Our vacation was wonderful.  The website has only a very few of the pictures we took.  We took the motorhome and pulled the Saturn behind.  Here are some of the highlights of the trip. 

 

Meteor Crater

   - Large hole in the ground, very interesting.

 

Petrified Forest/ Painted Desert

   - I have always wanted to see the petrified forest – got quite a lesson on how the trees fell so many years ago and the ocean covered them up.  Minerals replaced the large part of the trees and hardened into stone.  These are very hard – when cut and polished, are very beautiful (and expensive).

   - Beautiful drive through the desert, wonderful, but muted colors on the hills.  Very nice!

 

Acoma

  - Oldest continually inhabited city in North America, on top of a high mesa.  There was a beautiful Catholic Church, with cemetery, quite a few homes – but only a relatively few are inhabited on a yearly basis. Most are used by families only when they come for the feast days and are inherited by the youngest daughter(they figure she’ll live the longest). It is a matriarchal society and one I found very interesting.

 

Santa Fe

  - Crimson Circle yearly spiritual meeting.  Had a wonderful time meeting people and seeing others from the Phoenix area.  James Redfield and his wife were special guests and showed slides and told stories of making a movie of his book “The Celestine Prophecy”. It will be out in Feburary 2006. Sounds like it’s going to really be good and true to the book.

 

Mesa Verde

  - Cliff Palace cliff dwellings.  Another site I have always wanted to see.  The site has been inhabited for 10,000 years, but is not now inhabited.  Large, complex buildings, great stonework, many kivas (holes in the ground where religious ceremonies were held).  There are many other settlements in the area whose remains have been brought to the light.

           

Durango, Colorado

  - Went on the Duringo-Silverton RR – up through the mountains.  Stopped twice for forest fires which the train crew helped put out.  Spent a couple of hours in Silverton and ate lunch in the jailhouse there.  Ran along the Animus River – a long and peaceful trip with beautiful scenery all along.

  - Went along the Skyline Loop – to the cities of Ouray & Telluride which are nestled in beautiful mountains and waterfalls.  The loop is also called the Million Dollar hwy – it goes about 200 miles in a loop, back to Durango.  We stayed at Ouray overnight and took a dip in the hot mineral pool there.  Nice!

           

Moab, UT

  - In Moab, there are three parks – Arches National Park, Canyonland National Park, and Dead Horse Point State Park.  I had always wanted to see Arches, but the scenery was beautiful everywhere we went.  Have tons of pictures.  We took ranger tours which were very informative.  Arches has many arch formations in the rock – that is their main claim to fame, hence the name!  Canyonlands is a large plateau which is practically an island divided from the other land by the Colorado and Green Rivers.  Lots of overlooks from which to take lots of pictures.  Peg was partial to this park.  Dead Horse State Park gives the overview of where the Colorado and Green Rivers combine.  It is also basically an island where they drove horses to trap them by blocking the natural bridge behind them. 

The story is that after the cowboys took the horses they wanted they left the other horses there figuring they’d come back over the bridge, but they didn’t and ended up dying.

 

Wyoming

  - Visited Green River – spent a couple of great days with friends Harris and Freedie Foster. Peg’s known Harris since the late70’s when they both lived in Corpus Christi, TX

 

Bryce Canyon National Park

   - Another park I have always wanted to visit – for me the best ever. Who-dos every where.  Who-dos are upright stone figures that stand alone and decorate every viewpoint in Bryce.  Again, we went on a couple of ranger guided tours which were very interesting and informative.  We took a trail about halfway down into the valley, but decided enough was enough.

 

Zion National Park

  - Zion was a canyon of extremely tall mountains on both sides with the river running between.  Spent a couple of days there relaxing and riding the tram up and down the canyon.  Took a couple of short and simple trail walks – one up the river where you couldn’t drive and the other up to the emerald pool.  We ate lunch in the lodge there. It reminded me of Yosemite because we were camped in the bottom of the canyon – just like we did there. And it was HOT! Even tho it rained every afternoon.

 

Page, AZ

  - Went on Lake Powell dinner cruise with ribeye steak and a good meal.  Was really peaceful on the boat, nice scenery, and quiet.  We met some people and visited with them for a while.

  - Went to Antelope Canyon - in Indian Territory on a tour bus.  The canyon is a slot canyon where great forces of water have carved wonderful shapes in the rock.  They have a similar one in Zion, but you have to hike and wade through deep water at this time of year to get there.  This was a dry canyon and it was great!

 

Sedona

-         Sedona is one of my favorite spots and we really enjoyed the red rock there.   Visited the church and tried to get to some of the vortices, but the park required a parking pass to park or it took a hike in the desert, and we didn’t have time but to just make a quick visit.

 

At one point in our travels, towards the end, we stopped for gas and got ourselves into a tight  spot, scraped the trailer and damaged an ice box in the service station.  An electrician fixed the ice box for a small amounnt and a little paint will fix up the coach.