Tag Archives: Travel

An Amazing Adventure~Part 13

18 Jan

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

 Our next stop was Idaho Springs. This is an area that Karen and Brian had visited to go white-water rafting four years ago,. It is a quaint place, and we enjoyed visiting the town and the museum there.The Argo Tours leads tours through the old gold mine and mill. (We didn’t) There are rocks on display that show the placement of holes that held dynamite.

We took in the museum and were fascinated with all the displays and information about how the mine/mill worked in the old times. They had two life-size models dressed in what women of that day would have worn—even for traveling. Much different than today. They were very elegant.

We had lunch at the Buffalo Restaurant.

5

 

Their specialty was buffalo meat! They explained to us that buffalo meat is much healthier than beef—it contains less fat, has more protein, and therefore better for you than beef! I had a buffalo burger that was delicious!

I took quite a few pictures of the inside of the restaurant. Lots of “old time” stuff.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

But the most fascinating to me was the bar. It was a beautiful piece of furniture, and had a history, of course. According to the info on the menu, it was originally built in 1861 in Chicago. It traveled from Chicago to Denver, then eventually, to Idaho Springs. It’s amazing that it survived all those moves, but it did.

12

 

Behind the restaurant, by the road, there is a cliff, that has a waterfall. And by the waterfall is an old wheel.

13

 

There is also a small park (Turkey Lake Park) that contains a Narrow Gauge Colorado and Southern train on display. Brian even got up in the coal car for a look-around.

 

Leaving Idaho Springs, we went up to Echo Lake. Part of Echo Lake area is Summit Lake Park which tops out at 12,830’, and the temperature was a whopping 53°! Well above the tree line, so there was just scrub. We saw many, many Big Horn Sheep— some old, some young. They were close, not bothered by all those humans around them. It almost looked like they were eating the dirt! I got a good picture of one jumping over the fence. Someone brought out their dog—which looked like a sheep dog—and it really wanted to herd those sheep!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

 

On our way down, we saw some Virga rain showers. Don’t know what that is? Neither did Brian. But my retired-meteorologist husband informed him that Virga is a rain shower that evaporates before it reaches the ground. As Brian stated—he continues to learn something new every day!

21

 

We stopped briefly at the Mount Goliath Station. Here is a cute sign:

22

We did stop and park at the Arapaho National Forest. There was a lovely small waterfall with more gorgeous Aspen stands across the road. Brian got down and personal with the waterfall.

 

There was also a very large outcrop of rock that had a “Christmas” tree atop it. A little difficult to see in this picture, but it’s there. It fascinated me.

25

 

 

~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

My Colonial States Trip~Part 9

14 Jan

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Small Red Plane

After looking over the P-61 restoration project and talking to one of the museum’s volunteers, I decided not to try to visit the Golden Age Air Museum in Bethel, PA or Jerry’s Classic Cars in Pottsville, PA since I needed to be heading south and not north. So, my next stop was to visit the Choo Choo Barn model train museum in Strasburg, PA which has a large model train display that features over 150 hand-built animated figures and vehicles and 22 operating trains. This display includes miniature replicas of such Lancaster county places as The Willows Restaurant, the Dutch Wonderland amusement park, and the Strasburg Railroad.

1

As it turned out, and since I was in the middle of Dutch country, Isaac’s Famous Grilled Sandwiches restaurant was right next door to the Choo Choo Barn, so I stopped in and had one of their hot Reuben sandwiches for lunch. Yumm, was that ever good!

2

Then I slid over to the Landis Valley Museum in Lancaster, PA where I discovered a small living history village, depicting the early 1740s German culture in that part of Pennsylvania. There was a large Mennonite cemetery adjacent to the village and I wasn’t sure if it was associated with the museum or not.

3

Next it was over to take a look at the Haines Shoe House located in Hallam, PA that sits all by itself, out in the middle of a field, just off Shoe House Road. Built by shoe salesman, Mahlon Haines in 1948 as a form of advertisement, Haines gave the architect a boot and said, “Build me a house like this.” And he did. Mahlon claimed that his boots were all-inclusive, or what he called from “Hoof-to-Hoof” because the company did all of the boot making process starting with the raising of the cattle to the finished product.

