Tour de Smith

July 13, 2019

I will never tire of Montana. After all these years there is something so engrained in my being that the draw to return is impossible to ignore. Woodbine and Woodbine Falls are my God places.

The pig races have become a tradition. Go figure.

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I was lucky enough to win the lottery for concert tickets at Tippet Rise. This time enjoyed an ensemble under the art installation called the Domo.

The Anaconda Smelter Stack is the tallest surviving masonry structure in the world with an overall height of about 585′. It is a brick smoke stack or chimney, built in 1918 as part of the Washoe Smelter of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company at Anaconda, Montana.

Missoula, MT

“If you will give it a home, and promise no one will ever take it apart, I will build a Carousel for Missoula.”  That was the promise Missoula cabinet-maker Chuck Kaparich made to the Missoula City Council in 1991.  Kaparich, who had spent many childhood hours on carousels purchased an antique frame in thousands of pieces.

A board of directors was formed to facilitate organization and fund raising. Kaparich taught others to carve, painters were recruited and Missoula began the process of restoring 16,066 pieces of the antique frame and motor to create this treasure.

Smokejumpers Museum

Smokejumping was developed as a means of quickly reaching, parachuting to, and attacking fires in remote roadless areas. The primary mission of smokejumpers is firefighting. We spent hours touring the museum and interacting with the actual smokejumpers in their daily routines. I am in awe of their bravery and strength.

Garden of 1,000 Buddha’s

In a tranquil pasture in the beautiful Jocko Valley of Montana, stands a Buddha garden dedicated to peace, a childhood vision of Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche.

As a child, Rinpoche envisioned 1,000 Buddhas and 1,000 stupas lining the walls of a dharmachakra, an eight-spoked wheel representing the noble eightfold path, one of the original teachings of the Buddha Shakyamuni.

Flathead Lake – Kalispel, MT

Carefully approaching the Canadian border we made sure to get rid of food and alcohol so not to have issues with our crossing. At Roosville Montana handed over our passports only to be told that Arnie’s had expired. WTF!!

He let us in WHEW!

Alberta, Canada

Kootenay National Park, British Columbia

Lake Louise

Banff

Emerald Lake

Yoho National Park

8-18 Between Anaconda and Phillipsburg -Georgetown Lake – Lodgepole Campground $7.50

8-19 Kalispel – Greenwood Village RV Park $42.

8-20 Rexford Bench Campground-Eureka MT $6

Heid Out for lunch in Cranbrook- Canada

8-21 McLeod Meadows Campground Canada $21.50 Canadian currency

Maple leaf brunch in Banff

Park Distillery dinner

8-22 Wapiti campground – Canmore CA $37 Canadian currency

Lunch in Field

8-23 Hoodoo Trail campground – outside Field $16.50 Canadian currency

Brunch in Golden at Whitetooth Bistro

8-25 Wasa provincial park – Wasa lake $30 Canadian currency

July 16, 2019

There are no words to describe the love you hold for a sister. Our visit with Lolly and her family was a reminder that no matter the circumstance a sister will always be a joy to the heart and love without end.

Our many hikes

My Bug

July 20

Stopped in the little town of Glenwood Springs for lunch. Want to come back and explore more of this town – really cute and the food was great!

Dinosaur National Monument

This was the coolest place and I had no idea it existed. Fossilized bones of crocodiles, turtles and 10 species of dinosaurs have been brought to view by excavating river sediment in the 150 million year old Morrison Formation. This Monument houses the only place in the world where you can view and even touch more than 1,500 partially exposed dinosaur bones.

Earl Douglas, paleontologist, opened this capsule in 1909 which lead to the discovery of 10 different species of dinosaurs. Many of the finest museums around the country display skeletons excavated from here.

Zoom in to see bones

Verbal Brewing Co, Vernal, Utah for lunch – nice!

Flaming Gorge Dam in northern Utah

Fun fact for you anglers: A record 48″ lake trout caught in May by Matt Smiley out of Flaming Gorge.

BLM -0-

A day in Jackson Hole, Wy

Riverside Campground in Island Park Idaho – $7.50

Made it to Kitsy and Van’s

June 17, 2019

As we left Antonito we passed San Isidro Catholic Church which was built in 1878 and burned down in the 1970’s. The church can not afford to rebuild yet services continue on a somewhat regular basis. Recently a young woman married here in honor of her grandmother who not only was married in this church but alive to watch her granddaughter retrace the steps she took so long ago.

Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO

These huge dunes are North America’s tallest. Eroded from mountain, then shattered by freezing and thawing, and tumbled by streams and winds, sand grains cycle through the dunes.

And then you turn around

Crossing over Seasonal Medano, the dunes system’s lifeblood.

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It’s massive and thought to contain over 5 billion cubic meters of sand. Summer temps in the sand can reach 150 degrees.

