Great Western Trail

Friday, August 8, 2014.  Suzanne, the doggies and I head up to the area of Northeast Utah to find a spot where we can set up camp and then spend a couple of days hiking part of the GWT. The Great Western Trail extends from Canada to Mexico passing through Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah and Arizona.  Our intent is to hike all of the over 500 miles of the GWT through Utah. Since we don't have the time to thru-hike it we will do it one section at a time until we have hiked the entire Utah corridor. We find a place to set up camp off a tiny dirt road near the Idaho - Utah border. Our view from camp, actually in Utah, is of the beautiful Idaho countryside.

Rather than leave our footprint by setting up a new camp we use one that was left by others. We would never build such a large fire ring but this one was already here. After unpacking and getting every thing situated, Suzanne and Dooley take a break.

While exploring the area around our camp I spot this before and after scene and thought it made a nice picture.

This pair of Three Toed Woodpeckers were sharing the same tree.

The next morning we begin our quest of hiking the Great Western Trail through Utah.

It's actually a very nice trail with a lot of green trees providing shade.

As we continue hiking we see this tree where a bear had recently sharpened it's claws.

The views were really spectacular and we took our time so we could enjoy them.

As we near the end I can't resist a picture showing just how blue the sky was.

All in all we hiked the first 8 miles of the Great Western Trail in Utah and I am really looking forward to our next section.

Red Lake, Colorado

Thursday, June 12, 2014.  Hazel and I drive up to the South San Juan Wilderness in Southern Colorado to meet up with my brother Ted for 3 days of camping and hiking. When we discovered this camping spot last year we named it wildflower meadow because in July it is carpeted with every color of wildflower you can imagine. This skyrocket is just waking up for the day.

The next morning started out with a good sign. It was Friday the 13th and the full moon was setting behind our camp making for a good picture.

As we were having our morning coffee and looking out over the lower meadow two bull elk walked to within 50 yards of us. They kept trying to figure out what we were but we remained still. Eventually they began to frolick and play and chase each other around.

The hike we had planned to do was to Red Lake. We had seen the trail head last year while exploring and a hiker we met on the Continental Divide Trail had told us it was a very nice hike. After getting our hiking gear ready we started up the trail.  We hiked about 3 miles up to 11,750 ft. elevation and all of a sudden there was Red Lake before us.

Red Lake is one of the most picturesque settings I've ever seen. Here is a closeup showing Conejos Peak at 13,179 ft. in the background.

 Back near camp I can't resist a picture of the Cumbres Pass that is just a little west of us.

The view from our camp is spectacular.

The time of day can change the effect dramatically.

Sometimes each mountain ridge has a different degree of shadow.

As we prepare to leave one of my favorite birds, the Western Tanager, stops by to say goodbye.

It was a very fun and relaxing three days and I will come back here often.

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014.  Dad, Mom, brothers Ted, Rock and I head to one of my favorite bird watching places in New Mexico, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. It's 57,331 acres of marsh and desert along the Rio Grande situated on the northern boundary of the Chihuahuan desert between two mountain ranges.

Although it is best known for the approximately 14,000 sandhill cranes and 32,000 snow geese that make it their winter home, over the years we have seen bald eagles, a golden eagle, an aplomado falcon and many more birds and wildlife.

It takes hours to drive through it because we are constantly parking the vehicle to get out with binoculars to watch the different birds and ducks. Here Dad and Mom are on one of the many observation decks that extend out over the marsh.

In past years the drought will dry up a lot of The Bosque but for now there is plenty of water.

As we stop at the first observation point we spot this Neotropic Cormorant sitting on a branch of a fallen tree buried underwater.

A few minutes later this Ruddy Duck comes swimming by.

I don't think it was very happy that I was taking it's picture because it immediately made a u-turn and left.

Three Sandhill Cranes fly overhead as a sliver of the moon is still visible in the midday sky.

A Marsh Hawk sits in a tree scouting for lunch.

Some Snow Geese fly by making for a nice contrast between them and the blue sky.

One of the Sandhill Cranes poses for a picture.

As we prepare to leave the Bosque del Apache after a very fun day the Chupadera Mountains make a nice background for one last picture of a flock of Snow Geese.