4

Then another few miles down the road I visited the Golden Plough Tavern in York, PA, but it was closed, so I worked my way back to the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, PA. As I walked up to the museum from the parking lot, there was a guy sitting under a tree, all by himself, playing a clarinet.   The museum’s exhibition covers the period from 1850 to 1876, with the major focus being on the Civil War years of 1861-1865. The collection has over 24,000 artifacts, photographs, documents and manuscripts related to those historic years in our history. When I exited the museum to look out over the scenic Susquehanna River valley, not far from where the 1863 Sporting Hill skirmish took place during the Gettysburg campaign, the guy was still playing. His music was enchanting and very restful and it really set the stage for the view from the top of the Prospect Hill where the museum is located.

5

 

—–To Be Continued—–

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

An Amazing Adventure~Part 12

11 Jan

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

After stopping for supper at Estes Park, we drove on to Denver, staying at an Extended Stay Hotel. Unfortunately, the chain was working on renovating this particular hotel, so it wasn’t in the best shape for our stay. However, we knew we wouldn’t be there during the day, so we stayed anyway.

Our final day in Denver—and our trip. But Brian had packed in a bunch of stuff for us to do. We began with breakfast—but not at the hotel! They only had cold cereal and some muffins. Brian had noticed a “Rosie’s Diner” nearby by hotel, so we went there for breakfast. It is a classic diner, and we thoroughly enjoyed our meal there. We learned (from Wikipedia) that Rosie’s was:   Humbly birthed in 1946 as the Silver Dollar Diner of Little Ferry, New Jersey. Rosie’s Diner earned national acclaim and took on its current name in 1971, when the Bounty paper towels “quicker picker upper” TV commercial made the diner and waitress Rosie (a.k.a. the late actress Nancy Walker) household icons.

2

We were also impressed to see, over the counter, a sign that read: We thank and pray for all who serve our country. We thanked the hostess for the sign, and she stated that three of her children were in the military.

Brian had wanted to tour the Denver Mint, but discovered that all the reservations for that day were filled. Shucks! Oh well, we had plenty of other stuff to see.

Our next stop was Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre. I know some of you know about this place, but neither Fred nor I did. And we were blown away by it! We were impressed not only by the “red rocks” but the size of them!

 

But the amphitheatre was amazing!

5

 

Brian described how it was built. And we were also amazed to find that a LOT of Denverites use it as an exercise platform. We saw them jogging through the seating area. One little girl was learning early in life to exercise there.

 

 

But what amazed/impressed us the most, was a group of people who would stand on one bleacher, then JUMP to the next bleacher…UP! And then again. And then again. Really amazing!

8

 

Inside the building, we found a wall of mementoes to people and groups who had performed in the amphitheatre from years past. We found the group “311” had performed there every year since 2008. That may not mean anything to you—but one of our nephews is a member of that particular rock band.   Brian tells us that, with the younger-than-40 crowd, 311 is a VERY hot group! We are pleased to see they are doing so well.

9

 

We drove then through Genesee Park, hoping to see some bison—but there were none to see. Genesee is reported to be a Native American term for “shining valley.”   It is Denver’s largest mountain park. Bison and Elk were brought into the park in the 1920’s, to help the endangered animals to repopulate. Apparently, as you drive along the Interstate, you can frequently see the Bison. They just weren’t out for us that day.

 

~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~

Tags: , , , , , ,

An Amazing Adventure~Part 11

4 Jan

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

After we had crossed the Continental Divide at Milner Pass, we drove on up to and stopped at the Alpine Visitor Center, at 11,796’ above sea level.

The air temperature was only 56°!! We were glad we had our sweaters and jackets with us! The tree line is at about 11,000’, so we were well above that, and vegetation was sparse, and we were glad we were inside the vehicle!

5

 

On one side of the mountain was some left-over snow! I guess the sun doesn’t get to that side of the mountain very often.

6

There were about a dozen chipmunks running around there—all along the stonewall– at least five or six were running at a time. One even jumped on Brian’s jacket, before jumping off quickly. They were really cute—standing on their hind legs, paws up, begging.

We drove along the Trail Ridge Road and it’s reported to be the highest continuous PAVED highway in the United States. It was still pretty rough and narrow, but at least it was paved.

We drove to and parked at the Bear Lake Ranger Station.

There was a trail Brian wanted to walk, but thought it would be too difficult for us, so he took off by himself. We were to meet up back at the parking lot. Karen, Fred and I began our “virtually flat” walk around the lake. We discovered that their idea of virtually flat and ours, differed greatly! There were times it was pretty rough going—but we eventually made it. It was a lovely walk and a gorgeous lake to walk around. Again, there were stands of Aspen trees that were just beautiful.

