Rocky Mountain National Park

I camped about 30 minutes outside of Rocky Mountain National Park.  I’m still not confident on my mountain driving or the power of my RV while towing, so I decided to camp outside of the park.  I stayed in Loveland, CO.  The drive to RMNP was beautiful, it went thru Big Thompson Canyon.  At times there was only room for the road and the river at the bottom of the canyon. 

One of my favorite hikes was from Bear Lake to Emerald Lake. It’s only a couple of miles, but it is all up.  Coming down was much better!! The trail up lead to Nymph, Dream and then Emerald Lake.  The first time I hiked this trail, it was cold and very windy.  I hiked it a few days later with much nicer weather.   On the day I went across the park (the road is 12,000+ ft high at it’s highest point), I saw elk, moose, marmots and lots of chipmunks.  I also hiked up to Alberta falls, but none of my pictures turned out very good. 

 

More Rocky Mountain National Park pictures--

Very close to my campground was an “Open air” space (I think it’s just a county park) called “Devil’s Backbone”.  Since I’m into rock formations, I found it very interesting.  I took the 3.5 mile loop trail to get a closer look.

There was a plant that I found very interesting at this park, if anyone knows what this is let me know.

I also hiked Gem Lake, which I found out was part of the RMNP.  I had read that it was an easy hike, but I don’t think I would have labeled it that.  It was 1.7 miles up and a lot of it was very rocky.  But it was well worth it.  The view going up was great, even with the clouds coming in.  The lake and surrounding area was wonderful.   It was a beautiful place for lunch, the picture below was taken from my lunch spot!

One thing I had to do this past week was to get my hair cut by an unknown stylist.  This may not be a problem for some, but the same hair stylist has cut my hair for many years so it was a difficult thing to do.  Oh well, it will grow back and I’ll be able to have my regular hair stylist fix my hair in November!

Colorado Springs, CO

After Antonito, CO I went to Colorado Springs, CO for a few days.  I stayed at Cheyenne Mountain State Park.  My site was  great, it was on a mountain side.   The campground was a bit pricey, but was a full hookup park and there was a lot of room between sites.     Looking in one direction, I had a view of Cheyenne Mountain.  Here is the mountain behind my RV.  In the other direction I was looking over part of the army base just outside of Colorado Springs.  This picture was taken from the roof of my RV one morning.  I did get a good laugh – Just about every day I saw deer.  At my house, I considered them pest.  But when they are in the campground they are cute and I took pictures of them – interesting how things change! 

This campground has 20 or so hiking trails.  I stayed close to home and hiked several of these trails.  I also went to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs a couple of times.  It’s a free park and very beautiful.   Below are a couple of pictures from the Garden of the Gods park.

Off to Rocky Mountain National Park!

Albuquerque and Antonito

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged so this will be rather long.  I had very little internet access in Antonito (you had to go to the game room at the campground).  There was also no TV and no cell service.  It was nice and quiet!

Before I was in Antonito, CO I was in Albuquerque, NM.  While there, I visited Petroglyph National Monument and Tent Rocks National Monument (official name – Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument).  Petroglyph National monument is very close to Albuquerque.  They claim there are more than 300 Petroglyphs.

Tent Rocks National Monument was a bit of a surprise.  The tents themselves were interesting (see tent rocks national monument for info on what these rocks are), but there was also a mini-slot canyon that I really enjoyed. 

 

The “slot canyons” were really just a trail between the tent rocks and the mountains.  There were a few and you had to scramble over a few rocks.  When I saw this one, I wasn’t sure I would fit.

That little slot just to the left of the center is one of the “slot canyons” and the one that I wasn’t sure that I would fit.

 

This is a closer view and I did fit, but when I turned while wearing my daypack it was a tight fit!  At the end of the trail there were several tent rocks that almost looked like an Indian village.  Some of these are just a few feet, while others are up to 90 feet.  Those pictured below were huge.

