We really enjoyed our long stay in Montrose Colorado. We spent a day at the Blue Mesa Reservoir with our nephew and his family and also enjoyed the 4th together with a parade, BBQ and fireworks. One of our best days was a full day with just Lucy and Daniel. We ate breakfast at McDonalds (Daniels choice) and Denny's (Lucy's choice)...yes...we drove through McDonalds and took Daniels happy meal into Denny's. I'm sure that wasn't the first time they have seen that happen. We swam at the RV park pool, BBQ'd hotdogs for lunch, watched 2 movies & swam again. They are really fun to be with.

Telluride,Ouray, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Ute Museum, Box Canyon, Daniels birthday party, dinners at Joe & Shani's, dinners out, geocaching, watching Daniels' baseball practices and 3 games, wineries & visitng kept us pretty busy!!


Tram between Telluride & Mountain Village.



View from tram. Up there pretty high...
Ron's acrophobia didn't like this too much!


Blue Mesa Reservoir


Box Canyon. The walk takes you into the canyon..the rushing water is deafening.



Daniel enjoying his 7th birthday party.


Lucy at the pool.


Daniel playing 3rd base...waiting to make the big out.
Cool hat...wears the bill always facing the sun.


Lucy noodling in the sun.


Ron with his geocache find

Colorado Geocaching...

Even though Ron is walking with a cane and knee brace, we ventured out on our first geocaching adventure in Colorado. (For those of you who are saying "What in the heck is geocaching....go to the end of this post for an explanation.) We tried to find 4 of them but was only successful on the 2 earthcaches. The earthcaches took us to south rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Even though we have visited numerous, magnificent canyons over the past month, this smaller canyon holds its' own charm. The 2 overviews we visited to obtain the answer to the geocaching questions had the Gunnison River running through the middle....I'm always in awe of the size, depth and rush of the river. We will visit again in the next couple of weeks to take the entire 12 mile tour through the canyon.


Drive into Black Canyon of Gunnison...the clouds were threatening but we only
encountered a short drizzle.



The Gunnison River looks so small from this viewpoint even though the river bed descends an average of 95 feet per mile throughout the 48 miles of the canyon. At the steepest point the river descends 480 feet in one 2 mile stretch.


Another view of the Canyon.

We even saw some "wildlife".....


Cute, little chipmunks scampering all around.



Eagle circling overhead....probably looking for dinner - the cute, little chipmunks.

The other two caches were geocaches and we were not successful in finding either one. The most interesting of the two was a walking tour of downtown Montrose. The city has placed numerous placards on the sidewalks noting the history of the town and its buildings. There were 8 questions that you had to find the answers to on the placards. Once you found the answers you added the numbers and applied to a formula to find the missing links in the coordinates for the final find. We found all the answers but were not able to find the final cache....so we either missed on one of the answers or in our calculation. Finding the cache is fun but the best part of geocaching is the places it takes you and the sights you would not normally see..or take the time to see. It took us on a nice stroll of downtown. We won't give up....will try it again another day!

Hope all is well.

Joan & Ron


P.S. Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with handheld GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Caches like the tour of downtown Montrose are called a "mystery or puzzle" cache.

An EarthCache is a special place that people can visit to learn about a unique feature or aspect of our Earth. EarthCaches include a set of educational notes and the details about where to find the location (latitude and longitude). Visitors to EarthCaches can see how our planet has been shaped by geological processes, how we manage the resources and how scientists gather evidence to learn about the Earth.

To learn more about geocaching visit - www.geocaching.com

We finally made it to Montrose, Colorado

We have been in Montrose Colorado for 10 days now. I came down with a stomach flu while in Green River, UT which delayed our departure by 3 days. A day after we arrived in Montrose, Ron came down with the same symptoms. I think we are both ok now. Since Ron wasn't feeling well and Shani (our niece in law) was visiting friends for the weekend, Joe and I went to dinner. Not that we didn't miss Ron and Shani, but I can't remember the last time we were able to enjoy time together - just the two of us. We had a great time.

We have pretty much just laid back and relaxed so far. We visited Ouray, CO one day. A quaint mountain town, called The Switzerland of America, surrounded by snow capped mountains and a fun downtown area of boutiques, restaurants and art galleries.


Scenery during our drive outside of Montrose towards Ouray




Uncompahgre River on our way to Ouray. All of the rivers are running high and fast.



Cascade Falls in Ouray. This is the last of 7 falls.




We met Joe, Shani, Lucy and Daniel at "Main in Motion", Thursday night then went out for pizza and beer....fun!

For 10 Thursday evenings during the summer, they close Main street to cars and the shops stay open until 8 pm. They have several musical groups entertaining in the street along with food vendors, face painting, tattoo artist etc. It reminded us of when we lived in Washington, MO and the store owners stayed open late one night for what they called "moonlight madness".

These are the events that make small towns fun to live in and visit. The population of Montrose is around 41,000. It is a nice, clean town with a vibrant downtown and larger stores (Target, WalMart etc.) on the outskirts. Surrounded by snow capped mountains and forested area of the Uncompahgre National Forest.





Joe with Lucy & Daniel sporting their face painting after Main in Motion.


Lucy & Daniel enjoying Popsicles at our coach.

We were also able to watch one of Daniel's baseball practices. Although the practice seemed to run a little slow to keep his attention, as well as many of the other boys...he's a very good hitter. His season starts June 21, so we will be able to also see a couple of games.


Daniel and Joe warming up.


Daniel (sitting) in center field.... a little less than enthusiastic.


Lucy watching her brother play baseball.


Shy Daniel!

