This trip was planned around meeting my friend Kathy at Natural Bridges Monument in Utah, visiting Hovenweep and other Pueblo Ruins, then stopping at Mesa Verde for a few days.
It's broken up into 4 segments - click on each link to see the slideshows...
1. Getting There
The trip started on April 29, 2013. I headed over Stevens Pass, then south thru OR and into Nevada. Discovered Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada, drove thru some fantastic scenery in Utah, including Bryce Canyon, and met up with Kathy at Natural Bridges in SE Utah.
2. Four Corners
Kathy and I explored Natural Bridges, then Hovenweep Pueblo Ruins, stopped at the Anasazi Heritage Museum and ended up at Mesa Verde. We were steeped in the history of the Pueblo people and marveled at what they were able to create - and like so many left to wonder why they left. My theory is that their population increased to a point that they exhausted the limited resources in this slow growing desert country. There was also an extended drought about the time they left. Desendents of the Pueblo people remain in many areas of the Southwest.
3. Colorado and Wyoming
Kathy and I parted ways after Mesa Verde. I drove down past Albuquerque to see my friend Linda in Bosque Farms. Then headed north again back to Durango CO and from there headed north through the Rockies - over lots of mountain passes and old mining towns like Silverton and Ouray. Then a stop at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River and the Dinosaur Monument which is in both Utah and Colorado. I stopped for Memorial Day weekend in Rock Springs WY (I even made a reservation in case everywhere was full - I needn't have worried - their season had still not really begun). I wanted to drive roads I had not traveled before, so drove up thru central WY and stopped at Thermopolis. Great hot pools and neat place. Then continued north to Cody in preparation for getting to Yellowstone.
4. Yellowstone, Montana, and Home
I entered Yellowstone in a snow storm - but once over the pass, the weather was fine. I spent 3 nights in Yellowstone at the Norris campground. On the second night, I moved to a lower site overlooking the valley where there were hundreds of bison. Some of them cavorted thru the campground the next morning! It was May and I don't think they were used to tourists yet. I explored every place I could and in many cases it was to revisit memories of being there with Chuck and his folks in the 1988 (Kelley was actually conceived at Yellowstone), and with Kelley when she was about 12. I headed north to MT and stopped in Anaconda to see Adam, a friend of the Keelers' on Lopez, then continued thru Lewiston ID and back through OR and WA and home.
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