Munday's the Arizona Roadrunners

Mesa Verde Nat'l Park is unique in it being such high altitude 8000ft and filled with about 2200 old ruins.... we have been here a few times now but still enjoy it each time. Walked our legs off today climbing in and out of these cliff dwellings. very interesting. A lot more deer this time in park and the fall colors are all out in their glory! Beautiful day.  

After leaving Arches we headed straight for Mesa Verde National Park here in Colorado. After getting set up we took very long ride down to 4 corners as John had never been there before. Since I have not downloaded pictures from camera yet; will have to use old photo from when we were there back in 2001 with Flat Stanley. We had such a great time traveling with him. ha! This monument (if you can call it that) has been changed somewhat and is operated by the Ute Indians. They charge $3.00 a person (regardless of age) so you can come in and get your picture at the 4 corners.  This is where All 4 states (Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado) come together…

Did not really know what to expect at this national park and found there was quite a variety here. They claim to have over 2000 arches although we didn't find many... found some fun ones like Windows and Turret Arch and Double arch but the rock formations and hiking was magnificent! Began our day with hike thru Park Avenue with fins and walls on either side. although we had rain storm the day before it only served to clear the air and the next day we had picture perfect weather. After miles of hiking and a gazillion pictures later have to say this was FUN! It's a lot of the southwest all rolled into one but I loved it.  Yes, we did get out to Delicate Arch but not at sunrise or sunset so pictures rather dull to some we have seen although it was fun and so glad we were able to do this trip and complete our Grand Circle Tour.

We are finally (after 9 years) completing the Grand Circle Tour! Our 1st stop was to Canyonlands Needles District. Since this National Park is divided into 3 different sections we still have to get out to Island In the Sky section. The Needles district was fun... a very long drive but so scenic and a few great hikes too! Do you see the Wooden Shoe?

Visited the State Capital on "Constitution Day" and found Patrick Henry there to share with many elementry students what this 'new' constitution meant to him. fun... waited for the speech and had a few other speeches and participated in taking of the oath for citizenship for the United States of America. They handed out little booklets of the constitution and the booklet for the oath. Loved Patrick's passionate speech - how did we get so lucky? They were holding a free concert in the Capital bldg that evening.

It has been a busy week here in the Salt Lake City area. Have been to a number of cemeteries one of the prettiest settings was in Provo looking at the mountains littered with fall colors! Beautiful to say the least; in fact the town of Provo is very pretty. Another day took ride out to Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake and went as far as Garr ranch where they still have this old "rv" wagon and fun horse. Lovely, seeing bison roam freely as well as antelope!

 

Traveling south from Douglas we passed Independence Rock.  This is where many people traveling along the Oregon Trail stopped.  You may be surprised to learn there was graffi even back then. Ha.  Many people wrote their name on the rock although few names have survived from vandalism and normal weathering over the years.  Thought they would have a listing of names but no such luck.  Took time to walk around the rock and noticed many boy scout troops have camped out there too. Nice stop and if it had not been so darn windy would have be perfectly lovely!

After leaving Rapid City we headed west once again straight for Douglas, WY.  Stayed at the Riverside City Park right next to North Platte River.  Very nice, clean little city park with space for about 12 rv’s all towing.  Water and dump station  as well.  Had a lovely sunset over the river and saw a deer munching away on some late supper; while the Canadian geese nibbled on our side of river.  Lovely spot and a trip to the local grocery store introduced us to “Hedge ball”.  What is that you may ask or you may know but we sure didn’t.  A kind lady explained they repel spiders, bugs and little fur covered creatures you do not want in your house!  Ok, so we purchased one for .69 and it is in our basement storage.  Not sure how long they last but she said she did not purchase last year and lived to regret it.  So guess that tells you something.  Very strange looking but if it works who cares. 

They predicted 'possible' thunderstorms today and they were Right!  We are getting slammed by rain, thunder and hail!  Wow!  Very exciting to say the least... and tomorrow is travel day so hope it's gone by then.. cars are actually stopping on hwy to wait for this squall to stop!

