Ouray, Colorado through Home Bound for Roswell, Ga

Well ... best intentions and all that stuff.  We are now back in our house in Roswell, GA. John's kids did a wonderful job of taking care of everything and it already seems like the trip was a dream.  I'm going to finish posts about the travel adventures from Ouray, Co. going forward, but then I'll put it away to save as a scrapbook of "The First Great Adventure of John and Marilyn After Retirement!"  It was a wonderful trip that mixed tent camping, staying in lodges in National Parks (which I HIGHLY recommend), visiting with family, local hotels and stopping to take pictures of the most random things.  It's been nice to share with all of you and if you ever want to talk about your upcoming vacations, try John for the planning.  He is awesome!!!

This is on our way to Ouray, Co., a cute little town in the mountains outside of Denver.  This is called the Million Dollar Highway because the rock used for the roadbed was actually gold ore. How crazy is that?  It's a very winding road, with few guardrails.  One of the locals explained that the width of the snowplows would wipe out any guardrails, therefore, hug the mountain and drive carefully!  I loved looking straight down and John was very happy to manage the steering wheel of the car. 

These fields of dandelions were so beautiful (to me.  I'm always about the color rather than the reality of it being a pain in the neck for gardeners!) More than once, the colors of the ore in the mountains reminded me of Georgia clay.

Signs like this were everywhere.  They were absolutely NOT kidding when they posted the limit.  Lots of motorcycle riders up in the mountains.  Better them than me. :-)

 This permanent stick reminded us of how high the snow gets in that area.  Good grief. 

We went on a hike to Box Canyon in Ouray.  On the right you see the falls (notice the waves on the beach caught in time on the left of the falls) and the picture on the left is me at the bottom of the stairs.  Absolutely a deafening roar at the bottom of the canyon.  The power of the water was fascinating, but imagine that they had to put a sign at the edge saying, "Don't get in the water".  Hello?  

After leaving Ouray, we visited Melody and Rosie in Lakewood, Co.  It was a short drive into Rocky Mountain National Park so had a great time doing a very quick visit to some of their sights.  Definitely on the list for a longer visit in the future.  

On the way, we saw a fair number of exotic animals.  Here a a couple of yaks, but we also saw bison and llamas.  

This is referred to as the "painted wall" in Black Canyon in Gunnison Park.  The perspective is so hard to capture, but that's the Colorado River at the bottom.  Now that would be a fun adventure. Taking a river trip down there and looking up at these mountains.  Yikes! 

 This is a simple shot, but it never ceased to amaze me how the pastureland (on the left) just stopped as the earth cracked and then there is a gorge.  

 This is a Utah Juniper that we saw on a great nature walk in Gunnison Park.  The sign said that it is at least 200 years old.  I have to say that the trees in the mountains were incredibly hardy.  And this is just one of many that we saw along the way. 

 Remember those beautiful dandelions?  Considering this is  a LONG way across the canyon, they must have been quite a few.  :-)

I had never seen lupine or lilac flowers.  These are the lupines up in the mountains, but  both of them are the most amazing shades of periwinkle/purple and lilacs have a fragrance that I've only read about in my old fashioned novels. 

We went up to Rocky Mountain National Park and this much snow was still in the shadows.  And we were there the beginning of June.  Pretty but .... really? June 4th? 

We drove to the top of the mountain to the Alpine Visitor Center.  This is the parking lot on June 4th, 2013.  Some of it was pushed up from the snowplows, but as you'll see in the next picture, it was way over the roof of the center just as snowfall.  Short season for duty if you are a ranger up there. They estimated this pile at 15 - 16 feet tall. 

That is the roof of the Visitor Center. 

And this sign inside the Visitor Center says, "Water is off because pipes are still frozen.  Use "restrooms" across the parking lot." (i.e. outhouses that don't worry about freezing. Ha! Ha! )

This is along the highway near the Alpine Visitor Center.  The mountains are so beautiful and it really wasn't that cold.  We hiked the Tundra Communities Trailhead to the top at a lookout point.  The ranger said it was about a mile, but the trail was paved so I didn't even bother to change out of my hiking sandals and socks.  Well ..... the trail was indeed paved, but portions were under at least 3 inches of melting snow!  More like skating than hiking!  But totally worth the wet feet.  :-) 

Classic picture of the trees that only grow on one side.  Talk about getting out of the wind. 

Lots of mule deer all over the parks.  

After Colorado, we started heading home through Oklahoma, stopping at cousin Curt and Becky Ulen's house in Tuttle, OK.  Great visit seeing their new house and enjoying a breakfast that the Shriner's group was hosting for victims of the recent tornadoes.  The devastation in that area was unbelievable.  If our human actions are creating these disasters, I hope we get it fixed pretty soon.  

