After the wedding… After the world’s biggest yard sale….After selling the house….THEN we had to get what was left from a 4 bedroom house and garage into a 250 sq ft motorhome. Jim likes to say that he got the driver’s seat and I got all the rest of the space, but he also got half the bed, 3 drawers and a small closet! Fair’s fair.
The first week of November we took a much needed road trip to southern Colorado, Arizona and Utah. We started our trip by detouring to Tarryall Reservoir. It is 17 miles east of Jefferson off Hwy 285. It is a great small lake, the camping is free and it is in a fascinating ranching historic district. Maybe next summer we will be able to go back and see more of the area. Jim had never been to any
I lived in Montrose for 18 years and have driven from Denver to the southwest part of the state many, many times, so I knew lots of cool places to see. We drove up to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. (Black Canyon National Park webpage) Pretty much the 1st time Jim drove a narrow, winding road with a 1000 ft drop off with no guardrails in a wide motorhome. He got a few more gray hairs! When I told him that they don't plow the road in the winter and we cross country skiied along it, I exceeded his narley factor!
Jim had not been to the 4 corners area or seen Indian ruins and I had not been to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We had a wonderful time exploring the Anazazi Cultural Center in Delores (webpage) and hiking the ruins at Hovenweep National Monument. (webpage) We did not get to go to Canyon of the Ancients or Mesa Verde as it snowed! A lot! As you can see from the pictures (November trip to Hovenweep pictures) Hovenweep is spectacular with a dusting of snow. We had a beautiful drive down to Paige and on to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. (webpage) I made Jim very nervous walking on the trails to the rim but we both survived. We fly fished the Colorado River at Lee’s Ferry and marveled at the colors and rock formations of the Vermillion Cliffs. (Grand Canyon and the Colorado River)
We reluctantly resumed the return part of our trip and continued north to Moab. (Webpage about Moab, Canyonlands NP, Arches NP and others) Monument Valley was spectacular...the rocks are so immense and so far apart, it is hard to get a true perspective. We took a short detour to see Newspaper Rock on the south end of Canyonlands. It really makes you think about what the Ancient Ones were saying with their pictures.... if they were passing down stories or telling the way to travel or the history of their family. Then on to the strange and unusual....Hole in the Rock. You have to see the pictures to believe it.
Neither of us had been to Canyonlands National Park before and we were amazed by the north area of the park, Island in the Sky. The Colorado and Green rivers come together there. Canyon after canyon after canyon fall away to the south and you can see for a 100 miles….no kidding! There is limited camping in the Park, so October and November are the best time to go…no crowds, no heat. We also went to Arches National Park. I had been a few times but this was the first time for Jim….it still awesomates me to see these graceful, powerful rock formations. The eons of time it takes to create just one……….(Utah and pictures of Canyonlands and Arches National Parks)
We needed at least another 1-2 weeks to see everything we wanted to see, but we had to be back in Denver for Thanksgiving and our trip to Fiji. Next trip we will return to explore these incredible natural wonders and also Natural Bridges, Capitol Reef, Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. What a fantastic trip that will be. Check out the map, a fantastic loop can be done from Moab south to Monticello, west to Natural Bridges, over to Capitol Reef, Bryce and Zion then north to 1-70 or south to Arizona. Us, we’d be heading south…