Turkey Rock BLM $0

Cañon City, CO

The Royal Gorge Bridge, an amusement park and tourist attraction, was built in 1929 in only 7 months, spans 1,260′ and is 1,053′ above the Arkansas River making it the highest suspension bridge in the US.

A look from the tram

Seriously

June 19

Flew to Texas from Denver to make our rounds with kids and grandkids. We are proud grandparents!

Bennett 6

Brooklyn 5, Greyson 2

Tucker 3

Flew back to Denver and drove to Castle Rock to visit grade school best friend. Hadn’t seen Nedra in 30 years and within 5 minutes picked up where we left off. Such a fun time with them. Thank you Nedra and Les!

June 7, 2017

Canyon of the Ancients National Monument

Time to slow down so spent 4 nights in the McPhee Reservoir around Delores and Cortez, CO. What a beautiful place. We love the not so populated areas for a variety of reasons; one being the sense of excitement when you discover, without a marked sign, a ruin or petroglyph. We got up early, grabbed water and binoculars and took off on a trail. From a distance the lure of ruins drew us further in.

I love these collard lizards

McPhee Campground 3@$20 – 1@$12

There are many beautiful people on this planet and it is a treat when two cross your path. Thank you Ellen and Bill for embracing us, for spending the afternoon at Sutcliffe Winery with us and for opening your home to us. You both will be forever a bright spot in our travels.

Sutcliffe Winery, a place I want to have a family reunion.

Honestly Arnie and I loved the Cortez/Dolores area. We hated leaving but headed up scenic route 145 through the San Juan National Forest. Ellen and Bill suggested we park in Mountain Village and take the gondolas to Telluride. It was a perfect way to explore Telluride.

Boulders really do fall from the mountains. Yikes!!!

Heading into Mountain Village

Dropping into Telluride

A walk along the rivers edge

Look familiar?

Hint 😜

I love the shades of green.

BLM outside of Ouray $-0-

Spent the morning in Silverton

Afternoon in Durango regrouping (pic is on our way to Durango)

And on to Pagosa Springs

East Fork Campground- $11

Spent the day around Pagosa Springs looking for property

Heron Lake Campground 2@ $14

June 15, 2019

Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad

Few deliver on promise quite like the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad — a 64-mile, narrow-gauge route across the rugged San Juan Mountains of New Mexico and Colorado that has gone nearly unchanged since the last freight train rumbled over Cumbres Pass 50 years ago. 

The tracks between Chama, NM and Antonito, CO were about to be ripped up when historians and railroad enthusiasts began looking at ways to save the line. Their efforts to convince the states that they were worthy of saving paid off. Officials saw the potential for turning the railroad, which traversed some of the region’s most spectacular scenery, into a tourist attraction. In 1970, Colorado and New Mexico came together to purchase the 64-mile section between Chama and Antonito for $541,120. 

The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad first put down rails in 1870, under the command of Brig. Gen. William Palmer, a Union officer brevetted during the Civil War. Looking to save money, Palmer decided to build a narrow-gauge railroad with rails just 3 feet apart, as opposed to a standard-gauge railroad with rails built 4 feet, 8½ inches apart. The railroad reached Chama in 1880. Soon after, it was busy moving people, livestock and minerals to eastern markets.

Although narrow-gauge railroads were cheaper to build, there was a major downside to a 3-foot-gauge railroad: It was incompatible with most other railroads. Whenever a Denver & Rio Grande Western train reached the junction with another railroad, the freight had to be unloaded from the narrow-gauge cars and reloaded onto standard-gauge cars for the rest of its journey. By 1890, Palmer began widening parts of his railroad. However, the route through the San Juan Mountains kept its narrow track because the railroad’s executives did not see much potential for the line.

The train stops at Osier so passengers can disembark for lunch at a nearby mess hall and the locomotive takes on water. After the train pulls out of town and you’re looking out the window, you’re seeing the country as it was a century ago.”

This was a spectacular ride winding a dozen times in and out of New Mexico and Colorado through long forgotten towns and scenery untouched by man.

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This is where we’re headed

A view from up there

Open car

Snack car

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A stop in Osier for lunch

Reminders of towns that once were.

Chama RV Park – $32

June 5, 2019

Arches National Park lies atop an underground salt bed that is responsible for the arches, balanced rocks, sandstone fins and more. Thousands of feet thick in places, this salt bed was deposited across the Colorado Plateau 300 million years ago when a sea flowed into the region and then evaporated. Over millions of years residue from floods, winds, and the oceans that came and went blanketed the salt bed. The debris was compressed as rock, possibly a mile thick. Salt under pressure is unstable, and the salt bed lying below Arches was no match for the weight of this thick cover of rock. The salt layer shifted, buckled, liquified and repositioned itself, thrusting the rock layers upward as domes, and whole sections fell into the cavities. Faults deep in the earth made the surface even more unstable. Over time water seeped into cracks and folds. Ice formed in the fissures, expanding the rock, breaking off bits and pieces. Wind later cleaned out the loose particulate, leaving a series of freestanding fins.

