The Moki Dugway!

Highway 261 meanders pleasantly across the top of the immense Cedar Plateau and then DROPS OFF THE EDGE! The road turns to a narrow gravel passage which drops about 2,000 feet in two miles. This has got to be one of the freakiest roads in America. It's too narrow for two vehicles to pass so one has to backup or go forward to one of the few wide spots when encountering on coming traffic. The middle pic is looking back at the Dugway from the bottom. Where does the road go?

Desert Camping

We heading south past Canyon Lands NP to a pretty little remote campground called Wind Whistle. Nearby was some breathtaking overlooks of the Colorado River.

Moab Utah

We headed south through that unique Utahan landscape of other worldly arches and towers to Moab, one of the outdoor meccas. We camped right on the Colorado River just a few miles outside of town. Bill took the Poison Spider Bicycle shuttle up to do the famous Mountain bike trail, Porcupine Rim. This is an eighteen mile single track ride that drops from about 8,000 feet to 4,000 feet and ends right at our campground. This is a very technical, challenging ride which hugs the edge of a thousand foot cliff for much of the distance. Bill survived although he admits to walking some of the more difficult sections. Oh, I could not resist including a pic of the campgrounds "rest room" with its unique view.

Dinosaur National Monument

After Leaving Boulder, we spent two days in Dinosaur National Monument. This remote park has beautiful scenery and is famous for the large numbers of dinosaur bones found there. Unfortunately, the museum is closed due to structural problems, but we did some nice hikes which went to rock formations with visible fossils. On was a large backbone of a dinosaur. Although the park is large, there are few developed trails and most of the action here is the rafting on the Green River.

Back In Boulder

We spent a week in Boulder visiting Bill's father and son as well as other family. Bill did a 13 mile mountain bike ride in the cold and rain with his old friend Steve. It was wet and muddy, but a lot of fun. Tomorrow we are off for Dinosaur National Monument and then other points south and west.

Back to Civilization

We left Chaco in another snowstorm and took the rutted dirt road north to Colorado. After a day in Cortez and a tour of the Anasazi Museum in Delores, we drove to Fruita Colorado via Moab Utah. Since Boulder was being dumped on with about two feet of snow, we decided to spend an extra few days on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. Bill spent a full day riding the famous Fruita mountain bike trails. Finally last Sunday, we headed to Boulder, where Bill's father, several brothers and our son live. We went from snow in New Mexico to heat in Utah to snow as we crossed Vail Pass in Colorado back to warm sunny days in Boulder.

Ancient Messages

After awakening to a light snow fall and twenty degree temperatures, we took the eight-mile round trip hike out to Peublo Blanco and saw the incredibly well preserved petroglyphs along the way. Near the end of the hike is the famous "Super Nova" pictograph, which, along with the crescent moon, is the ancients' record of the great super nova star burst that occurred in 1054 AD.

More Chaco Culture

After exploring several of the ancient pueblo ruins, we climbed up through a rock chimney that was a hidden passageway used by the early native Americans to access the mesa top from the valley below. From the top we had an excellent view of the large ruins set among the gorgeous natural scenery.

The road to Chaco...

From Clovis we blew through Albuquerque and entered the remote Chaco Culture National Historical Park. This hidden canyon was the center of pre-Pueblo civilization around 800 to 1100 AD.

New Mexico

We hit Oasis State Park just inside the New Mexico line last night. This is truly an "oasis" with a beautiful spring fed lake in the middle of the desert. Of course, we were almost alone in the small campground. Today we got to Albuquergue where we visited Pictograph National Monument. Tomorrow we are off to the remote area of Chaco Culture National Historical Park. We loaded up on water and food and will be off-grid for several days.