San Juan Skyway, Part II

We're back on the San Juan Skyway and this time there's a noticeable difference....it snowed!


It's a lot different on this side of the mountain, much more like you'd expect from a place that calls themselves the "Switzerland of America". The views are absolutely amazing, each one better than the next. This is also a point where I'm wishing I had a better camera. My pictures do nothing to convey how beautiful it really was up there, and I was just getting more and more frustrated after each shot. At times I'd give up, then I couldn't contain myself anymore and would just shoot right thru the windshield. Then a rock came at me and lodged right in the middle of my view!






It just hit me why they call them the Rocky Mountains.

We're so high now, we're getting to the top of the tree line.


We took a little side trip into Telluride so Joey could show us where he once went to a high society Christmas party (as if that'd EVER happen now) and to see The Castle on the Hill. Can you see it?


Look closer, above the frozen waterfall.

How'd ya like to live there?

The kids were regular troopers on this road trip, and not one time did I hear a complaint about my picture taking or have my camera hidden. That's what I call a successful trip.

For a slide show of the complete set click here.

Mogollon Rim Revisited

We took the Payson route home instead of the Salt River Canyon which is always my favorite, but after driving up to the Mogollon Rim I realized I'd forgotten how pretty is up here. Joey and I used to come up here a lot before leaving Arizona to live on the road. We stopped at the Woods Canyon Lake turnoff to step on the rim and take in the huge views. It's easy to forget these mountains exist when you're so used to relating desert to Arizona. Our dates before we were married consisted of day trips hiking around the lake, tent camping in the woods, catching crawdads in Chevlen Crossing, cooking them in beer, and hiking down Clear Creek Canyon, having to carry our lazy fifty pound bulldog back up. We continued going after we were married and had Jake. I remember Jake swinging in his infant swing, covered with mosquito netting, with a bee inside. Our nephew even totaled our forerunner up here on a family camping trip. Dang, I can't believe I forgot how much we used to come up here. Now I feel bad we didn't get to camp with JimRo, and I didn't have the heart to tell them the weather was beautiful up here.

Four Peaks Wilderness Area

Before we left for Arizona Jim and Rosie invited us to go camping with them after Thanksgiving up on the Mogollon Rim. JimRo had been planning it for weeks, so when we woke up on Friday morning to twenty degree temps up in the mountains, it was a huge disappointment for them when they realized it would just be too cold for everyone to enjoy themselves, and sadly had to cancel after packing up their pop up and after all the hard work Rosie did preparing for the weekend. I hid my excitement of the cancelation well.


Eventually Jim suggested going out to the Four Peaks Wilderness Area for the day, so they and their dogs could get out of the city and run wild.

We followed them for miles, and miles, and miles down dirt roads, passing groups of weekenders out for four wheel fun.


Jim found us a great spot off the road, in a wash, along a rock canyon wall. We immediatley head up the wash for a short hike and found a fun spot to hang out for a while while letting the kids explore to their hearts content.

We also marveled at the saguaro growing right out of the rock.


Eventually Ro and I got hungry so we walked back to the trucks and hauled the heavy cooler back to the guys, just to have them say they were heading back to the trucks to start a fire and find shade beside the canyon wall. Joey carried it back on his shoulder as if it only weighed five pounds. Pfff.

Only Jewel and Tristan stayed with us.

But no matter how much Jewel likes Tristan, she didn't like him stealing her spotlight.


The boys came around when they got hungry and thirsty, or when they wanted to show off their climbing and jumping skills.

They even made up their own Kid Nation, with cabins and stores and a town counsel, all out of the natural landscapes the huge boulders provided. It was pretty cool, and I'm sure Jake was the President.

We stayed way into the night, simply enjoying eachother's company.....and wishing we would have brought our camping gear.

Thanksgiving

We got to Jim and Rosie's the night before Thanksgiving, and naturally, had a blast reconnecting and catching up. Jim's girls weren't able to make it for the holiday so they were able to put us up, or put up with us, for the few days we were in town. While I was sad to not see the girls, I was happy to be staying here. Rosie and I have the best time picking on the brothers, and the kids can never get enough of each other.