I got these shots at sunset thus the beautiful color. Fins

Wind and water then attacked these fins until the cementing material in some gave way and chunks of rock tumbled out. These became the famous arches. Over 2,000 have been catalogued in the Park.

North Window

South Window

Turret Arch

But my favorite and scariest (I’m afraid of heights) was Delicate Arch. We got up at 6am to beat the heat and people. It was perfect!

If you scroll way in on the next picture you can see the parking lot

Petroglyphs

Three Gossips

Balanced Rock

We spent several days in Moab traveling to and from Arches. I have to say that this experience was one of my favorites – an absolutely beautiful park.

After doing the hike to Delicate Arch we took a drive to Dead Horse Point State Park to take in the views of the canyon.

We totally enjoyed Moab, dining, shopping and the people.

2 @ $39 Moab Rim RV Park – hot as all get out- we needed electricity to run A/C

Places we dined: Moab Diner, Moab Brewery, Moab Garage Co., Zax’s

June 1, 2019

Just north of Cedar City lies the Parowan Gap

The first settlers known as Wee Noonse (people who lived long ago) traveled frequently through the gap. Some stopped for a period of time and left writings on the wall.

The petroglyphs here are thought to be the work of several cultural groups and represent a long period of use by Native cultures. This area is a sacred site to the Paiute and Hopi.

Minersville State Park $15

Fishlake National Forest

Castle Rock Campground

A nice hike in Castle Rock

After clearing out brush found evidence of the original ranger station. I love that the state is spending the money to clear and preserve these ruins.

Original foundation

They uncovered their cold storage

Inside

Adding art to the site

$15

Fremont Indian State Park

In the 1980’s construction on the I-70 came to a screeching halt when an Indian village site was unearthed at the Village of Five Finger Ridge. Archeologists believe the first pit houses discovered date back to 1100 to 1150 AD. Thousands of artifacts excavated are on permanent display at the museum. We left the above campground and spent the morning in the museum and hiking the many paths to petroglyphs and ceremonial rings.

Zoom in on any rock wall to find petroglyphs

Passed a field of these “Belted Galloway”

Capital Reef National Park

Of all the places in Utah for Mormons to create a settlement Fruita might be the most difficult. With desert on one side and river often subject to flooding on the other it is not surprising that it was home to only 8 or 10 families. Early settlers planted thousands of fruit trees and today 22 orchards are maintained. They bake some of the greatest fruit pies here which are sold in the campground.

I knew that cottonwood could get large but

Took a nice hike from here up to the Hickman Bridge

Some of the earliest attempts to homestead in Capital reef was the Behunin Family. This modest one room home was abandoned one year later in search of a more suitable location. Frequent flooding washed out their irrigation system and crops.

Desert Moon RV Park $40

Goblin Valley State Park

In the late 20’s in search of a better route between Green River and Cainville, Arthur Chaffin found Goblin Valley. From deposits laid 170 million years ago by a vast inland sea Goblin Valley was sculpted by forces of nature such as uplift and erosion by wind and water. Today we witness the stone gnomes that inhabit the valley.

Hiking among the hoo doos

Desert Moon RV Park $40

May 26, 2019 – Phoenix

Spent the day at the Desert Botanical Garden.

Dale Chihuly installation

Organ Pipe Cactus

I was so taken by the Saguaro Cactus. (suh·waa·row). Saw miles and miles of them driving down to Phoenix.

Artichoke

Had lunch with my ole pal Michael and his wife Vera. It had been years – can’t let that happen again.

BLM -0-

Off to Vegas. Arnie has wanted to play in The World Series of Poker for years. Check it off the bucket list ? No, he says because I didn’t finish in the money.🥺

Had a great dinner at one of our favorites.

2 nights at the Rio – he won’t tell me the cost

Valley of Fire State Park – Overton, NV

The oldest and largest State Park in Nevada.

sidenote: The outside Mars scenes from Total Recall, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, were almost totally shot from Valley of Fire.

Cracker Barrel – St. George, Utah -0-

May 20, 2019

El Malpais (el-mal-pie-EES)

A short jaunt to this natural arch

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May 21, 2019

Jackson Brown started writing this song for his first album but struggled finishing it. At the time he was living in an apt in LA and his upstairs neighbor (Glenn Frey) heard him playing Take it Easy and told Browne he thought it was great. Browne told him he was having trouble so Frey worked on it and gave him the lyrics “it’s a girl, my lord, in a flatbed ford, slowing down to take a look at me. Browned turned the song over to Frey, who finished and recorded it with The Eagles, as their first song on their first album.

