Home Sweet Home

Well, we finally made it home late Sunday afternoon. We would like to thank all of our followers for spending 105 days and traveling 11, 492 miles with us. It was great seeing how beautiful our great country is, enjoying interesting sites, and spending time with family and friends.

We hope all of you had an enjoyable summer as we did.

It's time to start planning next summer's trip.

Judy & Mike

Monument Valley, UT

Monument Valley is located in the heart of the Navajo Nation. They have lived in this region for generations. The Monument Valley Visitor Center is perched on the entrance to the Tribal Park. This area has been and is currently used for movie locations. John Wayne’s Cabin, which is an original set from the classic film, “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” is located here. Film director, John Ford, used this valley as a location for many western movies between 1939 and 1960.

We spent four hours driving on a dry, dirt road that had deep holes and ruts winding through stone monoliths with many other tourists doing the same thing. The valley is pretty flat and some tribe members still live and farm among the skyscraper-size sandstone buttes and towers that soar from the plain of sage-brush scrublands.

It was a perfect day with some clouds in the sky, sun shining, and the temperature got to 102° but there was a breeze, so it wasn’t uncomfortable.

The sites are amazing even though we had to drive on the 17-mile dirt loop (very rough) road from the visitor’s center past the starkly eroded buttes and sculpted spires.

They name a few of these formations, some being obvious and others not! To us it seemed like whoever named SOME of these rocks must have been smoking ‘something’ OR drinking pretty heavily.

This is another one of those ‘must-see’ places!

Black Canyon of the Gunnison, CO

Today we drove to see the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The canyon is a crack in the Colorado Plateau half a mile deep yet very narrow, just 40 feet across at one point called the “Narrows” with the raging Gunnison River as its floor.

The entire canyon stretches for 48 miles, but it’s the 14-mile section from Gunnison to Montrose that was elevated to national park status in 1999. The park is one of the smallest national parks, comprising only 30,385 acres.

We drove the 7-mile South Rim Drive and took all but one of the many short, easy trails which took us through pine, juniper and oak to see the other rim and beautiful rock formations. At each overlook there was a sign describing the geology which WE didn’t need because the geologist in Mike came out!

One of the many natural beauties we viewed is the Painted Wall which is 2,250’, making it the tallest vertical wall in the state, where dark expanses of gneiss and shist plunge headlong to the river’s edge. There were many places to view the unique geologic formations and panoramas of surrounding mountains. The sky was blue with white clouds.

We then drove down to the bottom of the canyon. The road is at a 16 percent grade. It, too, was a pretty ride, ending down at the river where we saw two fly fishermen. The weather had been perfect throughout the entire day with a cool breeze and temperature in the 70s except down at the bottom where it was 81°. We enjoyed a picnic lunch at one of the stops, which we haven’t done in a long time. Since we've been in these high Rocky Mountain elevations we have had to break out the comforter and electric heater before bedtime since it drops down to the 40s.

Rocky Mountain National Park - Estes Park, CO

For the last several days we made Estes Park our home base so we could enjoy the beauty of Rocky Mountain National Park. Estes Park is a lovely tourist trap city just 3 miles outside the park. We had dinner at Smokin Dave’s BBQ & Taphouse. Now we can say we ‘got sauced at 7,522 feet!’ That’s their slogan!!! After dinner we drove to the tourist area where shops line both sides of the street for blocks and blocks. At night the temperature dropped to 47° and was a delightful 72° during the day. Off with the shorts and on with the long pants.



After breakfast we left to tour the park, called “the top of the world”. We took Old Fall River Road, which is a one-way narrow gravel road to the top. It was the original road and the scenery was gorgeous!
At the top (11,796’) it was 47°, the wind was blowing and it started to rain pretty hard.

We then took Trail Ridge Road which is 48 miles, paved and two way to Kawuneeche Visitor’s Center at the southwest corner of the park. This is the highest major highway in North America beyond the visitor’s center at 12,183’ above sea level. We noticed that it took a little extra effort to breath at this altitude. The scenery here was also beautiful.

We saw a herd of elk, moose, one deer, pretty wildflowers, and several different birds. We also crossed the continental divide, saw glacial lakes, snow, valleys, meadows, streams, dense forest and rugged peaks galore. It was amazing!
Nearly one-third of the park is above treeline – 11,400 feet of elevation in the park – the limit above which conditions are too harsh for trees to grow.

One day we drove to Glacier Gorge Trailhead, put on our hiking boots, and then hiked to Alberta falls. It was a beautiful walk through the woods, seeing rocks, the streams from the falls and enjoying the wonderful smells.

Monument Rocks, Oakley, KS

On the way to see Monument Rocks, we passed a large bronze casting of Buffalo Bill hunting a buffalo.



Almost 100 million years ago Kansas was part of a vast inland sea. Tiny algae lost pieces of their protective calcium coating which fell down to the sea floor. This eventually produced a soft chalk layer of sedimentary rock that is several hundred feet thick. Glaciers, rains, and river flow sculptured the land and carved this chalk into spires and other dramatic formations. The Monument Rocks are erosional remnants. They served as a landmark for early explorers, stretching out in two rows that are seventy feet high.

The things a wife goes to see when her husband is a geologist ! ! !

Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum, Abilene, KS

We visited the Eisenhower Center which tells the story of our 34th president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who governed from 1953-1961. These years were during the first phase of the Cold War and the space race.

Ike’s boyhood home is decorated just as it was in 1946

Below are several pictures that were taken in the museum.

There was a military gallery with documents, photos and objects in this exhibit interpreting the role of Eisenhower as Supreme Commander and of the men and women who served during World War II.

The grounds are beautifully kept.

The Place of Meditation is the final resting place of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Mamie Eisenhower and their first-born son, Doud Dwight Eisenhower who died at age four.

After spending 2 1/2 hours at the Eisenhower Center we went to the Russell Stover candy factory. They do not offer tours so we had to be content sampling several of their wares.