Before going to Jackie's for Thanksgiving Dinner the kids had to continue their tradition of jumping in the freezing cold pool. Last time it took ten dollars to get them to jump in, this time we couldn't have paid them ten dollars not to.


Dinner was great, but I have to admit I was a horrible guest. I dropped the stuff I brought off at the door for everyone else to deal with while I made the social round. Then I was one of the last ones left eating so by the time I was done, everything was all cleaned up and put away. I did remark how nice it was to have everything just put itself away though, so I should get some points for that.



With the nice weather we spent 99.9% of the time outside, mostly laughing...non-stop. Occasionally I stopped for pictures, but they're mostly of family and I just don't feel right posting them. Besides the fact they were mostly in their underwear. The kids just cannot resist an icy cold pool! All the kids, I think eight, ended up in the pool, whether their parents allowed them to or not. We even had a few adult (if you wanna' say that) men that ended up in their underwear in the pool. Not my typical thanksgiving, and I'm thankful for that.

Four Corners

After a yummy continental breakfast we were back on the road.


Within minutes we were already in different terrain. While this land is absolutely stunning, it's almost impossible to enjoy physically. It's on the Rez, Navajo Indian Reservation to be exact. The highways are lined with fences in order to keep us out, and their land pristine. It's working.

I just wish I could get a good picture without fence posts.


We have to stop at the Four Corners Monument, even though the last time we were there we were disappointed. We must have forgot. This is the monument, people.


This is me and my spawn on the monument as taken by two boyfriends after I took their picture.


Their picture included the actual monument.

The best part is the Indian Fry Bread, topped with honey. That's why we really stopped. Sightseeing over, time to get to Mesa. Get outta the way, sheep.

San Juan Skyway, Part I

For our trip to Arizona we decided to go against Microsoft's quickest route and opted for our own route, going through Durango and the Four Corners area. Would you like to come along?

We just went through Grand Mesa, again finding ourselves on some typical flat ranching land, but I can hear the San Juan Mountains calling our name already. First I have to say, Let's be thankful Joey's doing the driving.

Not that I don't watch the road, just sometimes it's not my road I'm watching.


The town of Ouray, which is the Gateway to the San Juan's, also claims to be "The Switzerland of America". I'm not exactly seeing Switzerland yet, but I'm lovin' the mustard river. This is definitely a first.

We have to stop.
I have to get a closer look.

It's not so yellow on the bank, but check it out under the melting snow.


Maybe these are the cause of the yellow river?


Ahhh, it's an old iron mine, that makes sense. Now it's under a massive water restoration process, beautiful, no?

A closer look reveals old mining buildings.


Say good-bye to this part of the San Juan Skyway Loop.


We'll be revisiting the other side of the loop on the way home, but for now it's time to call it a night and get a room. We even managed to top off a beautiful day with a two room suite in Cortez for only $59. Two rooms! (Those living in an RV with kids will understand my excitement.)

Durango on Dwellable

Arches National Park

We woke up yesterday morning still not ready for the long drive to Arizona for Thanksgiving. We're thinking we may not even go, so we're thinking up alternate plans. Rocky Mountain National Park came up, Aspen was mentioned, as well as Durango, but those are all cold places right now so I check out the weather and notice it's seventy degrees in Moab, UT. We decided immediately to go to Arches National Park for the day and were out the door in twenty minutes, and on red soil in three hours.


Did I say soil? I'm not actually sure if the boys' soles actually touched soil, there were too many rocks and other cool structures to walk on to waste their time on mere dirt.






The boys ran this whole trail out to the arch, while Jewel would stop every hundred yards or so and build a small mound out of the soft sand and poke a stick through the top. On the way back the boys would trample down the mounds, and Jewel would do quick rebuilds.



Arches may have their balancing rocks.

But we've got a balancing Jake.



This view shows the many different terrains in the park. There's the labyrinth of caverns to the left, petrified dunes straight ahead, along with some green dirt, more pinnacles and the LaSal Mountains in the background. So much more than just arches.