Grand Canyon

Sunday, Dec. 1, 2013.  Nic, Jamie and I continue our trip to the Grand Canyon.  I have been to the Grand Canyon several times and a few years ago Suzanne and I did a Rim to Rim and backpacked across it. I feel that everybody should try to see it at least once, it is that spectacular. The Grand Canyon was formed over millions of years by erosion caused by the Colorado river and by uplift of layer upon layer of rock during geologic processes.  It is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and over 1 mile deep.  The first people to live in and around the Grand Canyon were the Puebloans mentioned in my previous report on Chaco Canyon.  On this particular day when we arrived a very rare event called a temperature inversion caused the canyon to fill up with fog.

In places the fog even produced some striking effects like it did with the beams of light and this tree.

Sometimes it looked like giant cliffs rising high up out of a sea.

I like all the different contrast's in this picture.

Here you can see some of the many layers of rock that make up the canyon.

It seems that the fog is starting to recede and reveal more of the vastness of the Grand Canyon.

As we continued our way on the south rim this Raven gave off a strange impression.

Finally the fog has lifted so that we could see the bottom as well as all the way across.

Nic and Jamie enjoy a moment standing near the edge.

The Grand Canyon is so immense that one picture cannot give you a true sense of it's magnitude but I tried with this panorama.

I would recommend that if you can only see one natural wonder it should be the Grand Canyon.

Chaco Canyon

Saturday, Nov. 30, 2013.  Nic and Jamie are visiting from Maine and we decide to take a trip to see Chaco Canyon which is about 2 hours away.  We only get about 10 miles from my house when we stop to take a picture of the Chama river.

As we are driving on the road that would take us there we come upon these goats and sheep. The cute dog that was herding and guarding them made sure to stay between us and them.

Finally we arrive at our destination. Chaco Canyon is one of the great mysteries of the southwest. There is evidence that Chaco Canyon has been occupied for 10,000 years. The remains of the buildings that we would see today were inhabited from 850 CE to 1150 CE. by the Chacoans, who are the ancient ancestors (Anasazi) of today's Pueblo nations. I work for the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo located at the confluence of the Chama and Rio Grande rivers. Not much is known about the Chaco culture except that much of their architecture and ceremonies were related to astronomy. It was also the center of a large trade network that extended all the way to southern Mexico and the Pacific ocean. In fact cacao, conch shells and the remains of Macaws were found among the ruins. The first place we stop at in Chaco Canyon is a great house, or settlement, called Chetro Ketl.

One of the most striking features in all of the different Chaco Canyon settlements are the Great Kivas or ceremonial chambers. This one at Chetro Ketl is very large and you can see the sitting bench at the inside bottom of the circular wall.

Some of the smaller Kivas have very different shapes.

A look inside one corner of the outer wall shows some of the architecture used at Chetro Ketl.

This picture of Jamie at the back wall shows just how long and straight it was. It's amazing how perfect the construction was since they had no modern tools to work with.

As we leave Chetro Ketl to walk the trail to Pueblo Bonito we pass some petroglyphs etched into the cliff walls that both of these settlements were built up against. This one is a weird looking person, maybe an alien.

Pueblo Bonito, Spanish for "Beautiful Town", is the largest of the great houses in Chaco Canyon. In places it was four stories high. This picture only shows a small part of it.

This picture shows some of the many rooms on the interior.

The Great Kiva at Pueblo Bonito.

There were many smaller Kivas which might have been for a particular clan or family.

Nic and Jamie inspect the inside of a room. The logs and sticks that you can see in the tops of the window and door were for support and the ones protruding from the walls were the ceiling of one story and the floor of a higher one.  They are approximately 1,000 years old. The Chacoans cut about 225,000 trees to use in building the Great Houses in Chaco Canyon and had to haul them 40 - 60 miles from the closest forests.

This window built into a corner is actually an astronomical marker. When the sun rises on the morning of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, it's rays enter through the window and strike the wall behind.

Finally, on the back side of Pueblo Bonito, looking up at the outside wall you can see a straight groove cut into the stone with large logs beneath. This was where there was a balcony, maybe for sitting on to watch the sunset or to enjoy some fresh air.

The Great Houses of Chaco Canyon show that the Chacoans were capable of difficult engineering accomplishments and had an extensive knowledge of astronomical events. They were a mysterious but highly advanced people.