THE NEXT 750 MILES. PHOENIX TO PARSHALL COLORADO

Our stay in Phoenix was a brief one. Just enough time to catch up with our son Nick and family, attend the Junior Olympic State swim trials in which our 9 year old granddaughter was participating, and load up the trailer for the next leg of our journey. We needed to get to Parshall by July 22nd (You are going to hear a lot more about that in a subsequent post.)

Her events had been marked on her arm so she knew when to appear on the blocks.

Well done, Holland. You're a great little swimmer and we are glad you like all that swim practice and all those laps you do. There were many times when I felt like jumping in the pool myself. Yikes! That Arizona heat is something else.

Mmm! I wonder what this plant is growing outside the pool. But with 5 weeks of travel ahead of me I didn't feel like snipping a little piece. Maybe on the way back. I spent 15 minutes trying to get an id on this plant last night, to no avail, so please enlighten me if you know it. It seemed to be everywhere.

After a stop at the shops to load up with food for the weeks ahead, Nick and David hitched up the trailer. We were ready to head off towards on the next leg of our trip. About 5 years ago, after our marathon Canada trip, David decided he had had enough of trailer travel life. We gave the rig to Nick, who has a convenient place to store down the side of his house. But in view of our summer plans this year he agreed for us to take the trailer again. If we were going to drive to Colorado then we might as well extend the trip for a few more weeks.

Our first night was at the Sunset Crater National Monument, just north of Flagstaff. The campground is not actually in the park but adjacent and within 100' of the park entrance and visitor center. By the way we always make full use of our National Park pass which we purchased for $10 when we were 62 and which has gained us free access into all the National Parks, Monuments as well as 1/2 price off the cost of the campsites in all the National Parks and National Forest campgrounds. There is no greater perk for aging than this.

We had no trouble finding a good site where we didn't have to unhitch. Always a blessing when you are on the road. It's a nice campsite under pine trees and cool enough to survive without AC. We had stayed there once before but never had chance to do some of the trails.  D studied the map plotting our next day's route.

You can see that the road through the monument drives through lava country with several stops for hikes and roadside information. To think that shortly after the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066 ( a date that every English school child once had drilled in their head) around 1085, the magma started spewing out of the ground building up the great cinder cone that is Sunset Crater. All along the road were loose cinders and larger chunks of rough basalt that had bubbled up through the earth's crust.

It's an unforgiving landscape but even here Apache plume blooms and sets seed.

We stopped at the Wupatki pueblo ruins, once inhabited by the ancestors of Hopi, Zuni and Navajo people of today. The pueblos were built of flat plates of Moenkopi sandstone, hence the bright orange color. After the pueblans left, the place was inhabited by others who followed and changed the buildings, sometimes adding tin roofs. The park service is busy restoring the site to its original building with the help of volunteers. The site is so open and exposed that I was glad I had purchased my sunscreen umbrella before leaving home. One lady even stopped to ask me about it.

 The day became hotter as we moved further into the desert areas, first passing Chimney Rock and then a brief stop at the Teec Nos Pos trading post. We stopped there once in in early 80s when traveling with our three boys in our VW camper which had no AC. We were younger then! A brief visit into their rug room where there were some gorgeous but very expensive rugs. On that trip years ago I think we may have bought a Two Grey Hills rug.

A night with a full hook up was in order so we headed to the KOA in Cortez. Electricity, running water, sewer and showers. All the home comforts! It's nice not to have to worry about the black tank and batteries.

KOA campsites also have cabins but this one had tepees and cabins. What I didn't know was that you had to take your own linens if you want to use one of these, so be prepared. We thad several dry camping nights coming up.

We continued on our way with a plan to stop somewhere near Telluride. We favor National Forest campgrounds so I was busy checking out the possible sites in the area. As we saw the sign to one we pulled in. Our concern is always whether we can turn around so we waited for another rig coming out and stopped to ask them about the camping and turnarounds. No problem they told us but what site number do you have? We are used to first come camping so this came as a surprise that you could book ahead.

Nevertheless we drove on in and were lucky to find a site that had 2 unbooked nights. These camps sites are almost always booked up for the weekend which is always a watch out.

The site was right on the river.

This campground had a couple of drawbacks. First, the flies. I don't know what the attraction is in the area but the flies were worse than annoying. You couldn't get away from them. Then possibly the worst host on the site we have ever experienced. In fact he was no host at all. We saw him for a few minutes the first day fixing a lawn mower and then he disappeared for the rest of our stay. Usually the host drives around in a golf cart with a cheerful welcome and to check you have signed in and paid.  David and I ended up picking up bags of garbage that were strewn around the trash bins. Whoever was maintaining this camp site for the forest service was not doing a good job.
We had never been to Telluride, which was not far away, and drove in there. The main street was very attractive with the usual gift shops and we drove up to view the ski areas which were almost deserted.

The second day we took a hike from our campground. It was basically up a gravel road with some nice views and lots of wildflowers.

Wild roses

Castelleja miniata

Castelleja sulphurea

Twin Berry Lonicera involucrata

But, about an hour into the hike just as we reached this dry lake the sole departed my right shoe and was followed almost immediately by the left one. Nothing to be done but return to camp with stones poking though what was left of the material between the upper and sole. Thank goodness there was some. This was the second pair of Asolos this had happened to. Such a pity because the leather uppers were in perfect condition. I will miss them.

The following day we left the site and as we pulled up to the main road an elderly lady came walking towards us. She had a flat tire and had no idea what to do. No cell phone service out there and she didn't even know if she had a spare. David got her to drive off the road onto a flat area, found her spare and jack and fixed the flat. It was a good lesson for both the lady and myself on how to change a tire. An hour delayed we were on our way with a plan to spend the night in Montrose. It's been a few years since we were there before and that town has grown. Next morning, before heading off, we visited the Montrose Botanic Garden.
I am disappointed in myself that I didn't really take any good photographs of the garden because it certainly deserved better representation from me. I'll blame that on the sun and my holding an umbrella to shade myself. The garden is open to the public-donation box at the entry- and serves to encourage those who live in this high desert region to use xeriscape gardening techniques and plantings. A series of signs at each stop serve to cover all the principles of xeriscaping.

It's a small garden but manages to incorporate several types of garden areas although all the plants are suitable for dry summers and cold winters. At the same time it was an introduction to me to crevice gardening of which I was to see a lot more and which convinced me that this was the next major project on my gardening schedule.

Good signage is important when you are trying to encourage people to make major changes to the landscape. They need to see the plants and know their names. Here's one I grow although it has never looked quite this good.

I wonder if it is the same cultivar?

For the who simply have to have a lawn then there are various selections of low water-use grasses.

It was an enjoyable visit and there were signs that greater things in their future.

We had one last stop for the night in Craig and then it was on to our destination in Parshall. We arrived around noon, David dropping me off, parking and unhitching the trailer off site, and then turning around and driving down to Denver to pick up our son Andrew and family. We had booked a week on the Bar Lazy J Dude Ranch. The final celebration of our 50th Wedding Anniversary.

I had no idea what to expect!