This was named Park Avenue because it resembled the high rises in NYC.

Then that must be Central Park the boys are running through.


The setting sun produces the prettiest glow.




We spent a fabulous day in the park and I couldn't convince Joey to go on one more hike so it was time to say goodnight to Arches.


We were hungry and tired so we went into Moab for supper and also ended up getting a room. A nice, BIG, hot bath was the perfect ending to another well exhausted, yet exhilarated, day.

We planned on either going back to the park the next day or driving some 4x4 trails but when we woke up we felt ready to head to Arizona so we came back to a messy bus and loads of laundry in order to pack. Laundry done, buss kinda cleaned, we're leaving for Arizona in the morning.

Life with unschoolers

I've been trying to get my groove back. That's a hard thing to do, considering our lifestyle. There's no "normal" or "usual" daily routine. The only time I get any sense of some sort of routine is when Joey is working. When he's home any ideas I had to do outside of the bus are completely shot, and life becomes even more spontaneous, or more reclusive. Take your pick. For the past two weeks Joey's been working and I've been trying to be more productive. The first week back is always a recooping period for me, where I catch up with Tivo, blogs, and hang out in the RV park office with Jeannie and Katrina, while doing the never ending laundry. Since the kids and I have a car now we've been going to the Activity Center, but most of my driving has been the multiple trips to Glenwood Springs in an attempt to finish the bus remodel.

Even the kids are having a hard time finding their groove. Normally when I ask them "What do you want to do today?" they respond with swimming or raquetball, but the last time I asked, they said, "Go shopping!"

Yep, they're mine.

We started giving the boys an allowance back in May. The deal was one dollar for every year they've been alive. That was nine for Jake and seven for Jonas. Since working the pipeline now, Joey doubled his pay, and doubled their allowance. Now Jake gets twenty dollars, and Jonas gets sixteen dollars....every week! That's a lot of video games, but the sweet thing is: they buy their little sister games for her DS, too.

Black Canyon National Park

Earlier in the year when we were in Northwestern Colorado a couple locals told me about a cave in the area. A cave that has a lake inside, with eyeless fish. We drove an hour to get there, hiked up to the opening and went inside just a little ways. We only had a couple flashlights and since it was an undeveloped cave, we were actually a little scared to go too far inside, so we turned around and vowed to come back again better prepared. We thought about going there this past weekend, but we decided against it since we thought it would be too far for a day trip.

Instead I break out the road atlas and found another one of those "green areas" south of us, that didn't look too far, so we packed up some drinks and snacks and headed off for The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

We headed south on scenic Hwy 65, otherwise known as The Grand Mesa Scenic Byway. Turns out the mountain that I had been calling Grand Mesa, isn't. Here we are driving over Grand Mesa. The mountain range in the far right distance is the mountain I see from the RV, not Grand Mesa, someday I'll learn the name.


After leaving the mountain we were in cattle country. And donkey territory.

He's about as afraid of cars as the deer are around here.

Check out the road to even get to this National park.

When I took the pic I didn't even notice the very edge of the canyon walls, doesn't really look like much, huh? Take a walk to the edge:

Holy cow! It was way more than we were expecting, it's freakin' deep. As it turns out, this canyon is the deepest, sheerest canyon in North America, with the water in the Black Canyon falling more than ten times faster than the Grand Canyon.


Rock that makes up the canyon walls: They appear black because the walls are so close together, and so deep, casting lots of shade, darkening the appearance. At least that's my uneducated guess. :)

Blue haired Jonas leaning over the railing.

Trying to see the bottom.

Jake asked if he could pee over the canyon, I said "sure".
Shocked, "Really?"

Click. No, but thanks for the photo.

It took us almost four hours to get there, and we only got to the North Rim. We had planned on driving around the entire park and viewing both rims but that would have taken another three or four hours. The cave with fish with no eyes, would have taken an hour and a half....max. I'm so glad we came though, and hope to see it again from the south and also check out the visitor center there, and maybe be there during sunrise or sunset to get better pictures that aren't blinded by the sun. Now we know.

Montrose on Dwellable