Sheridan, Wyoming

The boys have been playing a great deal of mini golf and basketball, and the girls have been spending a lot of their time at the pool.  Today was a girl camp spa day and they all did their nails (because of course Rianna could not go camping with out all the paraphernalia for doing nails!!)  We all spent some time in Downtown Sheridan today shopping.  We found a very interesting store with lovely old junk and treasures (comics, Pez dispensers, knives - everything you could imagine)

  It was the first time in a long time that David really enjoyed shopping!!  He bought some 

Reichmarks (German money) from 1923 - ever the social studies teacher!!!  We can pick up teaching aids in the darndest of places!!

The kids are all camping out in a tent near our trailers and are having a great time!!  This photo is from our campfire tonight.  Hershey and Oreo are loving the extra attention, too!!

P.S.  Congrats to our friend Janie on completing step one of her San Diego dream!!!!!!!!

Budweiser Brewery Tour

We have met up with some friends here in the wilds of Colorado!!! (Actually, it was sort of planned, not a random happening)  The Aab family, plus a friend each for Jocelyn and Brandon, have been travelling for a couple of weeks, and we have managed to get together.  It has been really nice having some other adults to visit with, and having the kids out of our hair!!!

In celebration of meeting up with Karen and Ken, what else was there to do but visit a brewery!!!  There is an Anheiser-Busch facility here and they do tours!!  It was a bit bigger than the Alexander Keith's tour we did in Halifax.

The brewery is surrounded by beautiful gardens, and we got to visit some of the horses, too!  We had plenty of types of beer to sample - Budweiser even has a dessert beer now with a blueberry flavour - trying to get in on the wine market I guess!

Pike's Peak

Pike's Peak is one of the tallest mountains in Colorado, but what makes it unique is that you can drive up it - right to the top!!  You go through 5 different environmental zones, from Montane to tundra.  The park starts at 7,750 feet in elevation and the peak is at 14,110 feet.  The road isn't quite as exciting as the Mogi Dugway, which David was quite happy about - plus we didn't have the trailer attached!!

On a clear day, you can see 4 different states from the top of the mountain.

We saw this lovely little fellow on the way up.  It is a Hoary Marmot, and they are usually found 
up at the timberline.  He was just sitting at the side of the road, watching the cars go by!!  There were quite a few spots where the switchbacks are very steep, and there are no railings of course!!

The view from the top is amazing!!  This is where the woman who wrote the song, "America the Beautiful" got her inspiration.

One of the things that this moutain is most famous for is the mountain road race.  Vehicles have been racing up and down this road since the 1930's.  Sean was pretty excited about being here - just disappointed that we weren't here at the same time they were racing!

Garden of the Gods

We spent a couple of days in Colorado Springs, which is just south of Denver.  We are camping ride beside Cheyenne Mountain, which was the home for NORAD.  There are no tours of this facility anymore, but that would have been cool.

This lovely little park, Garden of the Gods is an area of really cool rock formations.  Unfortunately, about 5 minutes after we took this picture there was a huge rainstorm with lots of lightning, so we didn't get a chance to hike around and explore. You can just see a path that winds through the base of the rocks - again, that would have been cool!!

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

Sandboarding down a huge sand dune has to be one of Sean's favourite things from this trip.  This area of 30 sq. miles of sand dunes, the highest one at 750 feet tall is the largest in North America.  We chose not to climb up High Dune, though many people did.  The surface temperature of the sand was about 110 degrees, but would be closer to 140 at the top.  The hike would have taken about 2 hours, and walking up all that moving sand just to get to the top didn't seem to be that big of a deal to us!!

Instead we set up our umbrella and chairs, spent a couple hours sand boarding and tobogganing, and had a lovely picnic!  I did a nature hike with a ranger and learned all sorts of cool stuff.

We are staying in Alamorosa, Colorado, and had a lovely drive up over the Continental Divide through the mountains to arrive here - good thing we got the big truck!!

More photos of Mesa Verde

Rianna's hand fits nicely into 700 year old hand holds in the side of the cliff.

Smiles after we make it up the steep ladder to the top.

A look at rooms under the overhang.

Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde

 Cliff palace is the largest single cliff dwelling community in North America.  The hike in to this area is relatively easy, but the hike out is very steep, using vertical ladders and steps from that time that were carved into the rock.

