Santa Fe - New App

I have a new App to help me post our blog.  I thought I should give it a try.

We decided to spend the day in Santa Fe via the - 

Tent Rock National Monument

With the warm weather, we thought we would spend the day at Tent Rocks National Monument.  It was a very popular outing.  People probably showed up in droves because it was a beautiful weather day and the entrance fee was waived due to Veterans Day.

The cone-shaped tent rock formations are the products of the Jemez volcanic eruptions that occurred 6 to 7 million years ago and left pumice, ash and volcanic tuff deposits over 1,000 feet thick.  Precariously perched on many of the tapering hoodoos are boulder caps that protect the softer pumice and volcanic tuff below.

Click on any photo to see larger version.

Silver City- Day 3 & 4

For day three we drove north to Glenwood,NM along highway 180 and walked along the Cat Walk of Whitewater Canyon.  This little canyon was first developed to bring water from the top of the canyon to a mill in the valley.  Several years years ago a flash flood went down this canyon and wiped out the structures.  They hired a firm from Albuquerque to replace the walk and bridges up the canyon.  The new structures were very nice and sturdy.  After the hike, we had lunch at a lovely picnic ground which was at the start of the trail.  The spot was surrounded with changing fall trees and the river that runs down the canyon.  We also found several  Geocaches on the drive back to Silver City.

Silver City - Day 1 & 2

We arrived in Silver City on Wednesday afternoon at the KOA here.  It's not  very crowded this time of year.  We dvrove into the historic district and had dinner at the Little Toad Creek brewery.  Good food.

Canada Trip Final

We have arrived home after one month on the road.  We ended up driving a total of 5,184 miles - too many miles crammed into not enough days.  We prefer to travel a maximum of about 300 per day and would like to stay at least 3 nights at each stop.  If you move too much it makes the time and enjoyment go by way too fast.

Our next scheduled trip is Labor Day weekend at Clear Creek campground and an unplanned trip at this point in late October.

Below is a link to photos and videos I have placed into one album.  I find it best if you run the slideshow option - click on the three dots at the top of the page and select slideshow option.

Photo Album

Buffalo Wyoming

We are staying three nights in Buffalo after two nights in Butte, Montana.
Day one:  We drove over to Devil's Tower National Monument.  As with all national parks this time of year, there are large crowds.

The tower is a volcanic plug which was pushed up through the crust.  The Kiowa legend is that 7 sisters were being chased by a bear and knew they could not out run him.  The sisters stood on a small rock and asked for help.  The rock began to grow out of the ground and the bear could not reach them at the top.  In an effort to reach the girls his claws made lines from top to bottom.

Buffalo is the home for the author of the books that the Longmire TV series is based on.  Every year the cast comes up to Buffalo and has a three day get together.  They normally get about 15,000 people show up.  I am a big fan of the show but we are leaving Wednesday and the event starts on Thursday.  😕😖😖😖

4th of July hike: we headed to the mountains.  First a day hike in the Bighorn National Forest - destination Shred lake. We were hoping the heat would break in the mountains but it was still in the middle to upper 70's.  Still a very nice hike and a good location.  Then a picnic lunch at nearby lake.

Tomorrow we are off to Cheyenne, Wyoming. We will be there for two nights.  Then an overnight stay in Walsenburg, Colorado for one night before our final drive home. We will have logged in over 5,200 miles.  Whew!!

Canada Day - Banff

After driving down from Jasper to Banff we set up the trailer and went to a presentation by some park employees.  They put on a skit where they were celebrity bison.  They were in full bison costume. It was definitely geared toward the children in the audience.  The presentation was about the reintroduction of bison to this area.  The park service brought in 16 bison this past winter. The bison have had 10 babies born the first spring.  The park service has them in contained a fenced off area for the first year and will let them loose next year.