While we were in Panguitch UT we visited Zion National Park. Zion
is supposedly the most visited national park in the USA with over 3 million visitors a year.

Zion is fascinating because you drive through the lower park of the canyon and look up at towering walls of brilliantly colored sandstone. It's as if your viewing a living masterpiece of striking contrast and beauty. The parks original Indian name was Mukuntuweap.


Road through the park.









The first Mormon settlers arrived in 1858 and called their new home Zion Canyon.

Every turn unveils another spectacular and inspirational view. You have got to believe in a God! Zion is an ancient Hebrew word that stands for place of peace and refuge.

One early visitor to Zion Canyon was an artist named Frederick S. Dellenbaugh who spent part of the summer of 1903 painting in Zion Canyon. His paintings were exhibited at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.






Took a short hike on Riverwalk Trail.


The Virgin River winds through this area of the park.


Line of cars waiting to get through the tunnel. The tunnel is wide enough for 2 cars but not 2 RVs side by side, so all RVs require an escort through the tunnel and they stop all other traffic. Darn those pesky RVs. Can't imagine what this is like during peak season. We picked the best time to visit.




Ribboned walls of varying sandstone.



Hope all is well!

Joan and Ron

We have Internet service again!!

Internet service in Utah is very poor to say the least!! But considering the state has more canyons than people, I guess communication towers are not a top priority. We are now in Montrose, Colorado visiting my nephew Joe, his wife Shani and their beautiful kids Lucy and Daniel. I am going to try to catch up on the blog over the next couple of days.

Our first sightseeing tour when we reached Utah was Bryce Canyon National Park. As magnificent as the Grand Canyon was, I fell in love with Bryce Canyon. (Don't tell Ron...his favorite is still the GC) The Grand Canyon is so massive with over 1.2million acres that it takes your breath away. But the red rock formations of Bryce Canyon are unbelievable. It feels like your are so much closer from many of the overlooks.

We "only" took 118 pictures, here are a few....


This formation is titled "Amphitheatre".





One of many vistas of the Colorado Plateau.




A huge "hoodoo". For those of you who are like me and didn't know what that is....a hoodoo is a column of weathered and unusually shaped rocks


Multiple hoodoo's.





A natural bridge formed by wind, rain & erosion.





Hope you enjoyed the pictures and all is well!

Joan & Ron

Mail..Mail everywhere but none to be delivered!

There is so much natural beauty in this part of the country. The scenery, rock formations & foliage is so different than what you find in the midwest that we are awed at every turn. The Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument was our destination last Friday. There are 3 distinct areas that encompass over 1.9 million acres. Most of the area is not accessible by car and the 45-50 mile drive that is, consists of dirt & gravel roads. They are paved, kind of, but still dirt, best maneuvered with a 4 wheel drive vehicle. We actually had to get our manual out to see how to put it into 4WD low, but never needed to use it.

We drove about 1/2 way then back, planning to come in on the north side when we are in Panguitch Utah and see the other half.

We were surprised to learn that this area is a prolific region for dinosaur archaeological digs and has been for many decades. The ranger at the Big Water Visitor Center showed fossils of huge dinosaurs and discussed a recent finding of an alligator fossil approximately 70' long. Alligators are one of the only remaining creatures that date back to the dinosaur era.


"Paved" road through Grand Staircase Escalante.



Unusual rock formations.









We also were able to see the Vermillion Cliffs and hike to Horseshoe Bend -where the Colorado River circles around in a horseshoe format. I also tried a hike to the Hanging Gardens, but I was the only one out there and 3/4 of the way lost the trail. Should have paid more attention when I was a Girl Scout. I could see the trail at the top but couldn't find the trail without scaling a 10 foot rock.


Vermillion Cliffs


Horseshoe Bend. This was the best view I could shoot without
getting too close to the edge...chicken!




Rugged trail of Navajo sandstone.


We had a nice dinner at Antelope Point Marina , the only floating restaurant on Lake Powell for Ron's birthday.


Ron at his birthday dinner.


Another afternoon was spent at Lee's Ferry. A 45 mile drive from Page and the only spot in Glen Canyon you can drive to the Colorado River in over 700 miles of Canyon Country. Here you can view the first rapid in the Grand Canyon. This was an operating ferry from 1872 until 1928 and the area holds a lot of history. Today the launch ramp for the ferry, is used as a gathering spot for all of the river runners to begin their rafting trips down the river. It is also a popular area for world-class trout fishing. The original homestead of the family that ran the ferry is still intact. We took a short walk to view the historic buildings and stopped to have our lunch overlooking the orchards.


Paria Riffle


Original site of Ferry


Rock formations at Lees Ferry


We have delayed our departure for a couple of days, waiting for our mail to catch up.

There are no mail trucks or delivery's in Page Arizona. Everyone has to go to the post office to pick up their mail. There is no pick up from Friday afternoon till Monday morning. We have lived in small, rural towns but never this isolated. We also found out that the mail really doesn't come to the campground, it is picked up by the lodge and then delivered to the campground office. Of course no one bothered to advise us of this unusual arrangement. After 3 trips to the campground office, an hour at the post office and waiting at the lodge for 1.5 hours we got our packages! I love my country and wouldn't want to live anywhere else...however...since the post office is run by the government and the campground is in a national park...run by the government ...I shouldn't have been so surprised by the SNAFU. At one point we thought the Pony Express was still alive and well in this area.

We'll hit the road tomorrow. We were going to make a short trip and stay in Kanab, UT to view Zion National Park, but, since we lost a couple of days, we will go on through to Panguitch, UT and take a day trip back to Zion.

Hope all is well!