This complex has 150 rooms and 23 kivas.  A kiva is a circular room which is partly dug into the ground.  In the time of the Ancestral Puebloans, it would have been covered over by a roof made of logs and mud.  These rooms were used for ceremonies, meeting, and even living quarters in the winter.  There were also storage rooms, living areas, and open spaces.

The rooms within this community were not all built at the same time, and so there are variations in architecture and style - some are absolutely smooth, some are rough rocks, some circular towers, or square.  These areas were inhabited for about 100 years, and as families moved in, they would build onto existing rooms, on different levels, like terraces.  But they all fit together as if there was a master plan.  You can still see the black marks on the rocks from their cooking fires as there has been very little disturbance in the last 700 years.

To see all these structures, built into the overhang of a cliff 300 feet above the valley floor is truly remarkable.  To imagine families trying to meet their basic needs, farmers growing crops on the mesa top, women grinding corn and weaving, children scrambling up cliff walls thatare so steep they make me shudder  - what an amazing glimpse of history!

Balcony House, Mesa Verde

Balcony House is the most inaccessible of the cliff dwellings, and getting there was quite an adventure.  It starts with a relatively easy but steep hike down the side of the canyon wall which takes us below the settlement.  Then we had to climb up a 100 foot ladder, trying not to look down the 200 or so foot drop into the valley below.  This took us to the balcony section of the structure with 5 rooms and a lovely balcony that looks out across the valley.  This was a ranger led hike, due to the difficulty of the climb, and the need to keep this area safe from an archeological standpoint, but our ranger was awesome, and explained so many things - it was extremely educational!

For the next part of the hike we had to climb another short ladder, use the hand and toe holds dug into the rock face, and slide through a narrow crack in the wall that led us to another section of the community.  Here there were more rooms and more info from the ranger.

To get to the last section we had to crawl (not so easy for bad knees Dad) through an 18 inch tunnel (again, not so good for Dad) for 12 feet (again, not so easy for claustrophobic Dad)  But again, it was so worth it!!  

The exit route from the homes followed the same route that the natives did, using another ladder, and hand and toe holds carved into the rock.  Luckily for us, there was also a safety fence at this point, and a metal chain to hold on to.  Still, it was still very freaky to look down and realize that 700 years ago, none of the security measures were there.

Between the historical value, and the adrenaline surging adventure value, I would have to put this in my top ten list of experiences!!!

Mesa Verde

Mesa Verde National Park is found near Cortez, Colorado.  It is the home of a group of cliff dwelling people, who I learned about as the Anasazi many years ago.  The term that they use now is Ancestral Pueblan, referring to the fact that these people were the ancestors of the Pueblo indians who live here now, members of the Hopi and Zuni Indian tribes.  Around the year 1300, there were more people living in this area than there are now, many of them living on top of the mesas and in the valleys.  Groups of natives began to build communities in the cliff walls.  Archeologists have a variety of theories about these people, but there is no written history, so most of it is just "theory".  These tribes would farm on the mesa top, growing crops of corn and beans, hunting deer, rabbits and other animals.  We took these photos from across the valley, which is probably three to four hundred feet deep.  The photo on the left shows green trees and scrub brush in the area that they would have farmed on top of the mesa.  They found alcoves in the cliff walls and built communities there.  In the photo on the left, right in the middle, you can see an arch in the stone.  The photo on the right is a close up of this arch, which shows the remnants of a series of structures, with 16 rooms!  It is amazing to believe that these people climbed up and down the rock face on a daily basis in order to provide their basic needs from the mesa above.  This area gets 8 or 9 feet of snow during the winters, so they had to harvest enough food, and store it, to last them through the winter.  Collection of rain water was important as there are no rivers in the immediate area.

These tribes lived, built, traded and expanded here for about 100 years.  After many years of drought the tribes moved south to New Mexico, settling in new areas, leaving the cliff dwellings abandoned.

Crash up Derby

I am trying to upload a video clip from the demolition derby - wish me luck!!

Montezuma County Fair

Y'all come down to the Montezuma County Fair! You can eat the best hand-dipped corn dogs you will ever try, ribbon fries, chili cheese baked potatoes, and funnel cakes, topped off with a cherry limeade soda!  Just don't try to count calories or stop your arteries from hardening!!