After Albuquerque I went to Antonito, CO.  This was a shock to my system.  It’s been rather warm everywhere I have been and for the first time since I started full-timing, I had to wear long pants!  Most mornings it was about 45 degrees!  It would warm up to the upper 70’s.  I stayed at the Ponderosa RV Park, which was right on the Conejos River.   In the picture below, you can just make out my blue and white RV to the right of the white pickup truck.  Fishing is a big thing around this campground. (Don’t forget you can click on the picture to enlarge it).

This is where I had several modifications made to my RV.  Mike and Lisa Sylvester (The RV Guy) installed 2 solar panels, a surge protector and better gauges for the various tanks and batteries.  I was also given some education on maintaining my RV. 

After the work on my RV was done, I rode a train, went to a lake and went to the beach (well it felt like that!).   I took the Cumbres & Toltec train.  This is a old-fashioned steam operated train.  They warned us that we would get soot on us and we did. 

I think they said that they were blowing out the boiler when the steam came out the side like in the above picture.  Not only was it interesting just because it was a steam train, but the scenery was great.

I also drove up to Platoro Lake. and did a bit of hiking.  It was a 25 mile rough dirt road to the lake, but just the drive up was worth it. 

The next day, I went to Great Sand Dunes National Park.  At first it seemed like a huge beach.  But walking on the dunes is extremely difficult.   After making a few mistakes of trying to climb up the steep part, I decided that I wasn’t going to go all the way up and just walked along some of the ridges of the dunes, easier but still difficult.

  

In the middle picture, you can see get an idea of the size of the dunes there are some people in the middle of the picture. – at the bottom of the dunes and climbing up.  

I arrived in Colorado Springs yesterday, but I’ll blog about this trip later!

A castle, a hole in the ground and a few repeats

The last few days, I’ve definitely done the tourist thing in Williams.  I ended up going back to the Grand Canyon on 2 different days, one of them was rainy and I had hoped to get a picture of the canyon with some lightening in it, but I wasn’t quick enough.  I also went back to Sedona to do a bit more hiking.  It was also a rainy, overcast day.  But the red rocks were still great!

One day I went to Meteor Crater, which is basically a hole in the ground.  The crater is about 570 feet deep and .75 miles in diameter – in others words it is a big hole!  The visitor center was interesting with all kinds of info on Meteors. 

That same day, I went to Montezuma Castle National monument.  It was rather interesting.  They believe the “castle” was a 20 room apartment and it is 4 stories high.  Just getting inside would be a chore.

 

I’m currently in Bernalillo, NM. It’s basically a suburb of Albuquerque.   I toured Old Town Albuquerque today.  It is mainly shops – I wasn’t there long!   For lunch, I ate at “The Range Cafe” in Bernalillo, NM.   I had one of the best meals that I have had while starting this adventure.    I might go back in a couple of days.

David asked me to write more information about living in my RV.  I don’t know how long it will take to get used to this, but I have a lot to still organize and a lot to learn.  I still have things under the dinette table, although I can now sit at the table.  I also have some things on the dinette seats.    I haven’t yet gotten a schedule like I had in my “Sticks ‘n Bricks” house.    Such as when to clean, what to clean…  I am finding that I sweep and mop much more, but that takes me just a few minutes since it’s so small.   I also need to work on a schedule for maintaining the RV – there is a lot that must be done to it.   Simple things like cleaning the air conditioner vents needs to be done every couple of weeks.  I have been in very dusty places recently so I’m guessing that’s why I need to do it this often. 

Tomorrow I’m headed for another National Monument and I am going to travel the Turquoise Scenic byway. 