Meteor Crater – 18 miles west of Winslow and visible on google maps.

50,000 years ago at a speed of 26,000 mph an iron-nickel meteorite estimated to have been 150′ across and weighing several hundred thousand tons, struck with explosive force greater than 20 million tons of TNT. In seconds, a crater 700′ deep and over 4000′ across was carved into this once-flat rocky plain.

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This Meteor Crater is the first proven and best preserved impact site on earth. The Apollo Astronauts trained here for the moon landing and continue to train here today. This Crater plays a dominant role in our understanding of planets, asteroids and comets.

Cool story.

Lo-Lo Mai Springs Campground $52

Sedona

A couple nights with buds Don and Gina. Thanks to you both for always being open to explore and play.

Off to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

Fireplace at Hermit’s rest built in 1914.

2 nights at the Mather Campground – $18

Elk everywhere

We were supposed to have spent 2 nights on the north rim but snow sent us south. We retreated to Scotsdale and spent 2 nights at the Talking Stick Resort. AKA casino. $200

May 15, 2019

We are finally back on the road. We spent several days meandering through Texas and New Mexico.

Palo Dura Canyon

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A hike along the canyon floor.

Spent that night at the Bar Z Winery in Canyon, Texas, a surprising little boom town.

Harvest Host -0-

Tex Randall Statue, Amarillo, Tx

A 47′ statue created by Harry Wheeler in 1959 as a roadside phenomenon to welcome travelers to his Corral Curio shop.

Had to stop at the Cadillac Ranch

Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, NM

Blue Hole and the Santa Rosa area system of collapsed sink hole or cenote lakes is a true geological phenomenon. The water that feeds Blue Hole likely comes from the Ogallala Aquifer, and some of Santa Rosa’s sinkholes probably link up hundreds of feet below the ground. At a constant temperature of 61 degrees it is, according to locals, a summer and winter hangout. It pumps out more than 3,000 gallons of water per minute — enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool every three hours.

Blue Hole is the best open-water diving destination in the southwestern United States.

We spent the next night in Wildlife West Nature Park in Edgewood, NM

Harvest Host -0-

May 17, 2019

KASHA-KATUWE TENT ROCKS NATIONAL MONUMENT

The cone-shaped tent rock formations are the product of volcanic eruptions that occurred 6 to 7 million years ago and left pumice, ash and tuff deposits over 1000′ thick. Over time, wind and water cut into these deposits creating canyons and these beautiful rock formations.

We hiked through the slot canyon

and up to the Mesa for views of the Sangre de Cristo, Jemez, Sandia mountains and the Rio Grande Valley

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Cochiti Lake Campgound – $10

Jemez Springs, NM

Enjoying the hot baths

Vista Linda Campground– $5

Julie challenged us to find a hot spring she visited 25 years ago in the Jemez mountains. The path is not clear nor well marked but we were up for the challenge. We set off and later found ourselves questioning where we went wrong. Wandering around in a VERY deserted area found a meth head who steered us in the right direction. His comment was “wow, we don’t see many people up here in the meadow“. Hmm, perhaps we rethink our crazy adventures. The springs are no longer warm but the hike and views will be long remembered.

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Our guide

BLM – Joe Skeen Campground -0-

El Malpais National Monument

October 1, 2018

Keystone, South Dakota

Artist and Sculptor: Gutzon Borglum

Scientists put the lifespan of Rushmore at about 7 million years.

One of the most notable refinements in the carvings was Borglum’s treatment of the eyes. Concave depressions were carved so that the dark shadows gave the impression of depth. The pupils were represented by a shaft of granite 20″ long projecting from the socket with its front surface ground smooth to reflect light.

On Roosevelt, the artist managed the eyeglasses by merely carving a curved ridge under a part of an eye.

We even snuck a picture of the last living carver on Rushmore, Nick Clifford (95 yr old)

Crazy Horse

Sculptor: Korczak Ziolkowski

Chief Henry Standing Bear invited Ziolkowski to the Black Hills to carve Crazy Horse. Ruth his wife followed and together they had 10 children. Construction begun in 1948 and has only a face to show for the decades of blasting and work done so far. This memorial is privately owned and the progress is painfully slow. The Ziolkowski children and grandchildren carry on the project today. We were here 5 years ago and honestly I see little if any progress.

This is what it will look like if ever completed.

If you were to stack all the heads of Mount Rushmore on top of one another the tower of presidential noggins still wouldn’t reach half the height of Crazy Horse. The horse head alone could easily fit two of Lincoln’s inside of it. Scientists put Rushmore’s life expectancy at 7 million years.

We spent the morning driving beautiful country through the Spearfish Canyon Byway and Custer National Forest.

Spent the evening in Rapid City which turned out to be a really fun night exploring alleyways, restaurants and bars.

Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota

We found the Blackhills to be absolutely gorgeous.