The Big Trip (Part 4)

Nageezi, New Mexico (where??)

On our way to Albuquerque we were all ready to get out of the car.... so we pulled off the road out in the middle of nowhere -- somewhere near Nageezi -- and set up camp. The boys thought we were the luckiest people to have found such a cool spot.



The hill formations were really fun for the boys to climb. They were entertained for hours!
















There was an oil derrick not too far away. We heard the click click click all night long.



The sunset was GORGEOUS! I took a half-dozen pictures because it kept changing from shades of red to orange to pink.






The effect on the mountains was so pretty! They were all ablaze!!






Of course, the best part is roasting marshmallows around the fire.



Cute little baby Anne loved crawling all around in the dirt. I was hoping she would be walking by now so she wouldn't be so dirty every time we camped. Oh well!

The Big Trip (Part 3)

SILVERTON, COLORADO (Old Hundred Gold Mine)

The hills are alive with the sound of .... GOLD!

After camping in Durango we drove up through the mountains to a little mining town called Silverton. I kept thinking of the Sound of Music while we were there-- it was GORGEOUS!!



We all climbed into an old rail car and went into the mountain about a half-mile. Our guide was a funny old miner with lots of jokes and stories about working in the mines.

Heading into the mine........... There was lots of water dripping down on us as we entered. It was a chilly 46 degrees!

Showing us how they split the rocks to find a vein of gold.


Caleb got to be his helper.


The boys were fascinated with all the details about mining life.


I don't remember what this machine did specifically, but it was LOUD!!









Anne wasn't quite sure what to think of that big dark place, but she was happy as usual. She turned 15 months on our trip and is still learning to walk.





PANNING FOR GOLD


Just outside the entrance of the mine there was a trough where we panned for gold. The boys had fun finding little bits and pieces of who knows what!?


The water in the trough was FREEZING COLD!!


I didn't have the heart the tell them that this sand probably came from Home Depot and they'd never find any gold..... they sure thought it was cool!


Caleb is an official "gold-digger"!! You can see how serious he was! He would have stayed there all day hunting for chunks of gold. After an hour and not much luck, he and Luke went into the little gift shop and bought a tiny glass jar of gold shavings for $5.

Even Anne got into the gold action. She was digging for gold in the dirt! :)

The Big Trip (Part 2)

MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK

Very cool, very worth the trip! These ruins are amazing! They were built around 1100 AD and vacated by about 1300 AD. We took a couple of different tours around the park. It was really hot up on the mesa, but when we hiked down under the cliffs, it was nice and cool. No wonder they made their home there. The boys loved this Nat. Park!
















This is a "kiva" or gathering room where they had meetings.



They even built rooms underground for storage and for protection from the elements. A primitive "basement."





This is how they ground the grain into flour.


Mesa Verde was awesome! If you are ever in the area, stop and check it out! Definitely worth the trip!

We camped that night in the forest up above Durango, CO. It was a BEAUTIFUL, LUSH, GREEN FOREST! Don't ask why I didn't take any pictures!?! We had a great big campsite all to ourselves and the boys went exploring all around and had a ball. The mosquitoes were something fierce so I kept Anne in the trailer for a while until we got the campfire built. The night was so clear you could see a million stars in the sky... it was beautiful! We have a little family tradition of telling stories " 'round the campfire ". Someone starts the story (usually about some boys who are lost out in the wilderness... or something along those lines) and then when they get to a good point they pass it off to someone else to make up the next part of the story and so on..... We've had some really wild and crazy stories! That is my favorite part of camping.... just sitting around the fire, talking with the kids while they stuff themselves with smores (their favorite part, I'm sure!).

The Big Trip (Part 1)

We've been home for a week now and I haven't written about our "Big Trip". Shame on me. We were gone for two weeks, but since it takes ONE FULL WEEK to get packed up and ready to go and ONE FULL WEEK to unpack and do laundry, it seems more appropriate to call it a month-long trip!!

2500 miles of Utah, New Mexico, Colorado & the tippy-top corner of AZ
(at least 500 of those miles were in "construction zones"-- SLOW MOVING!!!)


Part 1 Monticello, Four Corners, Cortez


MONITCELLO, UTAH

We left our house Monday morning (June 29th) and headed down to Monticello. We had a picnic on the library lawn, played on the playground, bought nine "discarded" library books for $.50 each (bargain!) and stopped to see the new temple. Very pretty! Ate some yummy snow cones.




FOUR CORNERS

So my sister Michelle warned us about Four Corners. "You drive out to the middle of nowhere and stand in line to take a picture. You're hurried because there are people waiting to take their picture. It's hot & dusty." Well, that about sums up Four Corners.... but at least we got to see it for ourselves! :)

Caleb is at the end of the line, looking happy.
This is the line of people from all over the country lining up to take their picture of the only place in the US where four states touch. And, thanks to GPS, they've just recently discovered that the actual "four corners" of AZ, NM, CO, UT are about one mile away. But hey, this was surveyed a couple of hundred years ago so I think they did a pretty good job to be even that close!

Caleb in all four states at once!

Lukey in all four at once.


Adam, burning his bum on the ground.


So, if you haven't been there.... don't worry you aren't missing much. Just photo-shop your family here and save the trip! :)



CORTEZ, COLORADO

I was playing around with the panoramic feature on my camera while we were stopped out in the middle of nowhere for road construction. This is just about 5 minutes from Four Corners. See... MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! :)


We camped that night in Cortez in a campground and let the boys swim and play. A fun first day of our BIG TRIP.