Trip #82 (13): Bandelier and Santa Fe

** To see a photo slide show, just double-click on the first image and scroll through**

August 7 – 12, 2016

Bandelier  – Sunday & Monday
Camped in near-empty Juniper Campground, Coyote Loop. Couldn't get it quite level but made it work. First time out with solar panels, and had direct sun mostly the first day to make them work. Mostly cloudy after that.  Two big afternoon storms rolled in, one right in time for dinner the first night, mad dash to take down awnings and bring in the food off the grill as Bill jumped inside with hail following him!

The next day we took the ~2-mile trail down to the canyon to the visitor center and all the cliff dwellings. This time of year you must take a shuttle rather than drive in so we bused it back to camp, that was nice. Would have been an uphill climb! Cleaned up and took a drive to Los Alamos, entering the backside of the town, whereupon you find the guardhouse. They let us through after looking at Bill's license, and instructed us "no right turns" until you get past the secure area! Just a quick look around and a grocery store and back to the trailer. Another evening rain event.

First time out with the new solar panels. Willy is thrilled.

The trail from campground to National Monument.

Looking down, and lifting copy off the website: "Petroglyphs, dwellings carved into the soft rock cliffs, and standing masonry walls pay tribute to the early days of a culture that still survives in the surrounding communities."

The view as we descended the trail from the campground down to the monument.

Bandelier Kiva

View from the back of the campsite. And those great summer NM clouds.

Santa Fe – Tues, Wed, Thurs
Stayed at Santa Fe Skies toward the back in a "dug-out" spot. Dish worked but couldn't pick up NBC for the Olympics!! What?? weird. Also Thursday night was the Persieds meteor shower. Saw some great comet-like streaks across the sky. Should have dragged out the camera, but too lazy. Missed a great opportunity. Got all the shopping done the first day, and of course, MARIA'S. Kohl's shopping, twice... Wednesday was a nice but overcast bike ride on the bike/walking arroyo trail behind the malls at Zapharano, went about 3 miles and turned around. Went to Tiny's for dinner, trying a new place; once is enough.
Thursday went to the Botanical Garden to see what's growing. Very nice, got some good ideas. Also in this same area we drove up  to look at a house for sale waaaaay up in the hills, a place we could never drag the trailer. No wonder it was priced so well. Chocolate Maven for lunch, then, feeling full, went on a hike on the Dale Ball Trail at the end of Canyon Road. It was warm and sunny so a shady trail was good. Nice breeze though. Dinner at Santa Fe Bites--another first-- for a green chile burger, it was good and greasy as it should be. Got in a nice walk around the plaza area in the evening, and oh yeah, a lobby tour of La Posada! That was interesting, partially built of an old mansion. It was like walking though someone's house, because we were.

Love it.

Our dug-out spot at Santa Fe Skies RV

Always the first stop! Then Trader Joe's across the street.

Big ol' Cottonwood tree off the plaza, just in case one day we return and it's gone.

This needs no caption.

Daily Plaza life as it has been for ... centuries? except for the cell phones.

Trying to figure out why someone would stencil a spinning wheel onto an old tractor. Seen onsite at the Santa Fe Skies RV Park old tractor collection.

Billy on the Dale Ball Trail off Canyon Road.

Gorg stained glass in La Posada, as I tell Bill how to take a picture... again.

Just a rainbow in a clear blue sky. See? There is something about Santa Fe.

Tweaked image, but Mother Nature put out the foundation for drama.

Santa Fe Botanical Garden looking good.

St. Francis at sunset.

WANT!!! Fred Harvey era replica of Mary Colter ashtray. $900 while supplies last.

"You can't handle Maria's Margaritas!"

In our opinion, they don't get any better than this.

Selfie on the bike trail.

