Travel with Sue and Ted

Author: Ted Larson

Zion National Park and The Narrows

It’s no secret that we are big fans of our national parks, and coming close behind our most favorite park, Yosemite, is Zion National Park in Utah. So, it was like coming home to visit Zion again and we are so grateful for the opportunity to spend five days in this wonder-filled part of the world.

A highlight of our time at Zion was our hike through ‘The Narrows,’ which is a ten mile hike in the Virgin River.

For millions of years, the Virgin River has been cutting a gorge through the red rock of Zion, going deep through some cracks without widening out. The results is a an impressive canyon that is as narrow as twenty feet wide and hundreds of feet tall between hard rock walls. Water marks, high above our heads, show where the canyon floor used to be, before it was swept away out to the desert.

We began the hike at 8 am and had many parts of the canyon all to ourselves throughout the hike which was truly magical. The water and canyon are fairly cold this time of year, so we rented dry boots and dry pants, along with an ever-so-necessary sturdy walking stick. It begins with one mile of paved trail and is followed by four-miles of hiking in the river, on polished cobblestones, through an awesome display of nature. The goal is to get to the “wall street” where the river is only 20′ wide with no shore and golden rock walls, where you cannot see the top.

The colors, the wind, the changing light, the energy, majesty, and life in the river — the water sometimes coming up near our waists — and the camaraderie among those traversing the trail was extraordinary and something that we will never forget. This is a highly recommended experience to one and all!

Click here to view additional photos of our hike through The Narrows.

Edited with BlogPad Pro

October 18, 2016
Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

We arrived at Mesa Verde National Park, on Saturday evening, after an easy four hour drive, and camped only 1/2 mile away from it.

This is a park that we haven’t ever seen before, and wow, we thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity! From the visitor center, it is a one-hour drive, and up several thousand feet, to the cliff dwellings. The pic above shows the lower mesa which represents only half of the altitude gain required. It’s another 10 miles beyond the top of that one to get to the cliff dwellings. We left early to have a picnic lunch on the way to our 2:00 pm ranger guided tour of the Balcony House.

Balcony House is one of 600 cliff-side dwellings within Mesa Verde, which has over 12,000 artifacts left behind by the Pueblo people who lived here between 1100 -1400 A.D. The ruins were rediscovered in 1880 and the Mesa Verde National Park was created in 1906.

To see the Balcony House required a half-mile walk down a steep path, descending down several flights of steel stairs, then down a long pathway to a spot below the cliff dwelling. We then climbed up a 35 foot wooden ladder to get to the first room. It is quite spacious and fifty of us on the tour easily fit on the ledge.

We walked through a narrow crack in the interior of the cliff to get over to the second room which had two round kivas and multiple residences.

We continue to be so impressed by the resourcefulness, ingenuity, and tenacity of the ancestral Pueblo people. In the midst of harsh surroundings, and very little access to water, they created a thriving community including many cliff dwellings that were wedged into slight openings. Their ability to wisely use what they had is a lesson for us all.

At the end of the hike through Balcony House, the only way out, was the way the Pueblo people used to get in… through a very small crawl space that required us to get on our hands and knees and twist our body sideways to fit though the 15″ wide and almost 3′ high tunnel opening.

Then it was up two tall wooden ladders, securely bolted to the cliff face and ascending up steep stairs cut into the mountain in order to get back to the parking lot.

This 75 minute tour was fun, exhilarating, and fascinating. We’ve created a page for you to enjoy our tour, so click here to see photos from the Balcony House tour.

Next up on the Ted and Sue’s excellent adventures hit parade: Zion National Park and the north rim of the Grand Canyon!

October 16, 2016
Canyon de Chelly

Inspired largely by an iconic photograph of native Americans on horseback in the canyon taken in the late 1880s by Edward Curtis, we ventured to this epicenter of Navajo culture and history. Canyon de Chelly is amazing! Located in the heart of the Navajo Nation in north-eastern Arizona, the canyon is almost 50 miles long and only ten miles of it is open to the public while the rest is only accessible by Navajos. To begin to get acquainted with this sacred space, we drove along the south rim on our first evening and took a picture at sunset at one of the six turnouts along the south rim drive. It’s about a 700′ drop only ten feet behind us!

