Category: 2021 Rocky Mountain Adventure

Didn’t post yesterday (Friday) as all we did was golf 18 holes at the Eisenhower Golf Club. It’s on the grounds of the AF Academy and is a beautiful course. It was a little cool and mostly cloudy but the sun peaked out every once and a while. As for how well we played (or not), there’s no need to discuss it on a public blog. Let’s just say we played better on the back 9 than we did on the front nine.

This morning we had a nice anniversary breakfast with mimosas. We’ve been dragging around a bottle of Martini and Rossi Asti (one of my favs) since we left home so we’re glad to finally crack it open. I can’t believe we’ve been married for 6 years already. Time really does fly. We’re going out for a nice dinner tonight at the Cliff House Restaurant. We planned to spend the night there as well but decided we didn’t want to pack everything up again so we’re staying in our flat for our last night in Colorado Springs.

After a quiet morning we walked to Old Colorado City which is only 1/2 mile from the flat. It’s the historic part of town, only a few blocks long, filled with shops and restaurants. Our favorite part though was the Saturday farmer’s market. There were tons of tents in the corner park and, since the weather is beautiful (75 and sunny) it was pretty crowded.

Not much happening this afternoon. We’re heading Walmart/Target to buy bubble wrap. We found a very large Mexican art market where we bought a few things for the house. One piece is a bit big so we want to wrap it in bubble so it doesn’t get destroyed in the back of the car as we continue our travels. Other than dinner tonight, not much else going on today. It’s nice to have a relaxing day where we can just sit on our back porch and enjoy the beautiful day. Talk soon.

We are so glad we decided to visit Black Canyon yesterday as the road we needed to take to Colorado Springs shut down at 8:30 for construction. As it was, we got there at about 8:25 and were the last group to go through before they shut it down until mid-afternoon. If we had visited the Canyon today we would have missed the window.

The drive was pretty but uneventful. The biggest challenge was getting around the larger, slower vehicles on the mountain roads. Our highest elevation today was 11300 feet but then we descended again fairly quickly. As we sit in our apartment in Colorado Springs we’re at 6100 feet.

The first thing we did when we arrived at about 1:30pm was visit Santa’s Workshop at the North Pole. We visited there in 1965 and I wanted to go back to see if I remembered anything. The answer is….not much. I remember the pole where we took pictures but that was about it. When we were there in 65 the only ride was a pony ride and now they have quite a few rides. Only a couple were open but we didn’t plan to ride anyway so that was no big deal. Admission is free so we spent about an hour wandering the grounds.

Here’s a short video I took of some of the grounds.

After leaving the North Pole we drove just a few minutes to the Garden of the Gods. Just like Santa’s Workshop it was free to visit. We thoroughly enjoyed driving around this National Natural Landmark and stopping to take a few walks.

After leaving the park, we picked up some groceries and headed for our Airbnb flat. It’s a bit smaller than the one in Durango with only a kitchen, bath and bedroom, but there’s a nice porch in the back so I don’t think we’ll miss the living room. After a dinner of roasted chicken and au gratin potatoes, we’re settled in for the night. Tomorrow we’re playing golf at the Eisenhower Golf Club at the Air Force Academy. It’s supposed to be a little cloudy but there’s only a slight chance of rain so we’re looking forward to a nice 18 holes. Hopefully we’ll play better than we did in Durango.

Thanks for taking the time to follow us on our adventure. We’ll post again soon.

Unfortunately the weather forecast was correct so we had a day of rain and clouds. We planned to spend several hours in Telluride; taking the gondola up the mountain. But, because of the clouds we didn’t see much point so we only spent an hour strolling through town. The Telluride Film Festival starts tomorrow (9/2) and goes until Labor Day. Luckily we missed the crowds by one day.

It’s a cute little town filled with very expensive shops (does anyone really pay $90 for a pair of sweat pants???) and little restaurants. We didn’t want anything heavy so we just had a couple of quesadillas for a mid-morning snack. Turns out though that they were bigger than we thought so we have leftovers out in the cooler.