Trip #81 (12): Cumbres Pass, Summertime Bug Trip

** To see a photo slide show, just double-click on the first image and scroll through** 

July 12 – 16, 2016


Southern Colorado: Trujillo Meadows & Aspen Glade Campgrounds

Tuesday, July 12

Going to be a hot week in Durango so we’ll go higher and see what happens. Only bringing kayak; leaving bikes at home. A 3-hour drive over Cumbres Pass at 10,000 + feet to our first camp, Trujillo Meadows, choosing spot #23, no water no electric. Large empty campground, except for the free-range cows. First time we ever had to clear cow piles to set up (thankfully they were dry). Hence all the flies...  It was very windy, which surely helped with the bug situation, but the high altitude also made us tired so didn’t do much the first day, but walk over to see the waterfall and lake. And of course I forgot to bring along the camera. It was small but interesting as it fell into a canyon. Some good wildflowers here: wild roses, paintbrush, columbine, penstemon, etc. The camp’s trees have been devastated by the beetles -- a good thing for getting a dish signal -- so they are attempting to grow seedlings using those plastic cones. Hundreds of them all over--it was like camping in a graveyard, among the tombstones. I called Arlington. The lake is very beautiful, and very small but with the wind even it had whitecaps. Again, the tree-covered mountainsides all had probably 70% dead trees from beetles. Around dinner time the cows came home -- grazing at the spot across from us, and ugh, the flies around them, the poor things, awful. Temps in the mid 70s, morning down to about 40 degrees.



What? A cattle call in our campground? The cows are coming home? Beef on the hoof? Round 'em up Little Doggies. It was dinnertime...

 

Check the flies, sucks being a cow in the summer in Colorado. Poor things.

The campground at Trujillo Meadows felt like camping in Arlington Cemetery with all the cones to grow new trees.

Last winter's trip to Gainesville, FL, provided this most excellent decal for the kayak.

Wednesday, July 13

By 9am we drove the two miles to launch the boat in the lake, still very windy but gotta do it. He caught one! A big one! Not a rainbow, but a brownie. He will eat it for dinner. That was the only one we got and the wind was really bad so we quit after about 90 minutes. I got bit on the pinky during that float; ended up swelling up my entire finger and half my hand for three days. Mosquito? No idea but he bit in good. After that we drove around, out of the camp for a cell signal, saw a big elk, then went for a short maybe 3-mile hike up a timber road. More bugs, but they didn’t seem to be biting. Saw some huge elk tracks. Listened to a book on tape in the afternoon, then walked back over to the lake and did some shore fishing, catching nothing. However, Bill saw a muskrat and a small black snake. I took a turn with the casting rod and got into that; maybe I need a license too. Caught nothing but had fun… was going for distance. Fish were jumping but not biting. Bill cooked his fish for dinner and didn’t like to very much. Said it was bland. So from now on, it’s Rainbows only. 

Mother Duck trying to kill her family in the open waters.

Nice little, and I do mean little lake at Trujillo Meadows Reservoir.

Thursday, July 14

Didn't seem as windy today so we tried the boat again. No fish. And it wasn’t long before the wind came up and it was no fun. ’Nuff of that. Since it was very buggy in camp and too windy to fish, we decided to move on to another camp going 20 miles east toward Antonio to Aspen Glen, taking spot #30 in the lower section by the river -- bad decision: full of mosquitos! Beautiful tall trees, so we had shade at the the lower, warmer elevation, but no electric, no dish, just bugs. Hate this place. A short walk to the water and I had 5 bites. Basically just yelled at Bill to close the door slider for 48 hours, he keeps leaving it open. COME ON! Between my bitten finger and the scores of new bites (they got me before I knew they were there), I took a Benadryl in the late afternoon. Lights out. While Bill made the margaritas I was dozing and after about half of that I needed a nap. Woke for dinner, super bitchy grumpy (about that damn door he keeps leaving open) so off to bed to read at 8:30. Unfortunately he paid for two nights so we have to stay -- can’t walk away from $10!! I coulda. Easily.



