Utah Re-visited

South of Moab, Utah
Dinner Moab Campground - stunning mountain views

Moab Sunset

Three rabbits playing before sunrise...

Light appearing in the East

The moon disappearing in the West, just as the sun rises in the East

Oh yes, the sun has hit the ranges

On to road to Salt Lake City

The road, the river, the railway - all heading to Salt Lake City

Dry, scorched summer landscape south of Salt Lake City

Two years ago we visited Utah for the first time and were gobsmacked with the scenery - especially Monument Valley, Arches NP and Natural Arch. To revisit Monument Valley would have added 2 hrs to our travels out of Colorado, and considering it was 36C, we decided to keep the day short and be kind to our engine and tyres. Perhaps we'll visit Monument Valley next year?? Anyway, our 2.5 hr drive from Colorado to Moab was a real treat. My camera didn't know which way to point. About an hour into our trip, which happened to be lunch time, I noticed an appealing cafe just ahead. We pulled into a shady spot and entered the building. They offered toasted panini and real expresso coffee. Yippee. We found a lovely tree shaded table outside on their patio and enjoyed the ambiance with another 2 couples out there. We chatted to one couple who were on their way home to Cortez, CO, the city we had just left. He retired at the end of last year, and they have already done a trip to Oz, and plan another visit in the coming years. We exchanged contact details, so who knows, we may see them in Ballina one day.

As we neared Moab, Utah, a place we had stayed before, the scenery became more impressive. Mind you, it may have struck a chord with me because its reddish colour and ruggedness has similarities to the scenery in central Australia where I grew up. It was very hot when we checked into our RV Park in the middle of the afternoon, but we couldn't resist sitting outside to have our dinner, with the mountains in the background. We didn't last long out there though, as the flies liked our home-made rissoles as much as we did.

After dinner we waited an hour for the temperature to drop a few degrees, then we went for a sunset walk outside our park. I hope you enjoy the photos. As I have said before, the camera doesn't have a hope of capturing the surrounding beauty of what we were seeing. The next morning I set the alarm to catch the 6.15am sunrise - not a common habit of mine! I was waiting for the sun to hit the red rock in the mountains to the SE behind us, not considering how long the sun would take to rise above the mountains on the East, where the sun was rising. While I was waiting for the sunrise, I couldn't help but take a photo of the 3 rabbits enjoying their early morning adventures around the campground. Due to our early rising, we had showered breakfasted and were on our way by 7am, heading for Salt Lake City. The last time we visited the area was in May 2 years ago, and there was still snow on the mountains. This time, being later into the summer, the area was so dry and brown. Once we hit Salt Lake City the businesses and private homes had beautifully manicured lawns and gardens, so it was nice & green there, but along the road and in open fields, the brown, dry grasses reflected the long, hot summer.

Mesa Verde, Colorado

Leaving New Mexico
Arriving Colorado
Mesa Verde Ahead
GPS showing elevation of 8298 feet

Visitors Center overlooking the valley below

Diorama of Cliff Life for Ancient Puebloans

Early tools all made from animal bones

This vest is fully beaded in the front - amazing!

Spruce Tree House Cliff Dwelling

The view on the way down Mesa Verde

Our drive NW out of Santa Fe led us through some amazing geologic formations and pretty countryside. Subtly the landscape changed from arid plains with stone mountains to pine forests among mountainous slopes. Within a few hours we found ourselves in the SW corner of Colorado. Very picturesque, even in the middle of summer. In winter of course there would be snow on all of the mountains and ski season would be in full swing. Our course was set for a visit to the ancient Puebloan ruins at Mesa Verde NP. A 'Mesa' is defined as 'relatively flat elevated area with steep sides'. The third photo from the top attests to that. Can you believe the early American Indians were living here in this place from 550 AD and for the next 750 years? Mind boggling. In Mesa Verde NP, there are over 600 cliff dwellings, although we only visited one, the Spruce Tree House.

Winter snows do untold damage to roads, and the winding 20 miles of road (elevation over 8,000' above sea level) along the edge of the Mesa was no exception. There were road workers at several spots and often there was only one lane open to traffic. Fortunately a lovely breeze came in the windows and as we had called into a little town just before the park and picked up some cafe lattes and pastries, we turned off the engine and enjoyed our enforced coffee break, admiring the surrounding scenery.