Then you can check out the 4-H auction  where you can buy a whole cow for $750.00 .  You can enter your rabbit, your pie, your quilt, your tomatoes, your painting, or your roses into the county contest.  And then at the end of the day when you have spent all your money and won your prizes, you can go to the drag racing track and watch an honest to goodness demolition derby!

I never thought that watching old clunkers
crash into each other could be so exciting, but it actually was a lot of fun.

A good day was had by all at the Montezuma County Fair!

Shiprock Mountain

The road from Monument Valley to Farmington, New Mexico is pretty uneventful, except for Shiprock mountain.  It is a volcanic mountain which rises 1400 feet above the desert floor.  It is the basis for many Navajo legends.  There are no major rock formations around it so it really stands out.  

I had to cheat a bit and take a postcard picture too as my photo did not do it justice!

Last glimpse of Monument Valley

I must really be impressed with this place to devote 3 blogs to it!!

This photo is from the front porch area of the Goulding's original yard.  Could you imagine waking up every day and looking at this out your front yard??  I guess that is why they stayed in the desert, with very little resources, sometimes hostile neighbours, and tried to run a trading post.  When the depression started and things got really tough, they went to Hollywood and convinced the director, John Ford, that this would be a good place to make movies, and that brought new life into this area.

There were too many clouds in the morning to get a good sunrise picture, but the monuments are still impressive from the campground!

Monument Valley

After a very short rain storm, the campground was totally flooded with red water and mud.  It was streaming down the road, flowerbeds and through the campsite!  We decided to wait to set up the trailer and went to the Monument Valley visitor centre, which was about 10 minutes away.  This is a brand new centre, with some good information, a gift shop, and a restaurant with an absolutely amazing view of the valley.  It was a little freaky as there was a lightning storm going on all around us.  The viewing area was outside, but sometimes we could feel the hair on the back of our neck stand up when the lightning cracked - it was that close!!  So we decided to go in and look at the exhibits.  The rock formations on the left and center in the picture with David and the kids are called the Mittens (if you double click on the photo it should enlarge it).  

We had a snack on the patio of the restaurant - this had to be the best view we have EVER had while eating an order of nachos!!!  We could see most of the valley out in front of us, and watch the tiny little cars drive through the dirt road of the valley trail (which we were not able to do of course because of the darn trailer!!)

This area is very sacred to the Navajo Indians, and the calm, quiet beauty of the land is very spiritual in it's own way.  Again, I think we were very lucky to visit there during a rain storm as that added a whole other dimension to the 

landscape.

Anybody seen Forest Gump??

This is the spot from the movie Forest Gump, when Forest decides he is finished running.  It was a little cloudy, so the picture does not do justice to the colours in the rock.  The immensity of the rock formations in Monument Valley are overwhelming!!  We also had the added bonus of coming into the valley and seeing lightning all around the moneuments - of course, try as I might, I did not get any on film, but we were all suitably impressed!!  We were staying at a campsite called Gouldings, which was established in the 1920's as a trading post with the Navaho Indians.  There is a long history of film making in this valley as well.  John Wayne stayed at Gouldings, and there is a whole museum with memorabilia from this era of early western movies. Very cool! 

As we arrived at the campground, it started to rain.  There was a little red trickle of water that started to come down over the rocks, and within minutes there were at least 10 waterfalls pouring over the rock bed.  Our guide on the river raft had told us that since there are no plants on the rocks, whenever it rains (which is very seldom here) the water just cascades off in waterfalls.  It picks up the dust from the rocks, and that is why the water is red.  Even the clouds above the rocks were pink, a reflection from the rock surface.  We just stood under the awning at the camp office and watched it come down.  We were so lucky to be there to see this since it hardly ever happens!!

We were hoping to get some good sunset and sunrise pirctures with the monuments, but between the cloud cover, and no vehicle to drive to the best locations, my photo dreams were a bit squashed.  

Driving the Moki Dugway

We left Moab, and were heading for Monument Valley.  We have cut our stay from two nights to only one so that we can get to Farmington, New Mexico to get the trailer fixed.  David was perusing the map and found a "scenic route".  This turned out to be yet another MacGregor adventure!!!

We had been travelling this particular highway for about an hour when we came across a sign that warned of a gravel road with a 5 mph speed limit and a 10 % grade, for the next 3 miles.  The road was not recommended for over sized or overweight vehicles.  But what does that really mean???  Do we go back and spend an extra two hours to get to our destination, or try a gravel road for a bit.

