• Stewncarol
  • Stewncarol

2018 On The Road Again

Une aventure ouverte par Stewncarol En savoir plus
  • Carlsbad Caverns NP - NM

    29 avril 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Rising from the Chihuahuan Desert are the Guadalupe Mountains and underneath these mountains is Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Just behind the Visitor Center the Park staff accommodation, built in stone was totally in keeping with the landscape. The park is famous for the Brazilian Freetail Bats that migrate in the spring from Mexico to give birth in the caves. We’re too early in the year to see the main colony flying out at dusk. We booked on the Kings Palace tour and walked the 1.25 miles down through the Natural Entrance to meet the ranger at the cafe, gift shop and incredibly fully functioning toilets 800 feet beneath the surface.
    The Caverns are numerous, huge and spectacular, the photos do not do them justice. We were totally in awe of what nature has created over 260 million years since this area was a marine environment.
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  • Petroglyph National Monument - NM

    2 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    On the edge of Albuquerque, New Mexico is Petroglyph National Monument. After a tour of the visitor centre we drove 6 miles to the trail head at Piedras Marcadas Canyon. There are around 5000 petroglyphs in the canyon carved 400 - 700 years ago by the Pueblo people who inhabited the area. Birds, reptiles, people, circles and hands, some with 6 fingers which was common and revered among the Pueblans. Some of the petroglyphs look distinctly alien, giving rise to the theory that earth has been visited by them in the distant past. It was great to walk, climb and try and spot them.En savoir plus

  • Walnut Canyon National Monument, AZ

    7 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    It has been more than 700 years since Walnut Canyon echoed with the words and sounds of a vital pueblo community. The Island Trail leads you back in time, and welcomes you into the world of the people archeologists call Sinagua. There are 25 cliff dwelling rooms along the trail; more are visible across the canyon. Spectacular canyon scenery, plants and birds. Highlight was the red faced warbler.En savoir plus

  • Wildcat Trail - Monument Valley

    9 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    4 mile hike round West Mitten Butte, may not sound far, but it was down and back up a very steep red sandy trail with temperatures in the 90Fs. It was roasting, although we had some cloud cover round the back of the Butte where we had our picnic.
    Fantastic hike though, lots of plants, some in bloom with lovely scents (salt cedar). Also saw interestingly shaped trees, lizards 🦎 and a few horses, one with a foal. Then there’s the scenery, sandstone towers and cliffs rising from the desert all around us. Wonderful hike definitely worth the pain from the heat ☀️.
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  • Monument Valley Tour - Part 1

    10 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Signed up at the blue kiosk by the visitor centre for the 2 1/2 hour cultural and Lower Monument Valley tour. Our vehicle was a pickup front with 3 rows of seats high up and open at the back. Larry our Navajo driver and tour guide was brilliant, he grew up in Monument Valley and some of his family still live here. Larry stopped at scenic views telling us the names of the rock formations and also added interesting stories about the Navajo Nation and their way of life past and present. John Wayne Point was one of our stops, John Ford’s film Stagecoach with John Wayne was the first of many films made here. Our stops were at rock formations called The Chief and The Dragon. Along the route there are touristy shops and stalls selling Navajo crafts and jewellery. The Navajos originally came to this area from Alaska and Canada.En savoir plus

  • Monument Valley Tour - Part 2

    10 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Part of the tour is a visit to a Navajo Hogan, there are male (ceremonial) and female (family homes) hogans and the doors always face east. The small hogan behind the female one is a sweat lodge. Inside we were shown how sheeps wool was cleaned and spun, it was amazing how long the yarn was from a small piece of wool. Also on display were other Navajo artefacts, some of which are still in use today. The tiny settlement is still inhabited and they bring water in from Goulding’s where we’re staying. The only spring in Monument Valley is used for livestock, sheep, cattle and horses. We’ve been looking for an authentic dream catcher and found one here !!En savoir plus