The main visitors' center at Mesa Verde takes bookings for ranger guided hikes and tours of cliff dwellings, complete with interpretations of the sites. There are limited artifacts on show at the museum and no video to watch, so we continued onto the next main stop which was the Museum. It continuously ran a 25 minute video which gave the most wonderful description of the history and life of these early people. A comprehensive museum showed tools, clothing, craftwork and early foods found during archeology digs. Glass framed dioramas depicted life in the cliff dwellings and provided a most impressive display of this ancient culture. We thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent here. From the museum we took the 1/4 mile paved steep path down to the Spruce Tree House cliff dwelling where visitors can see the dwelling first hand and imagine how is was to live there. From information we read in the Visitor Guide, the Spruce Tree House was constructed between 1211 - 1278 AD, contained 130 rooms and was home to around 80 people. The clever location of most of the cliff houses served to protect them from the snow and cold winds in winter, and the rock overhangs provided shade in the summer. They effectively used natural rock crevices and ledges to enhance their dwellings. Well worth a visit.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Entering Santa Fe from SE
Our RV Park

San Francisco St, Santa Fe

Cafe Bakery in Burro Lane

Local craft at Palace of the Governors

Rio Grande

Rafters on Rio Grande

Route 66

El Santuario de Chimayo

We have just spent 4 days in Sante Fe which is celebrating its 400th anniversary. It is reportedly the US state capital at the highest elevation (7000 ft above sea level) and the second oldest US city. The city lies at the base of the mountains which form the southern end of the Rockies.

Our RV park was in a great location...right by a bus stop with buses every 15-30 mins for a 4 mile trip into the city, at a cost of $2 pp for an all day ticket. On our first morning we boarded the bus and enjoyed seeing the sights from the bus window. I spied a bakery cafe in Burro Lane as we drove past, so as soon as we alighted in the middle of the city, we posted some postcards at the post office, then made a beeline for the bakery. A very good choice. While we were enjoying the freshly baked goods, a brightly dressed local musician took up his piano accordian and played some old favourites, including 'Lara's Theme' from Dr Zhivago, which was a song my younger sister used to play on her melodica. From there we wandered into the Plaza, the center of action, and visited the historic Palace of the Governors, the oldest continuously occupied public building in the USA. In the shade of its verandahs, local crafts were for sale.

In the city centre we visited USA's oldest church, the San Miguel Mission, built in 1610 and currently undergoing renovations. We also admired the 'Miraculous Staircase' in the Loretto Chapel, even though this church is much younger, built in 1870. The story of the staircase is quite fascinating, and to see the staircase is something else again. I am not a carpenter or an engineer by any stretch of the imagination, but how it was constructed without nails or center support baffles me, like the rest of the world. If you click on the link you can read the full story.

The weather was perfect for our drive up to the mountain city of Taos (circa 1615) where the architecture shows the rich history of native American Indians alongside the Spanish settlers. We drove past frontiersman Kit Carson's house, and we walked on the bridge over the Rio Grande River. We also called into El Santuario de Chimayo (1813) known locally as 'Little Lourdes', as cures have been attributed to pilgrimages & prayers to this tiny chapel. Another drive took us up to the mountain city of Los Alamos, the site of secret atomic bomb research during WW11. The scenery on the way home was magnificent, but defied capture on my camera. Just because we could, we drove miles along the old Santa Fe Trail, the Pecos Trail and Historic Route 66. The surrounding countryside was barren and dry for the most part, and the Santa Fe River (tributary off the Rio Grande) was a mere trickle.

Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico

Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico
El Paso only a few hours away...

Carlsbad Cavern

Carlsbad Cavern

Murray in the Cavern

Yesterday we escaped the 100F (38C) above ground temperatures and went down 750' (1/4 km) underground to tour the world famous Carlsbad Caverns. The caverns are located in the Chihuahuan Desert within the Guadalupe Mountains in the SE of New Mexico. It was part of a 400 mile reef of an inland sea which has since evaporated. Over centuries the land formation altered and when the Guadalupe Mtns were pushed up, changes caused by rain seeping through the limestone and mixing with other elements etched the caverns out. You can take a 1 mile hike which takes one hour just to reach the main cavern open to tourists, or you can take an elevator down. We knew the tour of the caves took another 1.5 hrs along a path over a mile around, so we chose the elevator. It was bliss to descend from the scorching temperatures above into the cavern which remains a constant 56F (13C) all year ‘round.