What we did not realize, however, was that we had been travelling along the top of a mesa, and had come to the edge, and were about to start travelling down a switchback gravel road, with no railing, and a 1000 foot drop (yes, that was a 1000 foot change in elevation!!!!!)

As we started down the road and turned the first curve we saw what we were in for, but by then, how do you turn around in a 50 foot rig??  You don't, you go forward....

It only took about 15 - 20 minutes, but they were probably the most stressful driving we have ever done.  Well, driving by David, and looking over the edge by me.  I think Rianna had her head down for most of it, and Sean would look out and give us a "Holy Crap!!" every once in a while!

When we got to the bottom and looked back up, it was pretty amazing to see what we had just driven!!

We did a little research on the internet, and there are some good sites for this part of the highway.  In particular, a video that a semi driver took while driving down it gives a pretty good feeling of what we went through.  I have tried to attach these at the bottom - or just google Moki Dugway.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fb/Moki_Dugway.jpg

 

http://roadtrips.blogs.com/photos/thanksgiving_2004_roadtri/moki_dugway_3198.jpg

Moab Rainbow

 According to a lovely lady from Moab who worked at the KOA, six inches of rain in Moab means that when it rains, one drop falls every six inches …and then it’s done.  And it only rains 6 or 7 times a year. 

So guess what the MacGregors get?  A rainstorm!    The rainbow afterwards was right outside our door, and too close to fit into one picture.

The desert smells totally different with a little rain, and the red dust becomes red mud!!

 

Rafting on the Colorado River

Today was an awesome, awesome day!!!!  We booked a tour, because we have no vehicle to tour ourselves :( , and chose a white water rafting trip down the Colorado River!  Now, there was not as much white water as we would have liked as the river is fairly low right now, but there were a few rapids - just right for the kids' first experience!!  This river has eroded out a huge valley so we were surrounded by towering mesas and interesting rock formations.  We all spent some time in the river, letting it float us down, along with the boat.

We stopped at an open spot for a picnic lunch, which was really good - even Sean got enough to eat!! 

There were three other kids on the boat (from Germany and Switzerland) and so the guide played a game with them sort of like our surfboard game we play at the lake.  One kid stood up on either end of the raft and he spun it in a circle.  First one to fall in the river was the loser!  

There was not very much wildlife to see (just a heron), but the scenery was 
spectacular, the day was hot, and the water was great!  Our guide was a very personable young man from New York with great arm muscles!!! (David never reads my blogs so I guess I can just say it like it is!!)

This was an fantastic adventure to add to the MacGregor list!

Rianna's Report

Hi,  this is me on Park Avenue!  It is the name of a line of fins in Arches National Park.  This was the second full day in Moab.  After we took this picture we drove to a place called landscape arch, then we did a hour walk round trip to see the arch.  Then we went to Wolfe ranch to see a farm house that had been there since the late 1800's.  Then we walked up a very large, steep hill to see a view point of Delicate Arch.  It is a very famous arch, and is seen on the Utah license plate.  There was a storm coming in and we could see lots of lightning and rain in the distance. 

Arches National Park

It doesn't look like we get to go mountain biking on slickrock trail, but we spent a great afternoon at Arches National Park with the help of a rental car!!  This is a very remote park with no services, but amazing scenery!!  We only did one major hike out to landscape arch, which is one of the longest arches in the world (longer than a football field).  It was around 30 degrees out so we got our exercise on this one!!  The rock formations here are very unique.  There are arches, windows, fins and needles, all caused by erosion over millions of years.  Most of the rock here is really high in iron content, so they are a beautiful shade of red.  The junipers and pines are a brilliant green so contrast nicely against the rock.

The second picture is a window, rather than an arch.  If you look carefully at the size of the people in the picture you

get a good idea of the massive size of some of these rock formations.  

A lovely place for an afternoon drive!!

A special hello to Janie, Brenda and Karen - we knew our blog follower friends would find us!!!

Our front yard!

This lovely view is out the front door of our trailer!  We have one of the end sites in the KOA here in Moab, and the view out across the hills is quite awesome!!  On the other side of the trailer is the "Moab Rim" that you can see in yesterday's blog.  This huge ridge of red cliff goes on for miles.  The temperature here has been a lovely 36 degrees most days, but the nights cool off quite nicely so it is not too hot for sleeping.

