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Rockies and Red Rocks
  • Jeff Joll
  • Eileen Joll

Rockies and Red Rocks

Targeting Colorado, Utah, & New Mexico. A road trip camping in the back of our Dodge minivan. Starting off thinking this will be a 6 week trip, we will see how it goes. Read more
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  • Rockies and Red Rocks

    Page - kayaking

    September 29, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    We had reserved kayaks for morning. The first part of the paddle was on the lake, which has a fair amount of boat traffic meaning lots of wakes to deal with. Over we turned into Antelope Can yon the water calmed downed and the canyon walls began to close in. After kayaking about 2.5 miles, the water came to an end and we backed the kayaks and began to hike up the canyon. We overheard a guide for group saying earlier in the year the water went up another 200 years.

    The hike in the canyon was beautiful. We came to a small ladder to climb to the next level of the canyon. We stopped hiking after about 1.75 miles and began our way back, done we had a 4.5 hour drive ahead of us.

    Before leaving the lake area we went to the "beach", which wasn't much of a beach but we were able to hike down over the rocks and take a quick dip in the lake.

    Our drive to Mesa Verde NP was mostly over 2 lane roads with nothing around.... and most was through native American territory.

    We stopped in the town of Cortez about 10 miles from the park and had a sandwich and a beer at Wild Edge Brewing Collective.

    We arrived at the campground after dark and after the office was closed. The directions left for us were less than clear. While the paper had a site number on it, the person working had neglected to write "pick any available site". We went to the site printed on the paper and someone was in it. Eileen talked to him and he said it was any available site. Being that it was dark, we took the next available site, which was OK but probably not the site we would have picked in the daylight.    Read more

  • Rockies and Red Rocks
    Balcony cliff dwelling
    Not what it used to be but still standing (true for both photo subjects)1Cliff dwelling we toured1Our Navajo ranger internPithouseMulti- story stone houseDinty Moore!!

    Mesa Verde National Park

    September 30, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F

    We spent the night in the national campground. It is run by an outside contractor. The sites were rather close together but not the worst we have had. Mesa Verde is a historical national park. The grounds most recently belonged to the Ute reservation and were home to many indigenous people beginning around 700 AD and lasting until somewhere in the 1200's AD. Archeologists have uncovered many of their homes (pueblos) from pithouses built in the ground, to multilevel stone dwellings, to the cliff dwellings last used in the 1200's. The national park maintains about 35 of these dwellings most of which you can see from short hikes to the canyon edge. They offer tours of three of the pueblos so you can get up close to the sites and get some information from the rangers. We did a short hike on the Sofa Pop Trail where we could see the Balcony cliff dwelling. Next we toured the Cliff Pueblo, a cliff dwelling. To get to it, we had to ascend many stone stairs and a ladder. This particular dwelling had many kivas, a large round area place for social and ceremonial events. One of the rangers was an intern from the Navajo tribe. He talked about some of the rituals and customs of both those of the past and current. The current native Americans hold these pueblos as sacred space of their ancestors. To get out we had to climb up many stone steps and three ladders. We spent the day driving the scenic highway stopping to see many of the dwellings. Back at camp we built a fire and had..... Dinty Moore Stew!Read more

  • Rockies and Red Rocks

    Santa Fe

    October 2, 2023 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 82 °F

    We traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico where we spent a couple of days. The first day we explored the plaza area and visited the oldest church and home in America. We also visited Loretta Church which has a circular staircase with no central or side supports. Supposedly the nuns needed a way to get to the choir loft but normal steps would take up too much room. They asked a carpenter to build steps in the small church to get to the choir loft. The next day the circular steps were built and the carpenter disappeared. The steps are considered unique. The plaza also has a lot of very nice art galleries. We went to eat at Santa Fe Mac, which is run by a guy from Pittsburgh. He even had a terrible towel hanging in the store. There are a lot of museums in Santa Fe as well. We debated about going to the Georgia O'Keefe or Meow Wolf. We chose Meow Wolf. There was one in Denver as well and it looked interesting. It was completely different, an interactive art, storytelling, problem solving, exhibit. The main part is a house with information about a family. You are supposed to figure out what happened to the family and they were into time machines and messages from outer space. From different places in the house you could get into a different world - the abstract kind of art. You got there through the refrigerator, closet, dryer, etc. So interesting. We solved the 4 questions and got a sticker!! We went to Second Hand Brewery for dinner and then to our very dark and lonely campfire in the national forest. There was no one camping near us!Read more