 

As we were leaving Bear Lake, we came upon a LOT of cars parked by the side of the road. So we stopped to see what was going on. And we were so glad we did! There was a heard of Elk in the meadow—one bull and about 10 cows, with one rather young calf in the mix. We got a lot of good pictures. We were amused to see that the bull was chasing after one particular cow—and she was having absolutely NOTHING to do with him! He bellowed quite a few times. It was so funny!

As we drove off again, we came to a few more Elk by the side of the road– just eating. We stopped and took more pictures. They seemed to pay us no mind at all.

16

It was time to head to Denver for our final two nights. But we stopped in Estes Park for dinner. We stopped at a place called Baba’s Burgers and Gyro’s—just a small diner on the side of the road. They were actually about to close, but they told us we could come on in and eat. We were glad they did, because those who came in after us were turned away! There was one other couple in the diner, and as we all got to talking, it turned out they were from Orlando, as well! Small world! The food was really good, and we were glad we had stopped.

 

 

~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

My Colonial States~Trip Part 7

31 Dec

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Red Spot Plane

The reason it was late in the day when I arrived in Saratoga Springs was because when I left the Bellow Falls, “Greta” told me to head north 27 miles when I should have been heading south!  What was that all about?  Even though I had missed seeing a couple of museums, it had been a very delightful day’s journey, as the changing of the tree colors had been growing more beautiful as I traversed thru northern New Hampshire, Vermont and New York.

1

Even though it was late in the day, I hustled down to Glenville, NY to check out the Empire State Aerosciences Museum, but missed getting in to see their hangered collection by 30 minutes (they closed at 4:00 pm).  I was really hoping to visit this museum as I was looking forward to seeing their restoration hanger projects, which I understood was extensive.  I was however, able to get a few pictures of their outdoor static display aircraft, but had to shoot through the chain-link fence.    But, oh well, you can’t see them all.  Maybe next time.

2

 

I ended the day by taking a leisurely drive thru Schenectady, NY to Albany, NY where I had a wonderful meal of Fall-Off-The-Bone Ribs at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant, and then it was just a matter of finding my motel for the night.

The next morning I headed south again thru Germantown, NY to be re-acquainted with some really old friends (aircraft) at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in Red Hook, NY.  I had visited the Aerodrome back in 2011, during a trip to the up-state New York area, and wanted to check out any new aircraft they might have added to their collection.

3

     

 I also wanted to see their freshly restored 1917 Albatros D.Va replica.  This Albatros replica had been built in the 1970s by Aerodrome founder Cole Palen, and finished in the colors of WWI Bavarian fighter ace Eduard Ritter von Schleich of Jasta 21 in 1917.

4

The plane had been an Old Rhinebeck Airshow favorite for many years.  Part of the recent complete restoration included a new paint scheme depicting one of the aircraft flown by another well-known WWI Bavarian fighter ace in 1918, Lieutenant Walter Boning of Jasta 76b.

5

Two more of my favorite aircraft in the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome collection are the 1911 Curtiss Model D Pusher, and the 1909 Bleriot XI, which has the distinction of being the oldest flying aircraft in the United States.

6

      1911 Curtiss Model D Pusher

7

1909 Bleriot XI

It was hard to pull myself away from this museum, but I needed to keep moving if I was going to see all the places on my list for that day.  So, heading south a short distance, I skirted the Catskill Mountains on my way to visit the Trolley Museum of New York in Kingston, NY.  This small museum wasn’t open until later in the day, but the lady saw me at the door and let me in any way.  That was nice as I had the entire museum and its rolling stock all to myself.  The museum operates a trolley line ride from Gallo Park to Kingston Point providing scenic views along the Hudson River.

8

As I was leaving the Trolley Museum I noticed that the surrounding area looked very familiar.  I had been so intent on finding the Trolley Museum that I had driven right past the Hudson River Maritime Museum, one of the museums I had visited during my Upstate New York trip back in 2011.  I stopped long enough to take a couple of photos of the “Mathilda” which is a 1898 steam tug boat, and then I was on my way again. 

