Dumping Grounds

Not really all that much to say for today it was drive, drive, drive.

Although for â??roughing itâ? I’m in an awfully nice hotel with free internet, and had a fantastic dinner of crab and shrimp enchiladas with a poblano pepper and mushroom cream sauce.

Mmmmmm, mmmmmmmm.

Tomorrow will likely be a little rougher

I really hope that neither my dogs nor my parents have killed one another.

No pictures for today, but there will be plenty, believe me.

But I finally posted all my pictures from the Jeep Jamboree at Palo Duro Canyon. You can get to them at http://www.dumpinggrounds.com/jamboree/. They are not fixed, retouched, edited or anything… just scaled down.

You see, I have been spending my evenings shopping for a Jeep. Yeah, I guess that means I had fun.

I’ll post a pic of the Jeep when I get one.

Today’s entry (quite possibly the last while on the road, the only thing planned tomorrow is Carlsbad Caverns and then the drive back to Texas) is quite short, but heavy on â??Geek Appealâ?

First stop today was at the VLA (Very Large Array) in New Mexico. For the non-geek among you, the VLA is a set of 27 radio telescopes that all work in concert to do extremely detailed radio astronomy work. Many of you may have seen it in the movie â??Contact.â? (Strangely enough, the VLA is not used for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence [SETI] at all.) The telescopes move along tracks, and have a number of different configurations. They can be quite close together, like they were in the movie, or quite far apart, like they were today. Therefore, no dramatic shots of all the disks lined up in a single frame.

Next stop on the geek tour today was a ghost town. The Kelley mining town is mostly gone, but a few facilities are still recognizable, such as the smelting area, and a conveyer that brought ore out of the mine itself. What can I say about a ghost town? It was all broken down, and I took a lot of pictures of busted stuff.

Now for those of you who are thinking, â??A ghost town isn’t all that geeky, how can you say this was a total geek day?â? You have not seen the next two stops…

First up? The Trinity Site. Yep, that’s right, the spot where the nuclear age started. The location of the very first test of an atomic weapon. This site is part of the White Sands Missile range today, and ground zero is only open to the public two days a year (as we were informed by a fairly nice guard as we tried to drive right up to the missile site entry gate). So, I got close, but not close enough to get a nice dose of radiation. A little shop right up the road was selling Trinitite (the glass that was formed by the explosion at ground zero… I have no idea how they got it, or if it’s authentic) Let’s just say I would not want to carry any of that stuff in my jeans pocket.

If you look at where we were on a map, and the direction we seemed to be headed, the last stop on the geek tour was obvious… Roswell, New Mexico. The city that was host to a (rumored) alien space craft crash in 1947. Let’s just say that Roswell was much, much more tame than I expected, and in that sense, disappointing. I was hoping to see alien signs everywhere, and people running around with tinfoil hats. Nothing of the sort, and it was about 95%, well, normal. The remaining 5% was a little odd, but nowhere near the level of strange I expected.

Headed back to Dallas tomorrow, see everyone soon.

Well, today we had a couple of stops, from the completely tourist-y to the somewhat educational.

We started off by stopping by the Four Corners Monument (also a Navajo-run park) There’s all the flags around the disk in the ground (Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Navajo Nation, and Ute Nation) and a good assortment of souvenir stands with everything from silver jewelry, to pottery, to arrows, and quite a bit of food.

The strangest item available at the Four Corners park? A Canadian flag.

After leaving the four corners area, we headed back into Colorado and headed toward Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde was one of the homes of the Pueblo Indians before the moved on (around the year 1300) and ended up in the present-day Rio Grande Valley. Cliff Palace is one of the largest single cliff dwellings in the world (depends on how you count as to which is largest) We also got to tour the Spruce Tree House, which is also a very large cliff dwelling in the same park. Learned a whole lot about the site and the Indians, that I will not bore you with here.

Well, camping in a National Park does not exactly do wonders for internet capabilities, so now that I am back in a hotel, I figured I would try to catch up with my little travel log I seem to have going.

Iâ??m coming to you live from the Navajo Nation, in Northern Arizona (and well, not quite live since their DSL was knocked out by a windstorm, but at least I have power, so I can sit down and write what I have been up to).

The last two days have been in Arches National Park, outside Moab, Utah. The scenery was spectacular, but the weather left something to be desired. It has been cloudy, rainy, cold and generally miserable. I am fine now, but I now know what a mild case of hypothermia feels like. Itâ??s not fun. The pictures below are all from the hike through the Devilâ??s Garden (abt. 9 miles of climbs, bouldering and slickrock). Itâ??s the longest hike I have ever done, certainly with that level of difficulty, but compared to the day 4 â??lung-busterâ? in Telluride, it wasnâ??t too bad. These pictures are almost universally disappointing, due to the weather, but here are a few for your review, anyway. the first are some indian petroglyphs that I photographed on the way to Arches, but promised an older gentleman who I talked to while there not to tell anyone where they were

Then, some of the more famous arches in Arches National Park…

And finally, a snapshot of a friend we made on the trail, he was an amazingly brave little devil.

