Living on the Road

with Jim and Gayle

July, 2011

We traveled parts of the Southwest this month.  Especially enjoyable were all of the National Parks and National Monuments we visited.

Petrified Forest National Park

Canyon de Chelly

A disappointing, over-commercialized Four Corners.

Hovenweep National Park/Canyons of the Ancients

Mesa Verde National Park was extraordinary!

While in Santa Fe, we visited several museums and galleries.  We went on a tour of Randall Davey's home and studio.  Though he died in 1964, his heirs kept his home and studio just as it was when he walked out the door (he was killed in a car crash).

We also toured the Santa Fe Brewery with fellow Foretravelers Steve and Michelle.

The air quality in Santa Fe was really bad due to the Los Conchas fire near Los Alamos.

On our way to Montrose, CO. we visited the Aztec Ruins National Monument.

Colorado National Monument.

Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park.

The trip to Leadville, was made more interesting by the herd of sheep on the roadway.

From Leadville, we made a daytrip to Aspen to tour the Smuggler Silver Mine.

In Gunnison, CO, we met up with our friends from Lafayette, LA.  They were traveling with a group of their friends and invited us to join them.  We spent a week with them.  We made a group of 16 people.  A nicer bunch of people would be hard to find!

After our week in Gunnison, we made a short trip to South Fork to see friends Karl and Judy.

On our way to visit my sister, we stopped at the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.  These dunes are the tallest sand dunes in North America.  We didn't climb them -- just looked at them from their base.

Our month finally ended with a visit with my sister, Lynne.  It was a very nice visit.  She planned a day hiking trip for the two of us.  We hiked around one lake and then "climbed" to another -- 11,000 feet.  It was beautiful.

Max got to go on many of our tourist trips.