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    Santa Fe day 2

    October 3, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    In 1957 the city of Santa Fe passed a law that all buildings- residential and commercial - had to be of the adobe style to preserve the heritage of the area. So everything is in earth tones and there are more trees here than we have seen in the past 2 weeks making this area a beautiful city. It is also an area of hot springs so today we went to the Ojo Spa and Resort. They have a day pass where you can soak in the multiple hot tubs and use the steam room. We spent about 4 hours soaking, steaming, and just relaxing. We met a man who is a Santa Fe firefighter and martial arts instructor. He comes here once a month to relax. (We need a place like this at home!) He suggested that we go to the Santa Fe Brewing Co headquarters which was nearby. Food was good, (taco truck), beer was good and Jeff says it is the best stout he has ever had. Lastly we went to the Railyard area of town. This is another area of shops, restaurants, and breweries, not quite as boutiqueish as the plaza. Unfortunately, except for the restaurants and breweries, everything is closed up in the evening. We had some ice cream and then went back to camp.Read more

  • Rockies and Red Rocks

    Santa Fe to Austiin

    October 4, 2023 in the United States

    We drove from Santa Fe to Austin with an overnight stay on Lubbock, TX. We were going to visit Jacque and help her with some house projects. Through New Mexico and West Texas we passed a lot of open fields, cotton plants, oil rigs, and so many wind turbines. We stopped at Cadillac Ranch. - an art exhibit. A man paid some California artists to create an art exhibit on his ranch. They took 10 Cadillacs, one from each year, and buried them nose down so the Cadillac fins stuck up. After a while, people started defacing the Cadillacs with spray paint and eventually it was encouraged to do so. Today they sell paint right on the property. There is so much paint on the cars that you can't identify them as Cadillacs. At Jac's we built a fence, did yardwork, spent time with Bear, and enjoyed family time!Read more

  • Rockies and Red Rocks

    New Orleans

    October 10, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F

    We traveled from Austin to New Orleans. Jeff had only been there for business and I had never been there. We spent three nights here. The first evening we are at Coop's Place for dinner good Southern Cajun/Creole cooking followed by beignets from Cafe du Mond - yum!!

    Over the next two days we took a tour of the lower garden area seeing historic houses, some owned by famous people now. In the afternoon we took a food walking tour of the French Quarter sampling some iconic food of the area - gumbo, po-boy, muffelata, praline, red beans and rice, and banana foster bread pudding. Both tours included a lot of history of there area.

    We spent a rainy afternoon (almost 5 hours) at the WWII museum. It was very well done and we only saw half of the exhibits. We also saw the French Market, the St Louis Cathedral, and the Riverwalk along the Mississippi River.

     We spent our evenings on Bourbon St and Frenchman St enjoying a lot of different kinds of music and drinks. When we arrived, I (Eileen) wans't overly impressed, but by the time we left, I didn't want to leave. There is so much to do.    Read more

  • Rockies and Red Rocks

    New Orleans to home

    October 14, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 57 °F

    After one more round of beignets from Cafe de Monde, we headed to Memphis TN for our first night's stay. Along the way we saw many cotton fields and rolls of cotton! We checked in at the T.O.Fuller State
    Park campground and then went to Beale St for dinner and music. We ate at BBKings while being entertained by some great live music. Then we walked the streets checking out various musicians along the way. A short but fun visit. The second day was a shorter drive (4 hours) to St Louis. We were meeting up with Josh and Liz. Since they were still working when we got there, we went to Lumeire Sculpture Park. It is a very nice and spacious park with almost 70 sculptures. It was a great place to stretch our legs and spend a couple of hours. Next we met up with Josh and Liz, drove to what will soon be their new house and then walked to a brewery and a pizza place for dinner. It was another short, but wonderful visit!! We drove about 1.5 hours before spending the night in Effingham. The next morning we started the final leg home driving in and out of rain. It was a great trip!    Read more

    Trip end
    October 14, 2023
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