We each had a hand held audio device so that when you came to a cavern ‘decoration’, it often had a number on it. You punch the number into the audio guide, hold it to your ear, and hear recorded information relating to that number. It was a fascinating way to explore the cavern. I have been in several caves over my life and admired the various stalagmites (grow up from ground) and stalactites (grow down from ceiling) but I have never seen anything to compare with this cavern. While it is not the biggest cavern in the world (I think Malaysia holds that title), visitors rate it the most beautiful cavern. It has a wide variety of cave formations and they are so very different. We thoroughly enjoyed our cavern experience. Sadly my little Samsung camera was not up to the task of capturing images in such low light without the stablising influence of a tripod.

Thoughts on Texas

Wide shoulders on side of road - beautiful scenery ahead too!
Great pull outs for parking on either side of road

Tarantula Migration

Murray's Chili Bean dinner

Over our three trips to Texas, we have pretty well crisscrossed the state. From Galveston across to Corpus Christi in the south, then further down and across the Rio Grande into Mexico. From San Antonio through Austin, Waco & Dallas across into Tulsa, Oklahoma. Back across to Wichita Falls and down to Abilene, and on this trip we traveled from Nacogdoches in the East over to the Hill Country west of Austin, then West to Fort Stockton. A separate trip a few years ago took us into El Paso on the extreme West of the state. We have seen Texas in winter, spring & summer and we were fortunate that our visit this summer ended with a dry break with minimal humidity.

The majority of our recent visit was spent in the hill country NW of San Antonio and W of Austin. Thankfully we were far away from South Padre Island which took a hit with the recent hurricane, and we had no rain at all the time we were in the hill country.

Most of the Texas roads had shoulders adequate for us to pull over and allow faster cars to pass, and for the first time, drivers signaled thanks. This was especially appreciated on minor roads that have only one lane going in each direction - we usually like to get off the main highways, so we get to drive many minor roads in our travels. There were also Parking or picnic areas every few miles which we haven’t noticed so prevalent in other states. They sure make it easy for us when it is time to change drivers.

The other thing we noticed, especially in the city of Fredericksburg, were the number of coffee shops. Always a nice place to call in for morning tea! Apart from Starbucks and the lovely coffee shops in the book stores, we don't usually see many on our travels.

On our last day in Texas as we were heading north from Fort Stockton to the New Mexico border, we passed lots of oil fields and noticed frequent sightings of large black spiders crossing the road. All going East to West. We stopped to take a photo of one for you. I found several internet stories about tarantula (listed as the largest & hairiest spiders in the world) migration in the area around Fort Stockton and one reason they do this is to escape rain filled gullies. I also ran over a thin light coloured snake as it was slithering across the road. Ugh.

Given its border with Mexico, it is not surprising that many Mexicans live in Texas. Consequently, Mexican restaurants are a common sight, and the food is delicious. Murray has perfected his own chili bean recipe and it beats anything I have had in a restaurant.

Nice RV Park, Ingram, Texas

Our RV (Aussie Flag) in Pecan Orchard
Deer behind our RV
Pretty Chapel

Inside the Chapel

Pecan Orchard

Horses & Donkeys

Janice, Paul & Murray at Guadalupe River

Although there are numerous options for researching RV campgrounds, you really never know what you are going to find until you get there. Our campground in Ingram Texas has been one of the nicest parks we have stayed in. Many campgrounds only have gravel sites, but this one has all concrete slabs, with neatly manicured grass surrounds.

It is located on the banks of the Johnson Creek and is actually a working Pecan orchard. Deer feed just behind our RV several times a day, and there is always some birdlife to listen to and watch - the feathered variety! The grounds here are neat and tidy, with paths leading to a delightful chapel, all wood inside. There is a spotless pool, with a covered gazebo with chairs where you can sit and look out over the river. The clubhouse has been tastefully decorated and has a full kitchen, laundry, billiards table and library, plus several different sitting areas. You can fish in the river, but it is catch and release only - no fun for Murray in that. In an adjoining paddock are horses and donkeys to complete the view. I made good use of the laundry today and washed & dried our doona plus all cushion & dinette seat covers.

The neighbours Paul & Janice from the site next to us offered to take us for a drive to see the Guadalupe River. It was a pretty route along the river and it was easy to see where the rich people live - some stunning properties. Paul's father is in the camper on the other side of us, and most evenings the five of us sit outside and chat whilst watching the deer and the birds. The weather has been unseasonably pleasant (not too humid) for this time of the year, so we have made the most of the nice weather. Time now for dinner - spareribs on the BBQ.

Lazy Possum Ranch, Texas

Murray & Randy Chilling on Back Porch
Hummingbirds around the feeder

Baby Geckos

Baby Fawns

Healthy Baby Bull Bison

Cowboy Cross

View off Back Porch this visit - all green

View off Back Porch last visit - so dry

Murray, Trish, Wanda, Randy, Dennis & Pam

This is the second time we were able to call in on Randy & Wanda at their 'Lazy Possum Ranch' in the Texas Hillcountry east of Austin. Last time we visited they were in a drought, so we were surprised to see the countryside all green this visit. Randy is an avid 'critter' lover, and in his attic he keeps coloured geckos, snakes & spiders as pets. He was keen to show us his family of pets, but after admiring his collection, I got down from there as quickly as I could. That night I was sitting with Wanda under the stars in the hot tub, and the tie from my bathers brushed against my arm and scared the living daylights out of me - I thought one of Randy's pets had escaped! Wanda found a scorpion in the kitchen one day, and Randy found one in the attic the next day. They are nasty! On our last day we found a wolf spider waiting to go inside the door. Critters everywhere! We saw racoons there on our last visit, but they are being discouraged from around the house (so we didn't see any), as are the squirrels, as they eat seeds from the bird feeder. As we were returning from a Texas steak house one evening, we were not far from the ranch gate when we saw a doe and two fawns in one field, then a bison in the next.

A colleague, Pam, who Randy & I worked with in Australia is spending 4 weeks travelling around the USA with her husband. They are using passenger trains for each leg - a cabin and all meals included, and from their experience so far, the meals have been fabulous, and the train trip very enjoyable. Their itinerary includes Los Angeles, San Antonio (their hotel there was only 2 blocks from the Alamo), New Orleans, Denver, New York, Chicago & San Francisco. Their stopover in San Antonio coincided with our visit to Randy & Wanda, so we came up with a cunning plan. Randy & Murray would drive to San Antonio to pick Pam & Dennis up and drive them to Fredericksburg, an area settled in 1846 by Germans. Wanda & I would drive 40 mins through countryside that took us past the Lyndon Johnson Ranch, and meet them there. The town was chocablock with quaint shops, so it was not a hard decision for us 3 ladies to decide to forgo a day at the nearby National Museum of the Pacific War (Fredericksburg was the birthplace of Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Pacific Forces in World War II. The hotel owned by Nimitz's grandfather has been converted into a museum, named the National Museum of the Pacific War honoring the men and women who served with Nimitz in the war.Courtesy Wikipedia). So the men went to the museum and Wanda, Pam & I spent many pleasurable hours wandering in and out of each shop along both sides of the street. We refueled mid-way by meeting the menfolk for a delicious lunch at a local German brewery, which was conveniently right in the middle of our shopping street, and only one block from the museum.

Being Texas, the cowboy theme was common throughout, but the thing that amazed me the most were the amount of christian items in the stores. Most of the shops had a whole wall devoted to crosses of all kinds - even the Christmas Shop! Some were made of turquoise & some were cowboy crosses made of metal, others were enamel,gold or silver metals, others glass or mosaic. I was on the hunt for a cross for our new home in Ballina, and I sure had a lot of choice in this town. When I commented on the multitude of crosses, Wanda explained that we were in the bible belt here, so it was not surprising to her. In memory of our Texas visit, I decided on a metal cowboy cross. It will have pride of place in our home.

After our day out in Fredericksburg, we headed back to the ranch for dinner, a chat on the back porch overlooking the valley, and a swim in the hot tub for some. Neighbours joined us after dinner for a drink on the porch, and then a USAF colleague of Randy's and his wife arrived to spend the night. By 9pm it was time for Randy to drive Pam & Dennis back to San Antonio to catch their midnight train to New Orleans. What a great day was had by all. Next morning, we sat on the front porch with Randy, Wanda and their friends Susan & Dave, had a coffee, then waved goodbye as we headed SW to our current campground in Ingram, Texas.