Day 3: Montrose to Mesa Verde and back

Miles traveled: 288

We met Shadow and had to give him all the scritches a good boy deserves.

We had a destination of Mesa Verde National Park and had three route options. We decided we would play it by ear on how we get there.

We knew we’d be in the mountains but not these mountains.

One of our favored options had road closures and the other added an hour, so the roads chose CO 145 for us and we just had our jaws on the ground.

The red rock is called Telluride Conglomorate. Mom loved it so much and it kept us company most of the day. It was formed under water during the Jurassic period.

We went up into the San Juan Mountains that are part of the Rockies and formed by volcanos 33-23 million years ago.

The mountain on the left is called Sunshine Mountain and I love her very much.

Chips and salsa and margaritas in Delores.

We spotted the Delores Dragon in the wild with two of her pups.

We made it to Mesa Verde, which are Native cliff dwellings, but did not have time to actually appreciate and give the proper respect to them. We will come back and do this park in another road trip.

We headed back up 145 because we wanted to see if we missed any views but rain put the kibosh on that. We did run in to a traffic jam we first learned about on our road trip in Ireland in 2002. SHEEP! 🐏🐏

Noisy fluffy things

We heard a whistle, then saw the two dogs and a man and watched them go to work!

Look closely. We’re somewhere over the rainbow!🌈

We’re still not over how beautiful this drive was but we will try to top it again. – ShooKy

Day 2: Salida to Montrose

Miles traveled – 356

We needed breakfast and noticed a place on the map we had to try.

We love National Parks. Like, really really love them. We were giggling as soon as we passed this sign. And don’t get us started on a National Park Visitor Center!

We had to wait in a small line to get in because they were limiting the number of people inside. There was a sign to please only be in for 5-10 minutes and we took that as a challenge. We were like crazed parents on Black Friday looking for a Tickle Me Elmo!

We wanted to get closer but a creek and mud were in our way. And children.

I always need to see volcanic rocks on our trips and today did not disappoint.

Sandstone making the pillars and a lovely Tuff on top.

The only deer 🦌 that would let us take a picture.

We caught some fish for dinner and called it a day!

See you tomorrow – ShooKy

Day 1: Denver to Salida

Miles traveled for today are estimates.

Mom

– Oak Hill, CA to Ontario Airport by car: 41

– To San Francisco by plane: 417

– To Denver by plane: 1247

Total: 1702

– Pittsfield, MA to Boston by train: 140

– Boston to Denver by plane: 1969

Total: 2,109

Together in a giant truck from Denver to Salida, CO: 166 miles

We jumped in the beast after an emotional reunion. We can’t remember the last time we were together but it was late 2019 and that is just waaaaaay too long for us to be apart. We were also completely out of practice for road trips. I got us lost trying to get out of the airport for example. But maybe it was just an excuse to see our good friend Bluecifer again!!!!

You don’t have to yell at us, we’re always watching the rocks.

It looks like a tornado, but we don’t think it was a tornado, but we don’t know what it is.

We drove SH 285 most of the way and it was so pretty.

Oh, hello Rocky Mountains (cue a John Denver song or something…)

Our Motel is cute and they have a sense of humor.

See you tomorrow! – ShooKy

Vaccinated and ready to go!

Hi! We need to stretch our legs a bit. We’re meeting at our halfway spot, the trusty DIA, and hitting the road and National Parks at a smaller scale. Morning posts resume July 15th.

Day 11: Sedona to Phoenix

Total miles driven: 2,169

We were going to Pink Jeep it around Sedona but the weather was meh, and we made our own agenda.

First stop was a winery called Javelina Leap and we just liked the name.

We found a National Monument in the area.

We had the most amazing lunch in Old Town Cottonwood.

The drive to Phoenix was stunning and the Saguaros made a comeback.

We flew out this morning and miss each other already. The trip was as perfect as we hoped. Now to plan another…

Day 10: Grand Canyon to Sedona

Miles driven: 169

We had a few more things to check out at the Grand Canyon before we hit the road again. Like finding the mules.

Mom kept saying that it looked fake and I can’t help but agree when going through the pictures again.

It was beautiful on the way to Sedona.

Had a great dinner with a cute pupper and a view.

Our hotel gets us.

We also were giddy when tiny little bats showed up and provided the entertainment for the night. (It’s really hard to get pictures of them!)

Day 9: Grand Canyon

Miles driven: we took a Pink Jeep Tour that drove us around for about 62 miles.

We hit up two Visitor Centers because that’s what we do. One included a view.

We jumped in a pink Jeep with a big group from upstate New York.

We ran across a family of Elk!

With our trusty tour guides.

I had to try the prickly pear margarita and it was yummy.

And ended with a beautiful sunset.

Day 8: Snowflake to Grand Canyon

Miles driven: 280

Woke up to gross weather and it did not stop. We were grateful it wasn’t too bad at the Petrified Forest.

All of the normally dry washes in the park were raging. Also,the rain started to really limit our views.

We booked it on the 40 and ran into Hurricane Lorena. We paid attention to the torrential downpours and couldn’t see anything for hours. We finally made it to Flagstaff and had that beast behind us.