Colorado and Four Corners

While visiting my sister, I got a call from a good friend who read my blog and realized that per chance we were both in the same area on hiking adventures. So, we went out to Rocky Mountain National Park for a couple of days with Hale and Franklin.  How fortuitous to be able to hang out with them and lucky for us our desert hiking gear held up just fine in the unexpected snows we came across! No one (including the park ranger) seemed to know that there was about 8 inches of snow where we were planning to camp on our second night... but that was ok - it was my very first time camping on snow! It is surprisingly cushy and warmer than you might expect.

See Logan? The Rockies are beautiful.

At one point, the snow was up to my knees!

Our camp was up above this lake... a beautiful place.

This trip had the most snow I've ever hiked in. Fun... maybe snowshoes next time.

Thanks Hale for giving us the opportunity to hang out and visit the Rockies! We had a blast.

After that little excursion, we decided to make our way down through southern Colorado to the four corners region.

On our way, we visited Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park (a place we'd never heard of in Colorado). It was really beautiful! An incredibly tall canyon (over 2,000 ft deep) and very narrow across.

Looking across and into the canyon

That river looks small, but it is powerful!

In the Four Corners area, we visited a large variety of Native American ruins, petroglyphs (as much as 2,500 years old!), and museums about the people and culture of those eras. The sites ranged from 1 AD to 1350 AD and were truly spectacular. Having studied some natural building techniques, it was really impressive to see how talented these ancient people were and that their ruins are still standing is a true testament to the quality of that type of work and materials.  

We have been very busy driving and seeing these amazing sites. We visited Mesa Verde National Park, the Anasazi Heritage Center and its Lowry Pueblo site, Hovenweep National Monument, Natural Bridges National Monument, and Capitol Reef National Park.

Spruce Tree House at Mesa Verde National Park

Spruce Tree House: they shaped the sandstone into bricks and mortared them together with clay/sand/water

Hovenweep: these Ancestral Puebloan towers are the finest masonry in N. America from that era

We drove a scenic road in Southern Utah called "Valley of the Gods" with many cool buttes and spires. Nice place to camp..

We drove to a place called Muley Point down some long windy dirt roads - WORTH IT!

Logan looking out over Muley Point. Perhaps our favorite overlook of the trip...

Natural Bridges National Monument - this bridge is in its final stage - it might break soon or hold up for a few centuries!

How crazy to see rock surrounding by sky on two sides!

Driving by Glen Canyon National Recreation Area - everything down here feels like a playground!

Looking west to some petrified sand dunes in Capitol Reef National Park. Each park has different rock forms.

Driving in Capitol Reef National Park was interesting! 

Does the road just run into the rock up there? 

Logan found his spot at Capitol Reef National Park.

My first slot canyon! on Burr Trail Road. So small across. Just a little light and lots of echoes!

One final sunset shot from the car.  We did a lot of driving, but hardly any of it wasn't gorgeous.