Spent the night in Utah in a cave up in the hills

… cave, back of a pickup truck, same diff.
This is actually October 27.  I'm sitting in a campground at Canyonlands in Utah typing this, not sure when I'll be able to post it.
Today I got to see the things I'd been looking forward to.
The drive west from Pagosa Springs is beautiful - I'm sure the drive there was nice too, but I have to do some of the route in the dark, oh well.

I headed west to Durango, and stopped and looked around there.  It's pretty touristed out, most of Historic Old Town seems to be T-Shirt stores, coffee shops and art galleries. The architecture is pretty though.

Got an oil change, and headed out.
Next stop was Mesa Verde - a cliff dweller site in the midst of some spectacular scenery.  I had been noticing that I was approaching the boundary where alpine mountains give way to more eroded mesas, and this was actually in the first major mesa formation. 

I took the museum tour - originally a CCC project, so it has that classic architecture and design.  I enjoyed the exhibit mentioning that the Native Americans who lived there had domesticated dogs and turkeys, and that the dogs were probably pets for the children...
The cliff houses are in amazingly good shape - the ranger / guide said they'd only rebuilt a small portion - it's well over 90% intact.

I climbed down in one of the kivas - not a lot of room, or light down there.

I wasn't sure where to go from there - how far into the surrounding states to go, where the interesting scenery, sites, and food would be.  Since Dove Creek, the pinto bean capital of the world, wasn't too far,  I decided to head that way, and continuer northwest, into Utah.
With 10 pounds of pintos and some Anasazi beans, which the lady assures me will be delicious, I headed into Canyonlands National Park.
Since the Green river canyons are so deep, the park is actually split in three sections, none directly accessible from the others.  I went into the Needles section, since it was closest, and I haven't been to this part.
I stopped at Newspaper Rock - a section of petroglyphs.  There's no way to date the writing on the rock, so they have no idea how long it's been there, or who did it.  They also don't know what significance it has - whether it was religious, historical, or graffiti.

I continued on to the Needles area.  It's an area of sandstone formations.

I took pictures right up until sunset - nice to be staying in the midst of the scenery.

I was hoping to camp on previous nights, but the lows were around 10 degrees, which seemed excessive.  Tonight it's only supposed to dip to the upper 20s, which should be comfortable, although my fingers are getting cold now, I won't be typing much more.
I'm in a campground surrounded by beautiful rock formations.  It's absolutely quiet, now that my neighbor has stopped running his generator.  Let's hope he's done with that for the night.  The stars are starting to come out.  There is a slight haze, but that shouldn't obscure the sky too much - this morning it was amazing.
So, it's time for my dinner of salami, BlueMont cheddar, and an apple for dessert…  Don't worry, I had a great big green chili enchilada for lunch.

And now things start to get interesting.

One of my favorite things on a trip is to wake up in a new landscape.
The last views before dark yesterday were still farmland, prairie, looking much the same as Iowa and some of Wisconsin.
I drove 150 or so miles further SE in the dark before stopping, and today I woke up to the Plains - open treeless vistas, achingly blue cloudless sky, everything in shades of tan.  Beautiful, in its austere way, but hard to catch in a photograph.
Better to look closer then:

A truck graveyard in SE Colorado:

I'll probably add more later, I'm itching to get back on the road.  I'm in Pagosa Springs, CO now, heading west to Durango and the Four Corners.

(Later)

Kansas grain:

It took most of the day, but I could see mountains before dark.

Freeway Day

Slow start, long boring drive, the usual start to a road trip.
Freeways are great for covering long distances quickly, but as soon as you're anywhere, it's better to get off onto back roads.
On the two-lanes, you're not insulated from your surroundings.  You can stop pretty much anywhere you see something interesting.  There are restaurants, motels and stores that aren't the same ones you see at every other freeway exit.
Anyway, an easy drive except for strong winds, down to I-80 and west through half on Nebraska.
Around dusk, I got off the interstate and angled south.  I'll be cutting through a bit of Kansas and then the grasslands of SE Colorado tomorrow.

And away we go...

Welcome to my blog / travel log / another place to stick photos / whatever.
I go on road trips regularly, to see the country, take pictures, explore the local cuisine, clear my head - basically I get itchy feet now and then.
I usually keep a handwritten trip journal.  This time I'm experimenting with doing it online.
I'll post pictures and share my thoughts where they're available and accessible.
On the other hand, most of my destinations are internet free, so I'm not sure how timely the posts will be.

So this trip I'm aiming for the Four Corners area - I've never been there, and I gather the scenery there resembles the background in Roadrunner cartoons.
Plus it's the setting of The Monkey Wrench Gang - this will be a perfect opportunity to reread it after 20 plus years.

I plan to jump off the interstate in central Nebraska and angle through Kansas to southern Colorado. My exact route will be determined by weather, scenery, recommendations, how I feel that day... it's not a planned sort of adventure.
If anyone has suggestions of sights to see, places to eat, things to do - I'd love to hear them.


The return trip will go through New Mexico - one of my favorite places.  Not sure of the route there either, but it will probably involve green chile, Georgia O'Keefe, Route 66, native weavers... maybe I could start today!


It's Sunday morning now, I'm packing and trying to get work stuff covered.
I'm hoping to hit the road first thing tomorrow AM, and be in Kansas tomorrow night.

Books, music, maps, coffee makings, long johns, oil change, corkscrew, chargers, telephoto... back to work!