Friday, July 15

Hmm, what can I do inside all day… I will not sit outside and feed the vampires. Got a late start and we drove about 10 miles to Antonito. Went to a small Mexican grocery and got some pinto beans for Blazing Saddles later, then to the library for a cell signal, and darn, it’s only noon… Checked out another camp, just like ours, and went back for a very relaxing day with him outside, me inside playing Yahtzee. Ain’t going out. It was overcast so a bit cooler and later we did a walk along the pretty river. Cooked a big batch of beans and even got Bill to play a round of Yahtzee. That’s how bored we were.



Cumbres & Toltec Train

Saturday, July 16

Yay, going home! Too buggy in the summer. Thought about other camps but it will be more of the same. Caught the Cumbres & Toltec steaming up the mountain on the drive back. Back to a warm 88 degree Durango -- but there ain’t no ’skeeters!!!



RIP: Nice street attack in France

Trip #80 (11): Colorado Tour II - first emergency room visit

** To see a photo slide show, just double-click on the first image and scroll through**

June 7 – 17, 2016

Colorado: Wolf Creek's Big Meadows, Creede, Lake City, Crawford, Carbondale, Leadville: and then it happened.

Tuesday, June 7
Copy to come later, but here's some pics...
Big Meadows, otherwise known as Little Texas. Most of the campers here were from Texas.

Camp Big Meadows. Not a lot of trees in camp due to the beetle kill, they had to cut most of them down.

Solo trip.

Pretty good spot, and a downhill drag to get the kayak to water.

The bugs and the bird.

How the surrounding area looks after the big fire South Fork a few years ago.

Doing what he does best.

A fish! a little fish, but a fish!

Creede

The coolest fence treatment I've ever seen, in Creede.

Me and a bluebird looking toward the town of Creede from the campground.

Creede Mountain Bluebird.

Love this fence. I think it was Creede, but unsure.

Apparently, this is a relaxing place to be.

For a bit of claustrophobia, an old jail cell from Creede. Trivia: Creede was the last silver boom town in Colorado in the 19th century. The town lept from a population of 600 in 1889 to more than 10,000 people in December 1891.

On the road to Lake City

Alllllllll dead trees. A very sad state of affairs on the road to Lake City.

The obligatory Airstream beauty shot in Lake City.

Lake City

Not sure it gets any better than this. Camping ON Lake San Cristobal in Lake City.

Taken from the kayak, looks so tiny!

Had time to put out a feed to work the hummer shots.

Lake San Cristobal in the morning.

Had dinner here. About the only place open this early in the season. BTW, Mr. Packer was a Lake City cannibal back in the late 1800s.

...no idea why...

On the way to Crawford...

The west Gunnison area, on the way to Crawford has to stop for this view: Curecanti

pano of shot above

Crawford

This is the real deal, just had to stitch two shots together to get it all in.

The most excitement of Crawford as far as we could tell, except for the biker bar full of seniors.

From Crawford, a drive over to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, way way way down there.

Carbondale
 

Celebrating our 27th Anniversary (half my life?!) in Carbondale. Were supposed to be in beautiful town of Glenwood Springs, but we didn't like the RV "resort" there, so found this place instead. Last spot she had.

The view from our very small campground in Carbondale. Had a nice bike ride on the great trail they have there; could have ridden all the way to Aspen but, well, we aren't 20 anymore.

Leadville

Well, we did it. Called 911 on the trail. Thankfully I had my phone. and it was charged. and had a signal too. and I remembered to take a picture!!!

Not a happy camper. Almost done getting wrapped up after a few hours in the emergency room.

The Killer Mountain Bike trail around Turquoise Lake we should have never taken. But we did. About 5 miles around it happened: Bill hit a rock, the bike stopped, and the brake lever stabbed him in the thigh. Blood gushed...

My Jackie O bike glove bloody from holding his bike glove over the "hole" while dialing 911 with the other hand. Glad I can multi-task while shaking...

Hobbling around town in Leadville the next day.