Travel with Sue and Ted

Category: Western-US

  • 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.

    mesav-2307This 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.

    mesav-2343To 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.

    mesav-2395We 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.

    mesav-t5At 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!

  • 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!

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    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!”

    cdc-jeep-4745The 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/

     

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    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

  • Petroglyph National Monument

    petroglyphWe 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.

  • 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.

    rg-staircase-1769We 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.  Bandelier-1855

    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!

    Rio Grande Gorge-1919The 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!

    rg-taos-church-18893) 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.

  • At Santa Fe, and Up into the Air

    Through September, we visited nine states, and entered New Mexico on Friday, making camp in Santa Fe, N.M. for four nights. This city is 1,000 feet higher than Denver and we love the clean, dry, air!

    Union Fort National MonumentOn the way we saw a sign for Union Fort National Monument and decided to take a peak.  We had no idea about it’s history, and oh my, what a treat!  This was the largest fort in the late 1800s, with thousands of occupants, and it served as a supply hub for all other forts in the west.  Prior to that it even participated in one key battle against the Confederate Army during the Civil War, stopping them from trying to win the west and gain all its gold.

    The Shed in Santa FeFriday night we visited “The Shed“, restaurant in old town Santa Fe, and enjoyed the enchiladas very much, and it is now on Sue’s “best of” list.  Native Americans sold jewelry and items on the sidewalks all around the old town square until 5:00 pm, prior to our dinner.

    On Saturday morning, we got up at 4:30 to drive an hour to see the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (the world’s premier balloon event).  At 5:45, we arrived seven-tenths of a mile from the freeway exit to find a long line of cars backed up in the right-most lane.  We took our place – it took us a full hour to go the last two-miles!  But we walked onto the field at 7 am to find tens of thousands of people all waiting for the yellow flag (windy conditions) to change to green, which allowed balloon owners fire up the propane and lift their balloons into the air.

    International Balloon FiestaWe enjoyed walking all around the balloons laid-out flat on the ground, awaiting air. Bill, from Phoenix, was particularly fun to talk to, and he informed us of the basics of hot air balloons, how the festivals work, what they provide to the balloonists (room, propane, and a gift card to pay for gas to get here) and how much a modest new balloon might cost to get started ($45k).

    At 8:30 they began their ascent!   Please enjoy these additional pictures Sue took on our dedicated page for the Albuquerque International Balloon Festival (click here).