Canada - Day 12 & 13

Day three:  we first drove to Athabasca Falls, see pictures below.  These glacial falls were very impressive.  The water has an icy blue color to it because as the glacier melts, the water carries sediment with it that has the blue tones.  The canyon that the water carved through is equally as impressive.    I also have video in You Tube- look at me.  Search for puestads.  

Canada trip - Day 10 - 11

Day one: we woke up to find a family of elk grazing around our campground.  They stay in the valley to avoid predators.  Since we had been on the road for 10 days, it was time to do laundry.  We got home to find the entire elk herd grazing around and through our campsite.  We managed to get some cool picutes and video.  We the late afternoon  kicking around the town of Jasper.  Unforturnately, we encountered torrential rain and made a run for the truck.  We were supposed to have dinner out that night to celebrate Gloria’s birthday but just had dinner back at camp.    

Canada Trip - Day 7 - 9

We drove from Dillon, MT to St. Mary’s Campground on the east side of Glacier National Park.  We had plans on staying 3 nights and then driving from St. Mary’s to Jasper, Alberta, Canada.  The Going to the Sun road which travels from the east side to the west side of the park is not yet open due to snow.   So the first day we traveled the first 12 miles up the road to the turn around point.

The weather has not actually been our friend so far this trip and with the winds that we were getting at the campground we decided to shorten our stay by one day and extend the travel time from St. Mary’s to Jasper to two days.  So we drove about 3 hours to just south of Calgary and stayed one night in Okotoks.  

The next day we then drove the 300+ miles from Okotoks to Jasper.  The last 200+ miles were pretty slow with the amazing landscapes and plenty of traffic.  We are now staying at the Whistlers campground and at least the first day’s weather has been great.  A storm is coming in tomorrow, so this will be our first laundry day and we will celebrate Gloria’s birthday with shopping and dinner.

Canada Trip - Day 5 & 6

Day Five: We drove 225 miles from Lava Hot Springs, ID to Dillon, MT.  The weather had calmed down and made the drive much more enjoyable.  It was also nice that we were driving through the farm country of Idaho and Montana so the highway was fairly flat and with the wind still at our backs we got very good gas mileage.  We have stopped at several rest stops along I-15.  They are very clean and provide visitors with information and maps of their state.  They sure beat the rest stops in New Mexico.

Canada trip - Days 3 and 4

Monday, June 12:  We woke up this morning to 25 mph winds and started debating about delaying leaving Moab for one more day or to go forward with heading north.  We went ahead and threw caution to the wind and ventured north. We decided to go a little further than our original destination of Cabela's in Farmington, UT and pushed north to a KOA in Lava Hot Springs, ID.

Note to user - you can click on photos to get a larger image.

Canada trip - Day 1 & 2

Our drive to Moab was nice and easy.  We  checked into our site at Moab KOA and soon realized that they were having power issues as our AC kept kicking out.  The trailer was 88 degrees.  We were not looking forward to a hot night so we talked to the manager and were given a different site where the electricity would be more dependable.  Woke up on day two with the wind blowing 20 mph, so we decided to get lazy and drive around to do some sightseeing.

Memorial Day - Clear Creek Campground

First trip of the year is a 5 night at Clear Creek Campground in Santa Fe National Forest outside of Cuba NM.  We got here every year on Memorial and Labor day weekend.  We usually reserve the group site and share with Gloria's sister.  She has another sister that has a summer home close by and we usually get together.

Palm Springs golf trip

Every January I head to Palm Springs to play golf for about four days before tax season kicks into gear.

We play the Desert Princess course in Cathedral City which has a nice 27 hole layout.  Plenty of water and nice variety.

Have a good friend who lives on the golf course so we stay at his house and is very close to the Pro Shop.

He says that only about 20% of the homes here stay all year - many of them heading home to Canada after it starts heating up.

Waiting for my connecting flight in Las Vegas - enjoying my #13 sandwich from Jersey Mikes and watching the Sunset.

Until next time