In the past week, we've gone from "Devil's Orchard" to "Garden of the gods". Now THAT's quite a trip, don't you think?

When I last wrote, we had left Craters of the Moon and spent a quiet night in a lovely RV Park in SE Idaho. We misread the map and instead of traveling along Bear Lake (which is on our 'to-do-next-time' list), we ambled out through the SW corner of Wyoming into Utah. Our route took us past Flaming Gorge reservoir, which was a disappointment in that we never could get a good look at the water, but the scenery along this windy-twisty high mountain 2-lane road was phenomenal! If I shared all the pictures I'd taken, there'd be little room left for words! Here's one though, just so you get an idea. There is even a bit of the lake in there:

It was a long day's drive, and we pulled into a pleasant rest area outside Dinosaur National Park to spend the next couple of nights. The following morning, we headed up to the visitor center and got the list of hiking trails, then drove up to the museum(?). Oh.My.Gosh!!! They had built a building using a rock face as one wall that contains HUNDREDS (thousands?) of dinosaur bones!! It was astounding!

After gaping at the enormity of the bones, we decided to hike down a short (1.5 mile) path to explore more dinosaur bones protruding from the rock. We DID see some and took pictures. It was exhilarating to get some hiking in and to explore, up close and personal, the graves of thousands of ancient creatures overtaken in a catastrophic moment in time and held hostage there for their discovery by future peoples.

On this trail, we captured sight of another mystery in the rocks. What do you see? According to the Bible, giants walked the earth, and man and dinosaur inhabited the earth at the same time. I see here evidence of that. Of course, the National Parks system, which refuses even to use the time-divider B.C. and A.D., would never acknowledge it.

The next day, we took a drive deeper into the Monument to the cabin of Josie Morris, a pioneer woman who settled far back in the canyons of the Green and Yumpa Rivers to raise cattle and build her home. She was a divorced mother of three in the late 1800's, and lived here until just before her death, at age 90, in 1964. Can you imagine that? Her cabin had dirt floors and the surroundings were idyllic. She used box canyons beyond as a natural corral for the cattle. Fritz was quite impressed with the work she had done on her home.

 We regretfully left Dinosaur for the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. It had been our intention to visit Rocky Mountain National Park (at 12,000+ ft.) and Denver, but the forecast was for winter weather. So we aborted that plan and headed southwest, crossing the Continental Divide just west of Vail. Again, we opted for an 'off the beaten path" kind of highway, which turned out to be a stomach-churning climb from 6,000 to over 9,000 ft. in elevation. Again, a narrow, two-lane roadway with little shoulder and less room for error. But my goodness the sights were astounding!!! The aspens were just beginning to turn their lovely golden hue, and the high-mountain meadows that give birth to the Arkansas River were pristine! 

We arrived in Buena Vista, CO earlier than intended and ended up spending three glorious nights in one place, with water and electricity and bathrooms! (Funny how treasured the simple things become!)  Friday, we drove the car over the mountains to meet up with some friends of Fritz's from Denver.  We rendezvoused in Manitou Springs for lunch, then they took us on a tour of the "Garden of the gods". More mouth-dropping beauty!

The cool, overcast day did not dampen our spirits at being in the midst of such beauty!

The next day we decided to give ourselves a reprieve as we had been going, going, going. We drove in to Buena Vista, bought some sandwiches and drove up to an alpine lake called Cottonwood Lake. There we had a leisurely picnic.

Sunday morning, we headed east, destination Dodge City, KS. As we traveled through eastern Colorado, we were struck by its flat terrain and absence of beauty such as we had seen, as though it were the ugly sister of a beautiful girl. Yet beauty can be found even in flat lands. We're still looking, ha! We passed numerous and enormous feed lots that made me pity the poor cattle there almost as much as I pitied my nostrils breathing in the stench! Today, we fought headwinds and a heavy mist to Dodge City, where we are hunkering down until the nice weather returns tomorrow to do some exploring. WalMart parking lot, today you are a bright spot after our night in a dusty truck stop downwind from a feed lot.  Got to take the good with the bad, eh?

The next few days will be spent exploring Dodge City and making our way to our temporary home in Cave Springs, AR. There will be less to report on so my next blog may  not be for a few weeks. In the meantime, know we'll be enjoying hugs and snuggles with grandchildren, some mother/daughter time, and greater opportunities to become better acquainted with our son-in-law.

Til next time somewhere down the road.....!