We are having some trouble with our "landing gear" right now (the legs that go down at the front of our 5th wheel) so we cannot unhook the truck from the trailer.  That has been a bit of a problem, and we are going to have to take a little trip to New Mexico to get it fixed as they don't carry the parts here.

Marvelous Moab

Salt Lake City

We have travelled along the highwas past Salt Lake City many times, and decided it was time to actually stop and visit.  There is a lovely KOA right in the middle of town, not very far from Temple Square.

I had a little accident with a Jack Knife during our lunch stop in Idaho, (blame my clutziness and Sean's love of knives) but we delayed going to the clinic because the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practices on Thursday evenings, and that experience couldn't be missed.  They were so beautiful to listen to, and it was only a rehersal!!  They have a huge hall in the conference centre with amazing accoustics!
The temple is beautifully lit up at night, and the nearly full moon added to the ambiance.  There were flowers everywhere, and the smell was amazing.  The original Tabernacle where the choir first began is quite impressive as well.

After walking around Temple Square we ventured off to find the hospital.  Two hours, two stitches, and a tetanus shot later, I was all good and back home to the trailer we went!!

Tomorrow is Pioneer Day here, which is a huge Mormon Holiday, and a good reason for us to leave town!!

Moab, here we come!!

On the Road Again!

The MacGregor Family is on the road again, travelling to Moab, Utah, and places beyond.

As we travel south through Montana we have moved from grasslands to really cool mountains.  The Snake River runs through here, and obviously it is a renowned fishing river as we have seen tons of fishing boats and fly fishermen.

The scenery along this valley is very unique, the mountains very sharp, the river slow and lazy.

The End of our Adventure

We have had an amazing adventure, and have seen and experienced so many wonderful things!  Thanks to all of you who stuck with us on our blog and sent us messages from home!

I would like to add a special thank you to Sean and Rianna.  You have grown up so much over the course of this trip.  You make us laugh all the time (and cry here and there), and we are so proud of the wonderful individuals you are becoming.

My biggest thanks go to David.  You are the love of my life, the joy in my heart, and the driver of my trailer.  I am so grateful that I have you to walk with me through all the adventures of life.

The sun has set on this MacGregor Family adventure, and we are eagerly awaiting for the sun to rise on the next one.....

Final Statistics

30,570 kilometres

11,500 photographs

174 days

55 campgrounds

25 states

10 provinces

6 time zones

5 countries

3 ferries

3 sets of trailer tires

2 tire blow outs

2 adults   2 kids   2 dogs

1 truck and trailer

 

The MacGregor Family Trip – one amazing adventure!

Stay tuned for one last and final installment of the MacGregor Blogspot.

Safe and Sound

Our last big worry of the trip was whether or not we would be able to get the trailer into the yard at the cabin.  Some years, the snow is packed so high in the driveway that we can’t get into the yard.  But with the last couple of weeks of warmer weather, the snow was pretty low, and we were able to get the trailer in using the 4 wheel drive.  David and I let out a big sigh of relief after the trailer was settled in its spot!  There is will have a well-deserved rest until spring.

 

We spent a couple of days unpacking, cleaning and organizing for the final few miles home to Calgary.  The snow falling on the lake is always a beautiful sight, and I must admit that I have missed it!

 It is the weirdest thing, though, we don't really 'feel' like we are still travelling.  After a couple of days at the cabin, it just feels like we came down for a weekend.  I know we have just finsished this amazing adventure - I guess we just don't want it to end!

Even after all the amazing places we have been, I still     believe that the scenery along Highway 22x is          some of the most beautiful in North America.

Coeur d'Alene to Canada

 

We have finally hit the land of snow!!  We have seen snow before this, but as we head north from Coeur d’Alene, the ground and trees are covered with lots of white stuff.  This is David’s first experience driving in snowy conditions, but as with every other challenge, he does a great job!! 

 

The sight of the Canada Flag at the Kingsgate border resulted in excited cheers inside the truck – we are very happy to be back home in Canada.  The fellow at the border seemed a little surprised when he asked when we went into the States, and we replied October 7^th!    We had no problems going through the border, we just had to give up the lovely bag of oak and hickory firewood that we bought in Texas.

Of course, we had to stop at Tim Horton’s in Cranbrook for a double-double.  The last Tmmy’s we had was just outside of Freeport, Maine.  How fortuitous that we make it back just in time for Roll Up the Rim.