The ride downhill--requiring less fuel--was virtually soot-free.


THE MINING TOWN OF SILVERTON

The destination of the train ride (although it's really more about the journey than the destination in this case) is the small historic mining community of Silverton.

Silverton describes itself as "a gritty little mining town with Victorian pretensions." In the mining peak (1900-1910), there were five thousand residents; today there are 500. The town now survives on tourism, not mining (of course), and it does retain quite a bit of its wild west air.

While in town, we climbed up to a large Jesus statue overlooking the city from one of the surrounding mountains. It was an easy hike, and provided great views of the mountains and town. So pretty!



MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK

Our next stop was to see the cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo people. Mesa Verde National Park preserves over 4,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings! These dwellings were inhabited for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300, and are in remarkably wonderful condition.

Tempting as it may be, we decided not to see all 4,000 structures on this visit, choosing instead to focus on Cliff Palace this time around.

We took a guided tour with a park ranger, who did a great job providing additional information that really helped make the sites come alive. We have such a great National Park system! (Too bad it's been so poorly funded in recent years.)


Below are two photos of Ken exploring the ruins--at left he's climbing up one of the ladders to exit the site, at right he's checking out the interior of one of the towers.


EN ROUTE IN COLORADO
Such pretty scenery along the roads in Colorado! We ran across this sunflower field and I had to take a photo of it!


After Durango but before Mesa Verde, we made a quick pit stop at a "honey farm", which really just amounted to a store with a few bees under a glass and tons of honey for sale. Usually I run from these 'factory tour' type activities, but YUMMMMM! How have I gone almost 37 years without gourmet honey? I bought six! I couldn't help myself.

Four Corners Trip: Arches & Canyonlands

After a few days exploring close to home, Ken and I headed out for an action-packed, five day roadtrip of the Four Corners area (Utah/Arizona/New Mexico/Colorado). First stop: Arches & Canyonlands National Parks.

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

Arches is fantastic. Arches is amazing. Arches renders you speechless!


And Arches never disappoints. Ken was very impressed!

It was scorching hot (about 100 degrees) so we had to keep the hiking to a minimum.

We did go on a few short walks to get better views of 'Balanced Rock' (above) and 'Delicate Arch' (at right, with Ken in the foreground).

Ken also hiked to 'Landscape Arch' while I sat at a picnic bench in the shade and read my book. He really enjoyed that hike!

As the sun went down, hiking was much more pleasant and we spent the early evening exploring Double Arch and others.

Arches is beautiful day and night!


CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK
Next day we visited nearby Canyonlands National Park, both the 'Islands in the Sky' (below) and the 'Needles' sections.

While at Islands in the Sky, we listened to a fascinating 1/2 hour geology lecture by a park ranger. I loved it! I'm a geology geek. I admit it.


NEWSPAPER ROCK
Just outside the entrance to Canyonlands/Needles Section is 'Newspaper Rock', a flat rock with one of the largest known collections of Native American petroglyphs, carved during both the prehistoric and historic periods. The reason for such a large concentration of petroglyphs in this one spot remains a mystery.