It is official, we are now South Dakota residents! We have new drivers licenses to prove it and have to say it is a much better picture on this one. The person who waited on me was one of the nicest people I have ever deal with in any state at an agency such as this. Kudos for her! Afterwards took ride into Deadwood for lunch and some cemetery research. We have learned we are both cousins to Wild Bill Hickok so wanted to see where he made headlines! fun day !

Plans were to stay in Moorcroft but again changed last minute and we came on ahead into 3 Flags RV park near Rapid City, SD. The weather turned really bad after crossing into SD border so happy to be in park with full hookups. Our new home for close to a week. Stayed home while wind howled and rain fell then woke up to another perfectly lovely day and jumped into car to go see Mt Rushmore. So lucky we even saw a mountain goat grazing on side of road near monument! These guys were all great Presidents and so important to our Country so wonderful to see this very Impressive Monument. Last time we visited we had rain and fog so very nice this time to have perfect weather!! Loved our hike and picnic lunch and the films and studio where we read all about the process of this monument!

After leaving Ten Sleep we had a 9600 ft pass to climb continuing east. Not too bad though since the hwy was nice and wide! A big plus for this passenger! There was a pretty lake at the top and a field of sheep. Continuing on we stopped at rest area and unhooked car for side trip up to Devil's Tower outside of Moorcroft. Again we were blessed with a "picture perfect" day and took full advantage of the nice day to hike around this funny mountain. It is very odd and there were climbers on it too so that added to the day. The parking lot was filled to overflowing so no idea where all the folks come from mid week like that but plenty of room for all.

After leaving Yellowstone, we continued traveling east with plans to stay at Basin, WY. Only when we arrived there we were no longer able to camp at city park so we continued on until we found this cute little town called Tem Sleep in a very pretty valley surrounded by red rock and green farmland ! Found this full service rv park just ready to take us in. We were so happy to have full hookups and took time to walk thru the town. Next morning we stopped in at the Crazy Woman cafe where we all had a huge breakfast (2 could easily share)... very good and reasonably priced. Cute, fun little town.

Another view of our 1st national Park. This is from the geyser basin. We did the Norris basin one day and the entire lower, mid and Upper basins the next (9 miles of walking). Wonderful, Wonderful!

We had to hike down 328 steps and about 500 ft into the middle of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone for this picture but you know... it was worth every step! Scary at times because the steps are metal with holes in them but we met some really great people from Maryland and Vermont and the wonderful pictures made it all so great for us all.

Traveling across ID we noticed a lot of farming but nothing growing that looked like their famous potatoes! Where do they grow in the state? Anyway, stayed at the South Tourist Park in Idaho Falls. It is a lovely free little city park on the river. Leaving town we drove past the famous falls - ha! On a road that was in middle of construction. What a mess but not as bad as gravel road from McCall to Boise. That one left us with pits in our windshield on car! ugh...

Wanted to share this lovely view of the famous Madison river that runs thru MT and Wy. We are camped at a nice National forest campground 3 mi n of town of West Yellowstone, MT. Elec and water avail.. no dump station but only a few miles from down and dump stat there... Talked to host and they do 6 month stint here with bonus at end if they stay whole time. Lovely spot although we are not fishermen. There is a resident bald eagle here and host said he has seen a lot of wild animals in park. Of course they do not know the park boundry do they.  

Here it is our 10 year anniversary! Retired 10 years ago this weekend and were just beginning this new lifestyle. We have come a long way baby! We have been across the country twice and are on our 3rd trip.. we have been to every province in Canada; visited some of our neighbors south of the border and loved our visit to Alaska. We have even visited Hawaii twice (albeit not in RV)! We have had a wonderful time and are on our 3rd journey across this marvelous country of ours! This lifestyle may not be for everyone but we are very happy and love all this land has to offer! This country has been so blessed and so have we.. No matter what happens now we have so many marvelous memories to draw on and just hope we have at least another 10 or more years to keep adding to them...