  • Monument Valley Tour - Part 3

    10 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

    Last leg of the tour is into places only local guides can take you. Here we saw Sun Eye a hole in the roof of a huge cavelike structure in the sandstone rock. Petroglyphs by the Anasazi about 1000 years old depict an antelope hunt. Ear of the Wind Arch was another highlight. A stop on the way back at a great viewpoint for the Totem Pole sandstone spire and a photo opportunity with the Navajo Flag.
    Brilliant tour, brilliant guide on bumpy dirt roads with the wind blowing a hooley covering us in red dust. Perhaps that’s why they were call red indians !!!!
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  • Dinosaur Quarry NM, UT

    18 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Dinosaurs once roamed here and the ‘Wall of Bones’ in the Dinosaur Quarry is an amazing display of around 1500 large dinosaur fossils still imbedded and exposed in the rock wall. The first find was in 1909 and many more have been extracted and are on display in museums across the US. The ranger told us that they think this area was a river which alternately flooded and dried up and the bones were washed up in a dinosaur log jam then buried under mud and silt. There were trails out from the quarry where we saw smaller fossils of clams and the odd bone, oh and also a few descendants of the dinosaurs... lizards. Also drove through the park where the Green and Yampa rivers run. Saw more petroglyphs, green fields irrigated from the rivers, a couple of campgrounds, mule deer, pronghorn antelope and a brilliant blue mountain bluebird.En savoir plus

  • Moonshine Arch - Vernal, UT

    20 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Great hike up an off-road track to the amazing Moonshine Arch. Superb views over Steinmaker State Park. At our rest stop we were entertained by violet-green swallows flying overhead. On our way down a pickup on its way up beat a hasty retreat on the steep slick rocks and the occupants finished their journey to the arch on foot.En savoir plus

  • Red Fleet Dinosaur Trackway, UT

    21 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    1.5 mile hike up, down, round and across sandy washes, ribs of exposed stone and slick rock, through a juniper grove to the edge of the Red Fleet reservoir. The flat slip rock sloping down to the water has hundreds of tracks that we have to search for. Some are of the 3 toed dilophosaurus who walked here around 200 million years ago and are 10-12 inches in width. Pretty mind blowing eh?
    A paddle in the water cools our feet ready for the hike back.
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  • Wind River Brewery - Pinedale, WY

    22 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    A chance meeting in Walmart, Rock Springs, Wyoming and result is a great meal and brew at the Wind River Brewery, Pinedale, WY. We were in a slow checkout line and Stew spoke to the guy in front who’s name was Abernathy and had lived in Dorset. He now lives in Pinedale 100 miles north and recommended the brewery there. Fast forward 3 hours and we find ourselves driving through Pinedale and the brewery is right on the main road through town and there’s parking right outside. We pullover and go into the brewery which is on the corner of Elma (my aunt’s name) Ave and Pine Street. It’s a real quirky place and we try 3 of their beers before settling on Adventure Amber, the Out of Order Porter was a bit too bitter. We had garlic shrimp and a Master Brew Burger to share and excellent it was too. Glad we stopped here on our way north, Grand Teton NP tomorrow.En savoir plus

  • Beer Tasting

    27 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Abandoned trip to Grand Teton NP as it was raining and chilly when we drove there last Tuesday, we couldn’t even see the mountains !! We also were going to be boondocking with no electric and when we started the diesel Aquahot heating it was spitting out black smoke.
    So we drove down in elevation and found a RV service place in Idaho Falls. Our step decided to stop working and they needed to order a part and of course it’s Memorial Day Monday so the part will not be here till Tuesday. Or Wednesday.
    So we find ourselves parked in Snake River RV Park drinking beer on a Sunday evening. Life throws spanners in the works, but it’s still good.
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  • Idaho Falls, ID

    28 mai 2018, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    It’s always good to get on our bikes and we’re amazed at how many comments and questions we get from people, it’s a bit like having a cute dog, people always stop to talk.
    The Riverwalk loop along the Snake River is also a great biking trail. Although the Falls are man made for hydro electricity, there are still picturesque especially with the river being so high. Canada geese and their young, ducks and grebes are just some of the birds we saw. Interesting animal statutes and benches on the route.En savoir plus