During this drive, at the first turnout, we meet Mary. She appeared to be in her 70s and has 11 children (eight daughters and three sons), 27 grand-children, and three great-grandchildren. Her small home — which she described as a “two room shanty with electricity but no water” — is at the top of the canyon, and as we marveled at the canyon, she proudly stated: “This is my front yard!”

The next day we took a jeep ride for three hours into the north canyon with Daniel, a Navajo guide. He grew up in the canyon and knows every inch of it. Many of his cousins, brothers, and even his grandfather, drive tourists into the canyon, as one of his part-time jobs. Along with his knowledge of Navajo culture and history, Daniel has an eye for photography and took us to some great spots for Sue to work on her landscape photography skills. (See below for a photo link to a page of Sue’s photos at Canyon de Chelly.)

Daniel also told us that the National Park made a video of his family, specifically his daughters telling the story of the Navajo tradition in the canyon. We encourage you to take 14 minutes to watch this wonderful video!

http://www.pbs.org/video/2365731822/

We camped in the Cottonwood Campground near the Canyon de Chelly Visitor Center, and experienced our first ‘dry camping’ site of our trip… meaning no water and no electricity hookups. There was also no AT&T cellular data nor WiFi available in the campground, so it was a really relaxing and enjoyable respite for these Silicon Valley types that love email and FB!

Click here to see an additional page of Sue’s photography at Canyon de Chelly.

… Thanks for following our blog!

Ted and Sue

October 15, 2016
Petroglyph National Monument

We hiked a few miles of trails at the Petroglyph National Monument on Wednesday and enjoyed finding dozens of real petroglyphs (like this one pictured above). The hike through New Mexico open space land was just as good. A fun day.

We stayed at an RV park just west of Albuquerque, on top of a hill, and got a great view of the city. It is so big! It’s like Phoenix, but without all the small different cities… it’s all one big city that goes for miles and miles in every direction… like the Bay Area but one city with much more land but fewer people. Literally, we drove for 25 minutes at 55 mph in one direction and couldn’t leave the city!

Lunch on Thursday was at El Patron where we had a spicy and very good lunch. Ted especially liked the Enchilada Casserole.

On Thursday we travel to Canyon de Chelly for an unplugged stay in the campground, so we’ll be off-line until Friday.

October 12, 2016
Exploring Rio Grande N.M. Cities

We visited the countryside of the Rio Grande River in New Mexico these past few days, and specifically enjoyed exploring Santa Fe and Taos on October 9-10.

On Sunday, our stroll around the main square in the old town area of Santa Fe was enchanting. We thoroughly enjoyed dining at one of the best restaurants of our trip, Cafe Pasqual’s, which is located one block away from old town. It was a 45 minute wait, but well worth it as Sue’s chile relleno and Ted’s cheese omelette, were really, really good.

We visited a couple of churches in town, including being able to peak-in on a mass in progress at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and lingered to hear an amazing choir singing very modern choral music. Ted enjoyed the complexity of notes in the chords and the beauty of the voices.

The Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe had a “miracle” wooden spiral staircase which was created without nails. The railing was added decades later.

We finished the day with a one-hour drive north to Bandelier National Monument to see the cliff dwellings from the 1400’s. Visitors are shuttled by bus from the visitor’s center in town down into the canyon.

After a briefing by a ranger, we enjoyed a 90-minute hike to a dozen sites of interest on the one-mile trail. Here’s a pic of our second staircase of the day, leading to a pueblo room used over 500 years ago!

Monday was a day set aside to drive 75 minutes north to the charming city of Taos. It was very different than our previous image of it. Instead of existing in a narrow valley near the Rio Grande River (we thought that it might resemble Sedona in Arizona), the town was located in a hugely-wide valley, and seven miles from the Rio Grande!

The three things we enjoyed most about Taos include:

1) Restaurant La Cueva is a hole-in-the-wall joint that had some of the most delicious Mexican food we’ve ever tasted.

2) The Rio Grande Gorge is very impressive as it is so deep and narrow. To build a bridge over it was cool, but God’s gorge was the amazing thing!

3) The oldest church in Taos, San Francisco de Asis Church, built in 1813, used traditional adobe materials. It is simple, yet gorgeous inside. We so enjoyed talking to a church member who was cleaning the alter area, and learning more about her life, her faith, and her church. We finished the day driving some of the Enchanted Circle Highway near Taos, as well as the picturesque “low” road back to Santa Fe.

It was a fine weekend in the countryside of the Rio Grande river, and one that we will long remember.

October 11, 2016