Since we didn’t spend as much time as we planned in Telluride we decided to go straight to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park just outside of Montrose. Originally we planned to spend the night in Montrose then check out the Park in the morning but since we were in town by 1:30pm we flipped our plans. Even though it was very cloudy and a little rainy, the Canyon was still beautiful. It’s very different from the Grand Canyon in that this one is quite narrow and has very high walls. Because of the clouds the pictures don’t do the canyon justice but it’s the best we could do.

After about an hour on the scenic rim road the clouds and fog really started rolling in so we decided to bail and head to the hotel. After an early pizza dinner and a stroll in the local Target to walk off the pizza, we settled in for the night.

Since tomorrow morning is also supposed to be cloudy and rainy, we’ll head straight to Colorado Springs where we have another Airbnb flat. We’re looking forward to a roasted chicken for dinner. Talk with you then.

We had two terrific action-packed days in Durango. We checked out of the Grand Canyon Lodge Sunday morning for our 6 1/2-hour drive to Durango. On our way out of the park, we saw a small herd of buffalo along the side of the road. As they were only a few feet from the road, we took this picture from the safety of our car.

About 2 1/2 hours after getting on the road we got to Page AZ where we found the Glen Canyon Dam. It was only a few miles out of the way, so we decided to check it out. It was a bit of a hike to get to the overlook (we would have never made it without the handrail and our walking sticks) but the view was worth the trip.

Once back on the road it was another 90 minutes before we got to the Navajo National Monument. Once we arrived, we realized we had seen it on our trip in 2019 but since we didn’t remember any of it, we enjoyed seeing it again.

After eating our lunch in the monument parking lot, we got back on the road for the last 3 hours of our trip. In Durango we stayed at a very nice one-bedroom house we rented on Airbnb. We are very happy to be able to cook our own meals as, even after just 3 days, we were tired of eating out.

On Monday we took a half-day trip on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. When I was here in 1988, I did the full-day trip to Silverton, but we only went about 2/3 of the way up the mountain to Cascade Canyon. We were in an open carriage and had a great time.

Click below to see a video I took on the trip. It wouldn’t embed like the other videos so I had to do a link instead.

https://youtu.be/_vrBB6ionyA

Then on Tuesday we started our day with a 2-hour white water rafting trip. We don’t usually participate in activities with the word “Adventure” in the title but it looked fun, so we took the risk. It was actually a very calm ride as the Animas River is quite low. We ran into a couple of bigger rapids and on the last one our guide, Carson, turned the raft around and went “surfing” back up the rapid. Look at the pictures to see how that turned out.

Here’s a video I took earlier in the ride when I was still dry. For some reason I was able to embed this one…..enjoy!

After rafting we ran home for a quick lunch and change of clothes (mine were soaked) for our 2:00 tee time at the Hillcrest Golf Club. The course is beautiful and relatively easy with wide fairways. Neither one of played all that well but we still enjoyed our afternoon in the sunshine.

After golf, I changed clothes again, for our evening at the Bar D Chuckwagon. I had been to this in 1988 and thought Peter would enjoy it. A little history…in 1965 my family took a vacation to Colorado Springs. During that trip we went to the Flying W Ranch for a chuckwagon dinner. One of the performers was a guy named Cy. He was the comic relief of the group and a fan favorite. I saw him again at the Bar D in 1988. I asked about him when we got there tonight and learned he passed away just last year at 93 years old. I was told that he continued to perform right until the end.

We bypassed Durango in 2019 on our way to Glendale AZ. Now I wished we had stopped because we probably would have done the Bar D show and I would have had the chance to see Cy one more time.

The dinner was delicious, and the show was wonderful. Peter even bought a CD of their music. It was a terrific evening.