Both nights that we spent in Arches were marked by very high winds, very cool temperatures, and lots and lots of rain. I think Alan and I are going to start a company called â??Drought-busters.â? Each and every time that we have been camping together, it has rained. This includes 2 deserts, all seasons, and some truly freakish storms. I think weâ??re going to Death Valley next, and see if we can cause a flood. I am happy to report that all gear worked as advertised, and the temps were actually pretty comfortable, although when the wind is blowing hard enough to blow sand underneath your rainfly, up to the top of your tent, and THEN through the mesh window you have up there to be deposited on your (not so sleeping anymore) faceâ?¦ that is some unbelievable wind. There were several re-stakings of tents during the night, the addition of extra tie downs, etc. We were set up in sand, so it wasnâ??t the most solid foundation.

Upon leaving Arches today, we encountered rain, rain, and more rainâ?¦ only to be replaced byâ?¦ you guessed it, snow. It was snowing when we stopped for lunch, but had warmed up and significantly cleared off by the time we hit the Navajo Nation, and Arizona. We hit Monument Valley tonight, which was so impressive it almost made up for the piss-poor weather we had at arches. Yes, there are some damned impressive pictures, but itâ??s only because I had such amazing stuff at which to point and shoot. There is no camping in Monument Valley, and it is not run by the Parks Service, but is actually a Navajo Tribal Park. Not the same types of facilities, but when you are surrounded by landscape like this, who cares?

We pretty much scrapped our remaining agenda today, and added some new stops (further south) that weâ??ll make on the way back. Should be fun.

Well, today’s entry is likely to be shorter… not because we did less, or I have less photos to show off, but because I’m tired. Did a lot today.

Started out in Gunnison, home of Western State College, which I assume explains the â??Wâ? but I preferred to think that they were just very fond of the President.

Proceeded to drive to Telluride, which is not open for skiing yet, but looks like it might be so in only a couple of weeks. The drive was filled with views like this…

When we arrived at Telluride, we thought â??How difficult can a 2.4 mile hike be? We’ve done much longer than that before.â?

We now have an answer. Damned difficult. Especially if it has more than a 1000 foot climb, and it starts at over 8000 ft. above sea level to begin with. We did the whole thing, and it was rated as a â??Difficultâ? trail in our book, so we were pretty pleased. Sore, but pleased. It was pure, stereotypical, Colorado. Mountains, thin air, and aspen trees.

After catching our breath, which took a little while, and making it back to the car (free from parking tickets, I was glad to see) we drove out to see Bridal Veil Falls, which was a little disappointing only in that it was the dry season, and there was not a huge amount of water flowing over the falls.

Headed back to Montrose, which inexplicably was full, and then proceeded onto some little town whose name escapes my memory at the moment… what can I say? I’m tired.

Well, as promised, we got an early start and headed back to Garden of the Gods. While we didnâ??t actually see the sunrise, we still got plenty of dramatic lighting, and our fair share of extremely friendly tourists. One guy made us both a little uncomfortable by acting so much like he knew us, and another had pledged to live until the Red Sox beat the Cubs in the World Series. By my count, he has 1,278 years to live.

I can only hope that some of the later stops are as photogenic as this place was.

And with that, our time in Colorado Springs ended. Off to Royal Gorge we went. However, there was one quick surprise as we were leaving townâ?¦ several times already on the trip Alan and I had wondered where Cheyenne Mountain was. It was not on any of the maps we had. I donâ??t think itâ??s a secret, but I donâ??t think they go out of their way to publicize it, either. For those who do not know, Cheyenne Mountain is a military installation under a mountain. All sorts of stuff may go on under there. And it is also the fictional home of the â??Stargate SG-1â? television show. So, since I posted a Bigfoot picture yesterday specifically for my friend Jeff, today I post a picture of Cheyenne Mountain for the biggest SG-1 fans I know, Heidi, Michael, and Jonathan. It does not show well in the picture, but if you look closely, you can see a hint of the literally hundreds of antennae (antennas?) coming out of the top of the mountain.

The Royal Gorge is obviously a summer and weekend attraction, as everything around it was closed. All in all, however, this was not a bad thing. We didnâ??t want to eat, and having less people there was probably a plus. Concerning the pictures belowâ?¦ no matter how high that bridge looks, it was higher. No matter how windy it looks, it was windier, and no matter how tight you imagine my butt was clinched walking across that damn bridge, it was tighter. Alan didnâ??t have much of a problem with it, and even came up with the idea of shooting pictures down through the bridge itself, between the cracks in the boards (OK, I did it too, but I felt like I was going to puke while doing it. Did I mention that it was windy? Does everyone know what suspension bridges do when itâ??s windy? Do the words â??Tacoma Narrowsâ? mean anything to anyone? (If not, Google it. Google contains the answers to all lifeâ??s questions) Walking back (alone, while Alan took the Skytram, which I refused to board due to a childhood trauma) the wind got so strong, you could actually see the waves of motion in the bridge approaching you. Quite nerve-wracking.

Now, it was time to head west. Up, up, up, and did I mention up. At the same time it got colder, and colder, and colder. Passing through Monarch Pass we saw our first snow (falling, not on the ground, weâ??d seen plenty of that) and our first runaway truck ramps. For those who are not familiar, a runaway truck ramp is a special exit ramp that immediately heads into a step uphill, coated in gravel, and with lots and lots of sand barrels at the end. Itâ??s meant to slow down a large truck whose brakes have failed. Of course, as I noticedâ?¦ there are sharp turns before some of the ramps, which an out of control truck doesnâ??t have a prayer of handling.

Monarch Pass also represented the crossing of the Continental Divide, even though there was not even a sign to commemorate this fact.

Coming back down from the biggest of the mountains, we hit Colorado ranching country. Lots of cows, very few people, and some gorgeous scenery. Due to lack of turnouts in appropriate places, and the fact that we were on a little two lane state highway, this portion of the trip is under-photographed.

Well, this entry has gotten extraordinarily long, so Iâ??ll sign off by saying we stopped in Gunnison, itâ??s hunting season, and there are hundreds of very dirty men with guns walking around. And the hotel room did not have a funky smell.

Today’s entry will be a little longer, and hopefully a little more interesting than yesterday’s (unless you were a big fan of the Alan shot), for the simple reason that we weren’t simply driving in a car all day. We actually got out, saw some stuff, and did some things today.

Started off, well, slowly, as it took both of us a while to get up and running. Did I mention yesterday that this hotel room has a bit of a funky smell? I didn’t? Well, I’m mentioning it now. Like many hotel rooms, it has a particular odor that fortunately blends into the background within a few minutes… but when you first walk in? Whew.

After getting on the road, we set out on our agenda for the day… Pike’s Peak, and then Garden of the Gods. A little background on Pike’s Peak. It’s 14,110 feet tall, had been climbed numerous times by Ute Indians prior to Americans arriving on the scene, and is inexplicably named for Zebulon Pike, who failed to reach the summit in 1806. The fact that it was named for a man who failed to ever reach the top struck Alan as very â??Simpsons-ishâ? and he declared â??Climbing Pike’s Peak embiggens every man.â? If you don’t get it, just Google Simpsons and embiggens. You’ll come up with something, I’m sure.

There are several reservoirs on the way up, and the scenery is pretty damn nice. Judge for yourself.

Despite implied promises, we never did have an encounter with Sasquatch.

The road that went all the way to the summit was close (due to inclement weather and significant snow) but we did get a little over 13,000 feet up, and then proceeded to act like idiots, and climb up another 6 or 700 feet to the highest peak we could get to, even by foot. We were definitely still below the very top, but not by more than 2 or 300 feet. Pics from the Peak…

At the very top, we met a couple from South Africa making a â??Snow Elephantâ? and some guy who must have been bionic, as he did not seem to be affected by either the cold or the thin air… both of which were affecting me.

After heading down, and from all we could see looking back up the mountain… missing a pretty impressive storm, we headed to Garden of the Gods, which is a City Park in Colorado Springs, completely free. Some truly amazing rock formations. It was getting late, and the aforementioned storm was moving in, but I did manage to get a few shots from the Visitor’s Center. I think we’re going to try again in the morning.

Well, certainly after today, I don’t know how often I’ll have an internet connection, but I’ll keep writing, one way or another, and they’ll get posted when they get posted.

OK, I guess it’s not a wilderness adventure if you spend most of the day riding in an SUV.

But it’s not sitting in Dallas, it’s got that going for it.

However, you are definitely in the boonies when you find that you are in a town called â??Punkin Center.â? And it consists of nothing but four trailers. And it’s still the largest town for 30 miles in any direction. (True Story)

And you are really out in the middle of nowhere when you feel comfortable enough to stand in the middle of the highway to take a leak. Yes, this really happened, and no, it wasn’t me. And yes, I have evidence. Aren’t camera phones wonderful, even if they take blurry photos?

<<picture removed>>

Disgusting, isn’t it? Actually it was pretty funny at the time.

Travel tip for visitors to Colorado Springs… there are no hotels whatsoever on the south side of town. If you are looking for someplace to stay, keep to near the interstate on the north side.

On tap for tomorrow… touristy stuff… some combination of Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak, and Cave of the Winds. After a good night’s sleep, which I did not get last night.

This was taken right at the entrance to my tent. Nice view. Of course, those who read my last post will notice the lack of light obscuring smoke, and the photo does not properly portray the baying of the dogs nearby.

It really was a beautiful place, I would just rather go back on a less popular holiday weekend.

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