As we went through Dodge City, I was struck by this sign.  Still advertising color TV as part of their "what we have to offer".  Truthfully, I miss the days of the motel where you parked your car in front of the door.  Our family always looked for these spots that had either a pool (awesome!!) or an open field nearby so we could play catch for awhile before going to bed.  Traveling across the country by car will always be my favorite adventure.  

As many Mexican restaurants as we discovered across the Southwest, this is definitely my favorite sign! 

Nothing particularly special about this shot, but it was so Americana I couldn't leave it out. 

Onward to Shreveport and visiting the Kleinhans crew.  We got to visit with lots of family, just not enough pictures!  Too busy having fun.  Spent time on the lake, went to Superior Grill (a pre-requisite for visits to Shreveport.  They know Kitty by name!) the Causey house became the gathering place because we could hang out there until the next event started.  Card games were started and finished (John is NOT a good loser!), the leaning pine tree in the front yard was taken down with a crane,  always good food and drink everywhere and we all realize that laughter and jokes are the essence of life.  

We went out for adventures on the lake.  Mia's long hair was whipping in the wind, so Marilyn braided it tight and used a ripped piece of plastic bag to hold it for awhile! 

 John and Mia became good buddies jumping off the top of the boat and using the new water toys. 

John was bound and determined that he could make the tube slide!!! 

And Chad is definitely busy explaining something wonderful!

 Suzanne and Parker had a great time playing in the water. 

 Our fearless captain, Bill, made sure everyone who fell off the tube or kneeboard was pulled onboard again! 

Nathan and Parker managed to eat enough and certainly had enough family around to make sure they had a good time.  

 The party is almost over for the day!!  John, Kitty, Judy and Mitzi all in one place for a little while.  That's a rarity these days.  

And just for us, the local ducks came up to the boat so the kids could find all the crushed potato chips on the floor and get rid of the crumbs from the bags.  Such smart ducks!! 

Here's the picture from the last morning in Shreveport.  The car is loaded and we're on our way home.  

What a wonderful visit with everyone.  More to come!!!!!

And .... now I'm saying goodbye from this blog.  It's been great sharing our adventures with everyone.  I wish you good hiking and great pictures, peace, health and love.  It's always about the love.  Marilyn

Mesa Verde 6-2-2013

Hello from Mesa Verde, CO.  I think we've demonstrated enough Pueblo housing in the cliffs, but today was a very special hike (Balcony House) where we got to climb inside one of the ruins that we've been showing you.  Whole different experience.  But before I moved into that, just one more interesting shot.  This is looking across Cliff Canyon.  Just under the ledge in the middle, maybe you can see a series of boxy looking shapes. 

Now this is the close up of it with a telephoto lens.  It's a whole city under there! And see how small the tour group is next to it? This was like a downtown for suburbia, and unless you knew what to look for, the whole thing disappeared into the cliff face. 

Now to Balcony House.  Note the top of John's hat.  There's kind of a line on the wall right behind him.  That would have been the floor of the second floor.  These people were 5'1" to at most 5'7" tall, but even so.  It would have been pretty tight quarters. 

There is a whole series of ladders and steps to get into Balcony House.  Here is the first one.  Afraid of heights?  Focus!  You can do it.

The current thought is that they wanted to protect themselves against intruders.  So .... there is a tunnel that you have to crawl through on your hands and knees.  In their time this was the only way in and out.  Here is a view of the tunnel and then pictures of Marilyn creeping in.

Looks like John's happy to get out the other end!

In the house, to get from one level to another, they had chipped footholds into the rock.

To get out of Balcony House and back up the canyon wall required ladders...

...and steps that are carved into the canyon wall.  They were created by the CCC in the 1930's as part of the development of the National Parks.  They are VERY steep and not much more than a toehold ( FOCUS John!! ) and you can surely get winded going up!  It's a minimum of 7000 feet here.

...and more ladders.  Here, looking down from the top of the last ladder, you can see how steep the getting out was, and why John had to Focus! Focus!!  Focus!!!

 Now these are the real, historic, toe holds.  The Indians used these to climb to and from their cliff dwellings and in this case from one level to the "second floor apartment" in another house.  Archeologists say there would have probably been a ladder to get them to the toe holds.

This picture below was in the Far View House (another set of ruins).  It really struck me as the first production model, (far ahead of the industrial revolution).  This is a series of metate where the woman ground the corn.  They sat on the ground and pushed a rock against these small shelves.  Only time I saw several in a row.  Maybe the women decided if they had to work that hard, at least they could talk! 

This is a yucca plant in bloom.  They used it for food, clothing, blankets, sandals, medicine, just about any daily function that you can imagine.  

Tomorrow we head to Ouray, Colorado.