Here’s a video of the boys. They played the theme song from the old TV show Rawhide. It was my favorite show when I was a kid. https://youtu.be/Zc65yRFKo1s

It’s almost 10pm and I still have to pack. We’re leaving tomorrow morning for Telluride on our way to Montrose to visit the Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP. It will be one more stamp for my NP Passport book. It might rain in the mountains tomorrow so I’m not sure if they’ll be anything interesting to tell you but if there is I’ll post again tomorrow night. Till then….love to all who follow.

Sorry it’s taken so long to post but there was no internet access at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. To be honest, it was nice to disconnect for a couple of days.

We left Flagstaff bright and early on Friday, August 27th heading for the north rim. On our way we passed the southern edge of Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. We didn’t actually enter the monument as the roads are undeveloped and Peter doesn’t like to drive on unpaved roads. If we had gone in this is what we would have seen.

What we saw, though, was still very beautiful.

We drove to Lee’s Ferry which is the starting point for many of the Colorado River rafting trips. We talked with one of the guides and the trips are 3-7 days long. While it sounds like fun, there’s no way I could sit in the sun hour after hour for days. Besides no way am I sleeping in a tent. My idea of roughing it is a hotel without room service!

We found a spot we could wade in the Colorado River.

While the drive from Flagstaff to the North Rim is less than 4 hours, with all of our stops it actually took over six. But we weren’t in any hurry and we really enjoyed our side trips.

We’ve visited both the west and south rims but this was our first time at the north rim. I had heard that it was the prettiest of the rims but I’m not sure I agree. Of course it was breathtakingly beautiful but so are the other views. I really enjoyed this one though as it was less crowded than the south rim. Since it’s so far out of the way, you have to make an effort to get there. The best part was there were no tour buses off loading 50-60 people at a time. One of the workers told me that they rarely get tour buses; maybe one a week but sometimes not even that. On the other hand, the lodge cabins were much smaller and more primitive than the ones at Bright Angel Lodge at the south rim.

Since we didn’t get checked in until after 3pm on Friday, we spent the rest of the day getting settled and sitting on the main lodge veranda admiring the view. We had a lovely dinner in the lodge thanks to a couple (Julie and Joe from Pasadena) we met on the veranda. While I knew we had to make reservations for the room months in advance, it never occurred to me that we needed dinner reservations that far ahead as well. Unlike the south rim where there are several restaurants, the north lodge had only one restaurant that was only open for dinner. There was a deli to pick up to-go food but that was it. Luckily Julie and Joe decided not to use their reservation for their second night and gave it to us. The menu had some odd offerings (venison meatloaf anyone??) but we stuck with something less exotic. Peter had a rib eye and I had the duck. Both were delicious but very expensive. We lucked into reservations for our second night when Peter just happened to be standing at the hostess desk when someone cancelled. But like Julie and Joe, we decided not to have a heavy, pricey dinner two nights in a row so we gave up our Saturday reservations to someone else and picked up sandwiches at the deli.

On Saturday we drove Cape Royal Road along the rim of the canyon. It was 30 miles one way and there were lots of places to stop and enjoy a hike or just look at the spectacular view.

It was so hard to decide which pictures to include as there are so many that are breathtaking, but here are some of our favorites.

Both nights we spent hours on the main lodge veranda meeting people, having a few drinks and enjoying the gorgeous sunsets.

That was our visit to the Grand Canyon North Rim. It was a very relaxing two days so we’re ready for the next part of our adventure…Durango CO. I’ll post again on Tuesday night to tell you all about it.

We started our Rocky Mountain adventure today in Sedona. It’s only 3 hours from home so it was an easy drive. We had a great time driving/hiking in the Red Rocks. Even at 3000 feet above sea level, it was still in the low 90s so our hikes were short and covered flat ground. But we got our 10,000 steps so who could ask for more.

This is Bell Rock, one of the most photographed formations in Sedona.

Before we left for Flagstaff, we discovered the Chapel of the Holy Cross. It’s a beautiful little chapel built into the butte.

We’re spending the night in Flagstaff and tomorrow we’re heading to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We’ve been to the south and west rims but never the north so we’re looking forward to it. Talk with you then.