9

—–To Be Continued—–

Tags: , , , , ,

An Amazing Adventure~Part 10

28 Dec

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

                                                  

The next morning, we had a buffet breakfast at the hotel, then stopping for a gas fill up before heading East. Our first stop was at Beaver Creek Ski Resort. Brian parked the van and we headed up to the Beaver Creek Village.

2

 

Very swanky ski resort there—unique shops mostly pertaining to the ski industry. And apparently President Gerald R. Ford and his wife, Betty, were great enthusiasts in the area—so much so that there was Gerald R. Ford Hall, a convention center of sorts.

3

We saw some gorgeous bronze figures there.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It was heading on toward lunchtime by that time, so we decided to just stop there and eat before heading on to Vail. We stopped at The Blue Moose for pizza and a soda. REALLY good pizza! We ate at one of the outdoor tables, and thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine and cool weather.

From Beaver Creek we drove on to Vail, Colorado proper and Lionshead Village. We visited Vail Village and Ford Park—the Betty Ford Alpine Park, which is the world’s highest botanical garden. Beautiful garden, with a children’s section in it, as well. Some gorgeous leaf-changing color, as well.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

From Vail/Beaver Creek, we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park.

18

We saw Grand Lake, and Lake Grandy. We saw some very old cars! Don’t know exactly why they were there, but it was fun to see them.

There was also a bronze memorial to Park Ranger Suzanne Elizabeth Roberts, who was killed by a rockfall while in the Haleakala National Park on Maui, Hawaii. She had served at Rocky Mountain National Park for 10 years before going to Hawaii. Nice Memorial.

We were most impressed with the huge stands of Aspen trees we saw. Those were the trees that I grew up seeing in the New Mexico mountains outside Albuquerque, so they meant a lot to me. Those yellow and orange leaves were just beautiful!

22

The outside air temperature was 71° as we started up the mountain, and was 58° at 10,500’ which was two miles above sea level!   Brian was quite insistent that he wanted to see a MOOSE! So we kept looking all along the drive up. He did finally see one—laying down—but he saw it! It had quite a large rack (of horns) on it, as well. Brian was well pleased.

23

We crossed the Continental Divide at Milner Pass, which sits at 10,759’ above sea level. The air temperature was 60° there—rather chilly!

24

 

~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

My Colonial States Trip~Part 6

24 Dec

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Lites

 

I headed west back across the border into Maine toward my next stop in Bangor, ME to get a picture of the 31 foot tall Paul Bunyan statue. It is rumored that the Paul Bunyan myth originated in the early 1800s with lumberjacks exchanging many of their tall-tales across the northern territories, including in and around the northern Maine forest area known as The Devil’s Half-Acre. The story has grown to great proportions over the years, most usually with Paul Bunyan being accompanied by his faithful companion “Babe” the blue ox. Paul Bunyan was said to have wondered the woods displaying his bigger than life super-human strength and abilities.

1

While I was in Bangor, I visited the Cole Land Transportation Museum which houses an amazing collection of vehicles from bicycles, motorcycles, cars, trucks to a diesel locomotive and a WWII tank. This museum’s dedication to honoring America’s military personnel and the equipment they used in the various war efforts our country has been involved in was truly gratifying.

2

Before leaving Maine I wanted to be sure I experienced a New England lobster meal, so I had dinner at the Weathervane Seafood Restaurant in Waterville, ME where I had a bowl of New England Clam Chowder, as an appetizer, followed by a 1-pound Maine lobster. The chowder was excellent as was the lobster, even if it was a battle getting to the tail meat. I guess I’ve been spoiled with how the Florida restaurants split the underside of the Florida lobster tails for their guests, making it much easier to get at that delicious tail meat.

3

Having satisfied my Main lobster craving, I now headed west again thru the upper part of Maine and into New Hampshire to visit the Gorham Railroad Museum in Gorham, NH where I got a personal tour of the station museum, as well as a running history of the Grand Trunk Railway system, that pretty much put the city of Gorham on the map in 1751. At the end of the tour, Bob, my tour guide even gave me a homemade muffin his wife had baked that morning. Now you can’t beat that for museum hospitality can you?

4

Next it was west again to check out the Vermont Railroad Museum in White River Junction, VT which actually turned out to be an active Amtrak station. The station is also used by the Green Mountain Railroad to provide passenger excursion trains to Thetford and Norwich, VT. The station was built in 1937 as a Union Terminal to serve the Boston & Maine Railroad, the Central Vermont Railroad and the Rutland Railroad.