Grand Canyon, National Monuments and Sedona

I arrived in Williams, AZ on Tuesday and am staying at the Grand Canyon  Railroad Campground.  Mostly pavement, but very clean and more space between sites than some campgrounds like this.  As you can see we did have a little bit of rain one night. (Don’t forget you can click on the picture to enlarge it)

Wednesday, I went to the Grand Canyon.  My plan was to take the shuttle to the far west end – Hermit’s Rest and hike about 8.5 miles back on the Rim trail.  I love this part of the trail because it is not as crowded as the part in the center of the park.   I ended up only hiking about 6 miles – another great thing about this hike is the shuttle stops not far from the trail in several places so if you get tired you can jump on and ride the rest of the way. 

The next day, I went to Wupatki National Monument and Sunset Crater Volcano National monument.  Wupatki pueblo was occupied  during the 1100’s.  Sunset Crater last erupted 900 years ago. 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday I went to Sedona.  I had intended to do 2 hikes, but once in town, I decided to play the tourist and take a Pink Jeep tour.  It’s great scenery and a fun 4-wheel drive tour.  After the tour, I hiked the West Fork trail  in Oak Creek Canyon.  

San Diego and Los Angeles 2

My second full day in San Diego, I went to the Wild Animal Park.  For those who don’t know about this park, it is associated with the San Diego Zoo, but is a bit different.  They have about 1800 acres so they have room for the animals to roam.  They have a “Journey into Africa tour” that I like.  I did it early in the morning as I feel that the animals are a bit more active then and you have a better chance of seeing them.  While not a great picture, it shows several different animals and that the animals roam freely.  They also have other zoo like exhibits.  I asked about the SUV in the picture below and they replied that in Africa on safaris, you often see old abandoned cars and the lions like them.  That seems to be true of this SUV, I watched a male and female lion get in and out of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the walking so much at the Wild Animal park and the San Diego Zoo, I thought I would take it easy the next day.  I went to La Jolla and ended up walking about 2 hours on their path at the beach.

After leaving San Diego, I drove back to Montclair and picked up my RV.  It looks great, just like new. 

Yesterday morning I went to Will Rogers State Park, where there is a 20 mile Bike path (Marvin Braude Bikeway),  mostly on the beach.  I ended up riding my bike about 15 miles, seeing Venice Beach, the Santa Monica pier and “muscle beach” along with other interesting things.  Since I rode very early in the morning, I missed some of the interesting characters that frequent Venice Beach.  But I saw a few! I also ran into a Volleyball tournament not far from the park, which I ended up watching for a while.  When I got to the beach, it was very pretty – blue sky.  There was a strip of dark “stuff” over the ocean, which I assumed was LA smog.  I was wrong.  It didn’t move to fast, but then it seemed like all of a sudden everything was covered with Ocean fog.  In the picture below you can see the fog out over the ocean, then in the volleyball picture you can see no blue sky at all. 

Pomona and San Diego

I stayed at the KOA in Pomona, CA the 4th of July weekend because it is only 10 – 15 minutes from the Lazy Daze factory.  I had been warned that the sites were close together, but wow I have never seen them this close.  I literally could have leaned out my drivers side window and shared dinner with the people next door to me eating at their picnic table.  Anyway, it is convenient to the LD factory and the good news is that it is right next door to the Fairplex where they hold various events.  They had fireworks on the 4th, so all I had to do to see the show was walk to the edge of the campground.   I took pictures using my new camera.  I failed to bring a tripod – I should know better than

that – I’ve taken quite a few photography classes.  But the pictures didn’t turn out too bad.  The main give away is that it was close to a full moon and you can see the camera shake by the moon.

I dropped my RV off Monday morning to have the dent and a few other things fixed, then I drove to San Diego.  The weather is great here.  High 70’s to low 80’s during the day.  It’s just about perfect, especially after all those 100 + days. 

Today I went to the San Diego zoo.  This is one of my favorite zoo’s, in addition to the great animals they are also considered a botanical garden. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And watch out for those lions!!!!!

 

 

I did get a good laugh at a couple of parents explaining to their 5 – 6 year old why 2 Bonobos (pygmy chimps) were “wrestling”.  No pictures, I don’t want to be accused of distributing porn!