Greetings from Moab, Utah

The road trip is finally finding a groove. With the early calamities behind us, we’ve successfully reached the west and all of the splendors it has to offer. And we’re ahead of schedule. Right now I’m sitting in my hammock at an RV park in Moab, Utah watching the sun set over the red rock mountains.  Here’s what’s happened since last time.

Wednesday morning we got up and left Wichita early so that we could make it to Dodge City in time to see the high noon Wild West shootout spectacular. Basically some high school kids and local community theater actors reenact what a typical day in Dodge City was like, where in the end everyone dies in a violent shootout. It was fun and plus we got an autographed cast glossy! We then got the Hell out of Dodge and drove west over the vast, windy wasteland that is Kansas/Eastern Colorado. We passed cows, corn, and wheat, cows, corn and wheat, cows, corn, and wheat until off in the distance, some ways into Colorado, we could make out mountains in the distance. Two hours later we reached those mountains and then drove further until off in the distance we saw a 30 square mile pile of sand.  We had arrived: Great Sand Dunes National Park! The Great Sand Dunes are, well, a 30 square mile pile of sand abutted against the Sangre De Cristo range on one side and open, flat for forever nothingness on the other. When we arrived at the campsite a storm was trying to make its way over said mountains. The wind was blowing, but not as nearly as hard as in Kansas and the temperature dropped from 100 degrees down 60. We quickly set up our campsite and storm-proofed it, but of course the mountains broke up the storm and we were left with a perfectly tarped tent and no rain. With improving weather and cool temperatures we settled in for the night.

Wednesday night was a chilly night. When we got up the next morning at seven, the temperature in my car read 43 degrees, a near 60 degree drop from the previous afternoon. Alicia and I walked down to the sand dunes from our campsite to take pictures as the sun rose for the day. The low sun helped create dark contrasting shadows on the dunes, perfect (we hope) for some black and white pictures. We walked back and Alicia began to make breakfast while I was sent on a mission to bring back some ice. I brought back some ice as well as a sand sled. So now our morning was planned: struggle up the dunes and slide back down on a waxed sled. The sliding down part was fun: gliding down a 40 foot slope that was at a 70 degree angle is exhilarating. The struggling up part was a struggle. In some parts the sand was soft, so soft that it filled up my shoes as I worked my way up the dunes. The dunes are the tallest in the US, with the highest peak reaching over 750 feet. At 8000 feet above sea level, the sun scorches everything, even with it being only 80 degrees. By eleven  in the morning the sand was too hot to walk on comfortably without shoes, so that meant splashing around in Medano Creek for a bit and then lunch, and then a drive through the vast nothingness leading up to the dunes for an hour and seeing absolutely nothing. When we got back to our site there were three mule deer snacking and laying under the tree that our hammocks hung on. We took a billion pictures and hours of video of the deer because, hey, why not.  Besides, one was really big and they were so close. We later went back down to the dunes to fry in the sun and splash around the creek before eating dinner and then going for a sunset hike up the Medano Primitive Road.

Friday morning we packed everything up and made our way north to Rocky Mountain National Park, trading the vast nothingness for alpine passes. Up the mountains, down the mountains, around the mountains, through the mountains on our way to Boulder (to stock up) and back into the mountains and finally to the Park, itself.  Then we had to drive up a ridgeline road with snowcapped peak after snowcapped peak visible to the left, glimmering in the late afternoon sun. Man, it was awful. We set up camp and then went for a drive in the intense, lowering sun to look for wildlife and take pictures. We saw deer, elk, birds, prairie dogs, chipmunks. We have chipmunks around our apartment yet we still try to take pictures of them when we see them at a park. It’s amazing how quickly priorities change when you’re on the road. We had our first campfire of the trip that night and roasted some marshmallows and drank some beer and then settled in for a chilly Rocky Mountain night.

Saturday morning we arose, broke down camp and went to the range where Alicia’s cousin lost his life while rock climbing last summer. After that we began our drive through the National Park, enjoying stunning vistas of snowcapped mountains and forested valleys, rising above the snowline where feet of snow still lined the road and the tops of mountains. It was very reminiscent of a Coors Light can. We reached the alpine tundra where no trees grow and saw marmots scurrying about the rocky terrain before reaching the Alpine visitor center for lunch and a hike up steps to the top of the mountains. The altitude was marked there at 12,005 feet. It even flurried briefly. We then made our way down the mountain and the back side of the park and reached where we had planned to camp at 2:00 and deciding that we weren’t ready to camp decided to head on. Well we had to make sure we got past some intense-looking storms forming over the mountains, so we kept driving, through Glenwood Canyon to the town of Glenwood. We checked out a campsite but deemed it too close to the interstate with too much sun and not enough to do, so we decided to trek on to Grand Junction, Colorado and get a motel. After having a little difficulty finding a cheap motel because of a local country music festival we finally found a room at a Super 8, ordered a pizza, and got some good rest.

But seeing how we drove five hours further than we had planned, we now basically had a free day since Grand Junction and Moab are only an hour and a half a part. So we decided to drive down to Mesa Verde National Park and see the cliff dwellings. But before we did that we went to Colorado National Monument, which is right outside of Grand Junction. Colorado National Monument is a beautiful land of canyons and rock pillars that is best scene from the Rim Drive. There were plenty of bicyclists riding through the park but car traffic was light and it helped make for a leisurely morning. Following the Colorado NM we drove down the four hours to Mesa Verde National Park, where we had a few hours to see what we could see. After a twenty mile winding drive up the green mesas we arrived at Spruce Tree House which is the iconic cliff dwellings that you see whenever you see pictures from Mesa Verde. We hiked down to the dwellings and explored what we were allowed to explore. I must say, the Puebloans picked a nice spot to build a village. They were protected from bad weather and enemies and the animals must have been abundant, munching on the lush vegetation. We then drove the Mesa Loop to view other cliff dwellings from the other side of the canyon. We then drove to Moab and set up camp. Tomorrow is Arches National Park, followed by Canyonlands on Tuesday.