5

 

While I was in Vermont I planned to visit the Railroad Museum in Bellow Falls, VT only to find that the museum and most of its rolling stock had been incorporated into the Steamtown U.S.A. collection, run by the National Park Service and moved to Scranton, PA. Since by now I was headed south, I decided not to make a side trip that far west and continued toward my next stop at the Saratoga Automobile Museum in Saratoga Springs, NY. As it turned out, I got to the museum late in the day and the museum was hosting a huge auto show. All the cars were in an enclosed area where the admission ticket was more than I wanted to pay, since I wouldn’t have had time to see the entire display.

6

 

—–To Be Continued—–

 

Tags: , , , , ,

An Amazing Adventure~Part 9

21 Dec

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

I would like to make a “disclaimer” here: Some years ago, Fred and I purchased “Lifetime” passes to our U.S. National Parks. For a very nominal fee, admission to our NPS are free—for our lifetime! They came in very handy on this trip, with all the NPS parks we entered. If you are ever thinking about making such a trip—it is very well-worth your money to purchase a pass. Karen and Brian had theirs, as well, but probably paid more than we did, since we purchased ours as “seniors.” Look into it….

We finally made our way to Arches National Park.

2

There are over 2000 natural stone arches in this park. There are massive pinnacles, fins, and balanced rocks. It’s one place you won’t want to turn your head for fear of missing something amazing. And you should recognize the Delicate Arch—made famous as the desktop picture on a lot of computers! It is also on some of the Utah license plates, and the Utah state quarter. It looks like it isn’t very big—and we only saw it from a distance—but it’s 65’ tall—that’s about as tall as a five-or-six story building! I’ve seen pictures of it with people below it, and they look really tiny!

3

The entrance to the Visitors Center at Arches has some amazing bronze animals.

We saw a great video about the formation of the arches within the park, and are told how they are continually changing—and eventually will collapse with just the right time, wind, rain, and snow.

Brian was more adventurous than the rest of us, so he plowed ahead, while we took our time climbing Park Avenue. We’re told that it was named that because the massive rock formations reminded the Arches National Park discoverers of Park Avenue in New York City.

 

It was a bit slow-going for me (I’ve GOT to get my knees fixed!!), but we made it, and saw some fantastic formations along the way. There was Bowed Rock, Windows, Turret, Caves, Pothold Arch, Queen Nefertiti,

9

 

the Three Gossips,

10

 

Panorama Point, Delicate Arch and others. Fred and Brian went on further to see and photograph Landscape Arch.

11

 

We saw the balanced rock from several angles. We saw lots of “fins”

12

and some arches within large rocks.

13

It’s just beyond description. And we walked along side some massive rocks, just lying around. Again, Brian is more adventurous that the rest of us, and climbed up on a couple of them. He’s nuts!!

As sunset was approaching, we headed out of Arches and went into Moab. We stopped at a Wendy’s for supper, and at a grocery store to refill our cooler. Then we drove over two hours to Grand Junction. We stayed at the Grand Vista Hotel there.

 

~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

My Colonial States Trip~Part 5

17 Dec

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Stars Plane

The next morning I planned to start the day with a visit to the Maine Maritime Museum located in Bath, ME but they didn’t open until later in the day and as                                                                                                                                                      the poem by Robert Frost goes, “The woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.” So I just kept on trucking up US #1 toward Owls Head, ME and the Transportation Museum there. This is one of the best transportation museums I have ever visited, where many of their over 150 transportation vehicle collection are from the pre-1920s era, and they all operate as originally designed. I got my first ride in a 1915 Ford Model T, and it ran like a sewing machine. What a thrill that was!

1

I would like to have stayed longer in that museum, but I headed north on US #1 again toward my next stop at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, ME. This museum is Maine’s oldest maritime museum and is designed to preserve Searsport’s unique maritime and shipbuilding history. It is laid out as a 19th century seafaring village, with thirteen buildings, housing a collection of archival items focusing on the maritime history and life in New England during the early 18th century.

2

Now I was headed for Bar Harbor and Acadia Nation Park, located near the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, at the northeast edge of Maine. It was a beautiful day and the drive around Acadia National Park was breath-taking. The leaves on the trees were just beginning to turn, making the scenery that much more beautiful.

