When we made a special trip to see Stella, Marina, Candice, Kathy, Tonia, and so many of our friends who have migrated to Colorado, we could have flown there and back. It would have taken two miserable days in crowded airports and even more crowded airplanes. All the while being told to "enjoy our flight."
But we decided to go on a leisurely road trip, driving less than 300 miles each day, taking three days each way, for a total of six days…..and enjoy our beautiful country along the way.
This is what we experienced on our trip to and from Colorado….
On the Mogollon Rim 40 miles north of our cabin, approaching Mary’s Lake….
Elephant Feet…yes, it’s really called Elephant Feet.
Is there really a house on top of the grain silo?
Monument Valley. We will never get tired of seeing these amazing “monuments!”
Our first night along the San Juan River in Mexican Hat….
The San Juan Trading Post in the olden days—the early 1950’s, when we were just little toddlers….
Sunrise at the San Juan Trading Post….
One of our favorite places to camp and hike, Valley of the Gods. We had no idea that it is this crowded in the spring. We will continue to camp here during the fall, when we have this spectacular valley (almost) all to our ourselves.
Hiking to the base of the base of the Seven Sailors in Valley of the Gods….
This is the area where Candice has the Moab 240 mile endurance race. You can see why she designed a race here when you see the view as we approach Moab with beautiful Manti la Sal Mountains in the distance….
Our second night we stayed in Colorado along the Colorado River at a small town called Parachute. We actually saw several parachute jumpers in the skies we approached Parachute.
For dinner we always looked for an authentic Mexican Restaurant. This one, in Parachute, is the most unique and beautiful one that we have ever seen….and the food was excellent.
Following the Colorado River through the mountain passes in the Rocky Mountains. This is different from our deserts and the mountain pine forests in Arizona….so amazingly green!
Just before we hit the population centers on the eastern slope of the Rockies, we drove thirteen miles south on Colorado 303 to Echo Lake. We wanted to see if this is the “Echo Lake” in the picture that Dan’s parents had since he was a young boy. (Dan will write more about this picture in another post.)
The first thing that we saw was several young men taking turns sitting in the water—shivering cold. They had chopped a hole in the ice on the edge of the lake doing, as they said, “cold plunges.” If this is what you have to do when you’re young, we decided that we are just as happy being old and sitting in our heated car. But they were having great fun!
The drive to Echo Lake was beautiful, and it definitely was the same lake that is in the picture that now hangs in our bedroom at the cabin. It was very exciting to find our Echo Lake!
At the end of our Colorado visit, we left Kathy’s home and started back to our cabin on Mother’s Day. