Leslie treated me to a train ride for my birthday (September 7): Denver Union Station to Glenwood Springs. The train travels through the rocky mountains, going through Granby and Winterpark and eventually meeting up with the Colorado River and follows that to Glenwood Springs. The train is the California Zephyr and actually runs between San Francisco and Chicago, so we were on a small part of the whole run. Our trip took about five and a half hours one way. We spent a couple nights in Glenwood Springs at the Maxwell Anderson Hotel (formerly Hotel Denver) which is right across the street from the train station.
We traveled to Glenwood Springs on Sunday. On Monday we rented e-bikes (I’ve never been on one before) and rode along the Colorado River from Glenwood Springs to Dotsero, about a 36-mile round trip. It was a beautiful day and the scenery was awesome. The hot springs pool was a welcome site later that afternoon. For the rest of the time in Glenwood Springs we explored the shops, the eateries and some local trails.
We headed back to Denver on Tuesday. It was a short trip, but a great getaway.
From the TrainFrom the TrainFrom the TrainFrom the Train“Nixon Cloud” from the TrainAlong the Bike PathAlong the Bike PathHot Springs PoolFrom a Local Trail
As you may know, I’ve been engaging in digital drawing as a creative outlet. Many of the apps for drawing now have an animation component to them. I finally decided to explore what it takes to put together an animation.
I named my first animation project “Summertime”. And here it is.
Last week Leslie and I went on a hike she’s been talking about for a long time. Sky Pond is an alpine lake destination in the Rocky Mountain National Park with trailheads along Bear Lake Road. What that means is you need to get a coveted timed entry permit waaaayy in advance. Fortunately we were able to get that done on July 1.
Rather than narrating the journey, I will instead mention some highlights and provide a gallery of photos to peruse below.
We got to Glacier Gorge Trailhead at around 6:30am (left the house at about 5am to get there at that time). There were 3 parking spaces left; good thing we only needed one of them. If we didn’t get that, we could have gone on the Bear Lake Trailhead without sacrificing too much extra hiking. It was a beautiful morning. We ate the breakfast we brought in the car and then ventured to the hike.
One of the first points of interest is Alberta Falls. I’ve been there before, and I didn’t even take a picture because there were so many people there. It’s popularity is likely due to the short hike to get there. As we continued on, we had some trail connections to choose from. Unfortunately, I chose a wrong one causing us at least a half mile extra distance.
Once on the correct trail, there were plenty of beautiful features and views to take in. The trickiest part of the hike was going up a waterfall area. I captured a photo of Leslie working her way up this area in one of the pictures below. There were several bodies of water along the way, most notably, (1) The Lock, where I snapped a great photo of a trout; (2) Lake of Glass, more trout, and stunning reflections, and (3) Sky Pond, the beauty expected from a remote alpine lake.
The total hike was about 10 miles round trip. We both did quite well, but acknowledged it was a great workout for the day.
Leslie and I have never been to the Grand Mesa in Colorado. We have only seen it from the highway many times. According to Wikipedia, “It is the largest flat-topped mountain in the world…reaching an elevation of about 11,000 feet.”
We made reservations at the Grand Mesa Lodge cabins several months ago and were excited to explore the area. We planned to be there for 3 nights, so we basically had 2 days to explore.
Thursday
On the morning of the first full day (Thursday), we took an easy hike along Mesa Lake to Lost Lake. It was a beautiful hike.
After our hike, we had lunch at the lodge. Then we decided to check out this road we saw. It had a sign that said “Observatory 12 Miles”. We didn’t find anyone that could tell us much about what we would find on this road, so we went to find out for ourselves.
The name of the road was “Land’s End Road” 😨
The drive was beautiful! Along the way we discovered the Raber Cow Camp. Most of the abandoned cow camps on the Grand Mesa were thought to be hazardous so the Forest Service tore them down. However, the Raber Cow Camp was spared and was actually renovated in 1993 as an example of what life here was like in the 1940’s and 1950’s, the heydays of cow camp life on Grand Mesa. Winifred Raber, who stayed at the cow camp every summer from the 1930s until 1966, has helped document the history of the camp.
We continued on Land’s End Road and after more wonderfully scenic driving we arrived at the Observatory.
Land’s End Observatory is a Ranger Observatory, built in 1936-37 by the United States Forest Service and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It is marked by simplicity and craftsmanship, appearing to grow out of the earth rather than intrude upon it.
While near the observatory we spotted another road to get there; this one looked like fun, so we took it!
That was an awesome drive! Great job Leslie. The road is a narrow one-vehicle width road near the top, so you have to be pretty careful as you wind around all those switchbacks. It relaxes in width slightly as you make your way down this incredibly fun and beautiful drive.
As we made our way back, the very long way (rather than going back up Land’s End Road), we meandered into the Adobe Badlands. After gawking at the badlands initially we tried to find a place to stop to take pictures, but the narrow road with traffic didn’t allow for it until we got to this place; which was OK but doesn’t truly capture the moon-like landscape we saw along the drive. I would love to go check these out again some day.
Friday
On Friday we decided to take another hike. Thursday’s hike was pretty flat, and we wanted to take a slightly longer hike that had some gain to it. We found the Crag Crest National Recreation Trail.
We opted for the out and back as opposed to the much longer full loop. We were delighted with the fantastic scenery along the way, and the spectacular views once we reached the summit.
Saturday
We had planned to take an indirect route home and stay in Cripple Creek that night, since Leslie had not yet been there. On our drive we passed Black Canyon, and since Mark had never been there, we stopped for a look. Beautiful place.
It was a pretty long driving day with nice stops as mentioned above, and I should also mention Teller County Road 11 which was a short but very fun roller coaster of a road with its blind ups and steep downs. We arrived at our home for the night, Cripple Creek Hospitality House. This was a very nice place to stay, and fun and interesting given its history as a turn of the century (19th to 20th) hospital. That evening we ate in Cripple Creek and Mark checked off one of his bucket list items by finally eating rocky mountain oysters (the easy way… deep fried with cocktail sauce). Yum. 😋
Sunday
Before heading home, we were compelled to visit a nearby town we spotted on the map: Victor. We found Victor to be a wonderfully quaint town. We walked around the town as they were having a Rock and Gem show that morning. We were both taken by the town’s charm and may very well have to visit again sometime soon.
We took a very long and arduous route to home trying to avoid Highway 25. We’ll probably take Highway 25 next time. What a fun quick getaway it was, exploring more of our home state.
Matthew wanted to use his existing vacation time before changing his job at Southwest Airlines. I was immediately on board to be his traveling partner for the trip, we just needed to pick a destination. After much discussion of various interesting options, we landed on exploring the great redwoods of California. There were several airports to choose from including Portland, Eureka, Sacramento, and San Francisco. We played it by ear based on seat availability and wound up starting in San Francisco and ending in Portland. So, our journey looked like this.
Matthew wanted to make sure he saw the Golden Gate Bridge.
The first day was filled with a long drive and a couple stops for pics, food and relief.
Our first destination was in the town of Trinidad, CA, a very nice B&B named Turtle Rocks Oceanfront Inn. The building is situated about 250 feet above the coast with excellent views of the ocean. It was very comfortable for the three nights we were there, and the hospitality was excellent.
Here’s a picture of a part of the backyard of Turtle Rocks Oceanfront Inn.
The B&B gave us a nice write-up of sites to see depending on how long our stay was to be, ranging from one-day to three days. That was very helpful to get started with planning our time.
We started by hiking around the local area (Sue-meg State Park), first stop was a place called Wedding Rock and surrounding areas, including Agate Beach.
We then took over an hour drive North to check out the Grove of the Titans.
Trail to Grove of the Titans
The trail was amazing, and the trees are awe inspiring. The last part of the trail was elevated on metal grates to protect the ground for the trees.
We had some time left in the day, so we decided to check out Enderts Beach to see if we could spot any tidepools.
As the end of the day neared we decided to have dinner in Crescent City. We found an excellent Thai place called Kin Khao.
As we headed south back to our B&B we happened upon a sunset. As you may notice there was a lot of moisture in the air, so we couldn’t really see the sun.
The next day we wanted to check out Fern Canyon for which we heard a lot of cool things. This was another drive, but not as long as the day before to Crescent City.
This was an amazing drive! Thank goodness Matthew was driving. A narrow dark trail among the ferns. The Park Ranger insisted on telling us “We cannot guarantee your safety for the three stream crossings you might choose to make in your car.” It definitely impacted others, as they parked WAY back before the stream crossings and had to walk an extra couple miles each way.
Walking an extra four miles wasn’t our favorite option so we crossed the streams. No big deal once you get past the intimidation (greatly caused by the Park Ranger).
Fern Canyon was beautiful. On the way back, we took another short hike to Trillium Falls, another place of great beauty.
Road to Fern CanyonFern CanyonTrillium FallsTrillium Falls
We returned to the B&B just in time to see another sunset, and this time the sun showed up (mostly).
The next day was a driving day: Trinidad, CA to Florence, OR. Along the way we saw some great beaches, were amazed by Fort Orford, and had a great lunch at Tony’s Crab Shack in Bandon, OR.
Fort OrfordTony’s Crab Shack
That evening we settled into Florence, OR. We walked around the quaint and pretty town, stopped into some of the shops, and had dinner at International C-Food Market Restaurant (which we thought was Novelli’s, until we left and found Novelli’s down the dock ramp). Nevertheless, dinner was good, including the oysters on the half shell, which, as any good father would, I made sure Matthew got to sample.
We headed out the next day for Portland, OR. We made stops whenever we felt compelled, taking in the vistas and some bridges along the way. Matthew found Thor’s Well, which was an awesome waterspout (just a pain in the arse to try to time your photo when the water is shooting).
Thor’s Well
Our final segment of the trip was to hang out in Portland, OR. We stayed at the Mark Spencer Hotel, which was very nice, especially given their free wine sampling hour shortly after we arrived. Then we had a short walk to get some ramen at Ramen Ryoma for an excellent dinner.
For the last day of our trip, we decided to visit the arboretum in the early morning followed by a visit to the Japanese Gardens. What a beautiful way to spend some time.
Portland Japanese Garden
And then we flew home.
The end.
Epilogue
What a wonderful 5-day trip. Thanks to Matthew for instigating the trip, for doing ALL the driving, and for arranging flights for us. Since this trip, Matthew has graduated from a month-long training program to be a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines. I am excited for the many adventures in front of him, and very thankful for this wonderful visit to the Pacific Northwest area.
The traveling crew on this trip was Cynthia, Leslie, Alex and yours truly. Alex had been nudging us to visit Mexico City for a while and since I have never been I was very open to the suggestion. Alex visited there within a couple years so he had some familiarity and did a lot of the planning for us; a big thank you to you Alex!
We each arranged our flights separately, so Cynthia, Leslie and I were on the same AeroMexico flight while Alex was on Volares flights which were closely aligned in time – so we all departed and arrived in both locations at around the same times.
We stayed at Hotel Roosevelt, a 3-star hotel in the heart of Mexico City making it walking distance to a variety of eateries, coffee houses, music and bar venues as well as personal item shopping.
Traffic in the city during waking hours was heavily congested all the time – so planning ahead and reserving time to get to locations is critical. Nevertheless, Uber and Taxis were readily available for those jaunts.
On the evening of our arrival (Saturday), we took a walk down the street from our hotel to a great taco place called Taqueria Orinoco – highly recommended. The tacos and sauces were deliciousa!
Sunday
Cynthia, Leslie and I started the morning in search of a coffee house. We discovered La Balance about a half mile from our hotel.
La Balance offered great coffee and sidewalk seating where we enjoyed the cool morning air looking out to busy streets and a nice park on the other side.
Later, the four of us Uber’d to the Palacio de Bellas Artes (the Cultural Centre and Opera House) that hosts many performances and museum displays including works of Diego Rivera and other highly notable artists. Our visit was timed perfectly as during our stay a small string orchestra gave us a wonderful concert in the main floor area.
After Palacio de Bellas Artes we Uber’d to Bosque de Chapultepec where we enjoyed walking around the park and we visited the Chapultepec Castle. There were some interesting museum displays in the castle such as old horse-drawn carriages that transported royal and presidential parties to various locations. Aside from the internal displays, the views outside overlooking Mexico City were spectacular.
We wrapped up the day with dinner at a great restaurant pick of Alex’s: La Capital.
We met the van outside our hotel at 4:05am as we were the first pickup of several before heading out for a ballooning adventure over the city and the pyramids.
Celebrating our rough landing in a small open area near trees, power lines, and other large hard objects
We followed up the balloon ride with breakfast in a cave and a walk among the pyramids.
After returning to our hotel we ventured out for dinner at il Fiorino Italian restaurant. After that the boys (Alex and Mark) had a wild night out on the town at a local jazz club.
Tuesday
Our final day included a visit to the canal region called Xochimilco. Not only did we relax in our boat as we meandered along the canals…
… and the Grupo de Investigación del Ajolote en Xochimilco (GIA-X), a nonprofit research group dedicated to the preservation of the axolotl.
We ended the day in the neighborhood of Colonia del Carmen where the Frida Kahlo Museum sits (you may have heard of her blue house). We ate at a really good taco joint called La Casa de Los Tacos Coyoacán on a trendy street about a half mile away from Frida’s place. We didn’t have tickets to get into Frida’s house, so we just looked at the outside and stopped in a cool shop nearby. This would be a nice area to visit on a future trip.
In Closing
We headed home early Wednesday morning and all went well. This was a great intro trip to Mexico City. Lot’s of thanks to Alex for scoping things out and guiding us to many of the great places we visited. That was a short but full trip and it was a lot of fun!
Tender, juicy, nice presentation. Per sous-chef recommendation we put cheese-cloth on top of turkey to support occasional basting; it worked well.
The only things that went wrong here were (1) cooking time was shorter than expected, and (2) the dark meat looked a little bloodier than expected, even though the meat thermometer showed well above cooked temperature. Lack of confidence by the chef caused a hold-back of dark meat for further cooking.
New twist: used fresh green beans rather than canned. Made a couple/few new converts from meh (last year) to yum! (this year).
Gravy: B
Things got so busy near finishing time I needed to delegate this one. The gravy was good, but perhaps a little grainy with fat – I should work on a more repeatable plan for next year. The sous-chef (Cynthia Boyhan) gets an A, the lower grade is on me because I had to delegate, and didn’t have a clear plan.
Stuffing: B
Very good, but in my opinion a little more moisture and veggies (celery and onions) next time could make it great.
I have heard from several people that they actually pay attention to this blog. More than one expressed their disappointment in my continuous offerings of “to be continued…” in the “Southwest US in 2024” post. My apologies. That was a long trip, and I’ve been quite busy, so it was taking me much longer than usual to put the post together. So I did the pieces as I could. Well – I am pleased to say I finished that one. Perhaps there will be a future edit or so – but for all intents and purposes, it’s done! Yay. Apologies for the TBCs and thanks for the feedback.
I am a lucky man. To take a road trip with Leslie. To enjoy our company, the scenery, the audiobooks, the conversation. To experience the awe and amazement of the places we visited.
Saturday – April 6
The trip started heading south from home, into the northern panhandle of Texas. Across the vast desert as the car dipped into valleys, peering over the crest of the next hill stood massive, giant arms of windmills driven by powerful wind gusts that were a prominent feature of the weather that day.
We stayed in Lubbock that night where I enjoyed Oyster shots at Cancun Mexican Restaurant; highly recommended!
Sunday
The next day we continued on the road to Johnson City where months prior we reserved a yurt for the next three nights. Johnson City because it is right in the path of totality for the eclipse. The yurt because prices at all hotels and b&b’s were 10x their normal as all landlords in the path of totality took full advantage of their geographical happenstance. And besides, Leslie loves to stay in yurts.
Monday
While we appreciated an invite to join a friend and her clan to watch the eclipse, we instead were able to secure tickets at Westcave Winery for some wine, smoked pig, live music and the company of other enthusiasts. That was a ton of fun!
After a wonderful day viewing the eclipse at Westcave Winery, we took a drive to Pedernales Falls State Park. What a beautiful place that was for an afternoon visit.
Tuesday
We were expecting some precipitation on Tuesday so we decided to take a drive to Cedar Point Recreation Area. In the first part of the drive we passed through some beautiful towns such as Llano (not sure how they pronounce that in Texas). It was a beautiful drive but as it continued the promised precipitation showed up… lots of it! I can’t recall ever driving (or pausing) through such a torrential downpour!!
There is a lake out there… somewhere
We headed back to Johnson City to grab lunch at a place where the reviews were good: Pecan Street Brewing. Lunch was excellent.
After lunch we headed back to the yurt where we later enjoyed a lightning storm with more heavy downpour and a DIY spaghetti dinner.
I won’t mention the visit to the hot tub outside the yurt when we decided to go back inside because of the incredible intensity of the lightning and the rain and how the electric combination lock on the door seemed to not be working while we were outside in our bathing suits, in the cold, dark, very stormy night with car keys and phones securely locked inside the yurt so we had no access to them, and we were the only people there in the gated property with no exit capability without our car, and no other shelter than the yurt that we couldn’t get into. Oh, I guess I did mention it.
Wednesday
On to Carlsbad, New Mexico to see bats and caverns. We got to Carlsbad in time to check into our hotel and drive to the amphitheater at the entrance to the caverns to see the sun go down and watch the bats swarm out to the impending darkness to hunt for moths and other tasty morsels. That was very cool.
Thursday
We returned to the caverns Thursday morning for our turn to go explore the underground for ourselves. We returned to the amphitheater and continued on the path that meandered for over a mile, down 750 feet underground, where we intersected another trail that looped for about a mile and a half, completely submerged below the Earth’s surface.
After exploring the caves, we got back in our 4-wheeled vehicle and as Steppenwolf once said, we “head out on the highway”, DIRECTION: Toward White Sands National Park. DESTINATION: Cloudcraft, for the night.
Friday
Cloudcraft was a very nice town. We enjoyed our evening and a one night stay. But, we had business to attend to at White Sands National Park, so in the morning we spent about an hour checking out Cloudcraft and continued our drive to White Sands.
White Sands National Park was spectacular! We started our visit by watching the video on how the geological features were formed. It was very informative, and not too corny; I really liked the video. Outside, the weather was perfect. Once we understood the lay of the land, we decided to venture to the furthest point first. White Sands is the world’s largest gypsum dunefield. A great explanation of how the sand was formed can be found here. Because of how the sand is blown in, this furthest point in to drive offers dunes with almost no vegetation, compared to areas further downwind, as vegetation has more time to settle in there.
As we worked our way back toward the entrance we saw more of the type of vegetation that settles in.
Not to mention a cool Astroid City looking park bench.
On the road again (sung by Willie Nelson – and sometimes me)… We spent that night in Winslow, Arizona – because that’s a place in the other song (if you’re an Eagles fan – not so much for me – but that song is OK). Winslow, because it’s on the way to Las Vegas, where I had to work for four days. Can you say “Vacation Interruptus”?
Saturday – April 13
Yes – we headed to Las Vegas, but before leaving Winslow… we wanted to check out a place Leslie knew about, which is where we should have stayed… but we didn’t. Next time. Introducing, La Posada.
Viva… Las Vegas.
After enjoying our introductory evening by walking the strip, playing a few hands of blackjack, and hopping on the big ferris wheel, we wrapped up the day.
Sunday – Wednesday in Las Vegas
Mark
Worked
Snuck out for a couple dinners with Leslie.
Leslie
Went to the Atomic Museum
Visited the Botanic Gardens
Enjoyed the Cactus Garden/Chocolate Factory
Explored the Bellagio
Ventured into the streets of Las Vegas, and got threatened more than once by the local inhabitants
Wednesday Afternoon
Leslie was able to get tickets to the latest tour of Hoover Dam, and I was able to be done with my work in time to rush out of Las Vegas to go see the Dam. What a fascinating piece of work it is. The project is amazing, and the implications of the dam are complex for many groups of people. Nevertheless, we got the premium tour and learned a lot.
We spent that night at Lake Las Vegas, a very nice place to visit.
Thursday
To begin our trip back to Colorado, we wanted to check out the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. The place is amazing. We saw lots of beautiful geology, petroglyphs and wild life.
There was an eeriness about the place. At times it felt like the rocks were watching us.
We spent the night in Page, Arizona – it was a beautiful evening. We had a great dinner and enjoyed the sunset at Sunset 89 restaurant.
Friday
We got an early start and wanted to check out Glen Canyon Dam. Since we were in Page, it was right there.
Then we headed out to Monument Valley. Stunning!
And on to the City of Mexican Hat and Gooseneck State Park.
And from there we drove, and drove. We thought about visiting one of our favorite haunts, Goblin State Park, but by time we got to Hanksville, the day had already been quite long, so we pushed straight through to Green River, where we spent the last night on the road.
Saturday – April 20
We made it home, safe and sound, early on Saturday.
That was a very fun trip with lots of long driving days.
We typically enjoy getting down to Denver for the annual stock show. This year we got tickets to see the Mexican Rodeo. I have never seen a Mexican Rodeo (don’t think I have seen much of a USA Rodeo either), so I was intrigued. There were some fun parts as well as some cheesy parts – as would be expected, since they’re trying to please a large audience. There was a large audience: pretty much a sell out crowd in the Denver Coliseum. Of course I took some pics to share what I thought we some of the highlights.
After missing it for a couple years we returned to the Blossoms of Light show at Denver Botanic Gardens. We started with a warm meal in the restaurant on site to give darkness a bit more time to settle in. The grounds were spectacular as always.