3

Next it was back thru Ellsworth, Maine and the long drive up US #1 thru Columbia Falls and Jonesboro to Calais and the Canadian border, where I was asked where I was going and what the purpose of my trip was.   After I crossed the border into New Brunswick, for some reason, Greta wouldn’t recognize the motel address. It was after dark, and I didn’t have a map of the area, so I called the motel and the clerk told me which exit to take and then talked me into Fredericton, NB and to the motel. Wow, that was a life-saver, and what a relief it was! The next morning I visited the Christ Church Cathedral before heading out of town. The beautiful cathedral was built in 1853 and has continued to hold services right up to modern times. The front door was open and wonderful organ music was being played by someone on the church’s four-manual Casavant Freres Opus 2399 organ (which has more than 2500 wood and metal pipes). What a beautiful way to start one’s day.

4

I headed west to visit the Kings Landing Historical Settlement which is a late 18th century living museum, made up of almost 70 buildings, located on 300 acres, where period life of the “United Empire Loyalists” is re-created by costumed interpreters that bring to life the era with explanations of how the people lived, worked and played during that time in New Brunswick. As I walked toward the bridge, I was pleased to hear a mellow singing voice echoing across the water to me. When I arrived at the King’s Head Inn, there was the singer, sitting on a bench with his guitar, strumming more early British folk tunes for the people passing by. The village was very interesting but the usual transportation wagon never showed up and it ended up being quite a walk back to my car!

5

 

 

 

—–To Be Continued—–

Tags: , , , , , , ,

An Amazing Adventure~Part 8

14 Dec

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

 

The next morning, we had breakfast at our out-of-the-way hotel. It was surprisingly good—make your own waffles and all the stuff that goes along with that.

We went through the little area known as Fruita. There is a bit of history about it, as well. It was settled by the Mormons, and they planted all kinds of fruit trees—apple, pear, peach, cherry, apricot, mulberry, even Potowatomee Plum (I’d never heard of that one). They made their living off all the things one can make from fruit. The original name of the place was Junction. After the success of the fruit trees, they changed the name to Fruita.

The residents (usually no more than about 10 families) built a one-room school house, which still stands today, after some renovation. The National Park Service purchased most of the land—and trees—and razed most of the buildings. But the school house survived. And while the land and trees belong to the National Park Service, the public is invited to help harvest. According to their website, any fruit consumed in the park is free. If you pick the fruit and take it out of the park—you are charged. Interesting. Here is a picture of that one-room schoolhouse.

2

From there, we headed on to Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, in Moab, Utah. It took us a while to get there, so by the time we arrived, it was time for lunch.

3

 

I found it interesting to know that Canyonlands National Park is the LARGEST park in Utah! When looking at the map, there is an area five or six time larger than Canyonlands, but then I realized it is the Grand Staircase Escalante National MONUMENT—not a national park Big difference—I suppose mostly who controls the area. Canyonlands has deeply eroded canyons interspersed with sheer-sided mesas and a variety of spires, arches and unusual rock formations

We had a picnic lunch near the Grand View Point, at an outside picnic table. We were joined by some chipmunks and either a raven or a crow (we aren’t sure just what each of those birds looks like, so…..). They must have had some scraps from other picnickers, because they were quite bold.

7

 

After lunch, we drove around Canyonlands, as much as we could. Again, of course, I wanted to get out and take pictures of just everything I could see. So Brian stated that when we stopped, it was for a “two photo stop” only. If I took more than two photos, he would go off and leave me (he never did)! Of course, if HE got out to take pictures, the deal was off!

 

We stopped at Buck Canyon Overlook. Fantastic scenery. It’s like I just couldn’t get enough of it all. Apparently the Green and Colorado rivers confluence carved out what we saw. Absolutely amazing! Breath-taking! And frankly, I thought some of the rock formations were as spectacular as what we saw in Grand Canyon.

The elevations in Canyonlands range from 3,700’ to 7,200’ above sea level. That makes for hot summers and cold winters. Sometimes the temperatures can change as much as 50° within one day. The area has less than 10” of rain per year, usually in the summer by monsoons, which can cause flash flooding.

There is also an area within Canyonlands called Upheaval Dome. The “experts” still aren’t sure—even after all these years of studying it—whether it was a salt dome that exploded, or a meteorite impact. It was a bit of a hike—classified as a “short steep trail” to get to the overlook, so Brian was the only one who made that trek. We contented ourselves with the sign.

8

8

~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~

Tags: , , , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →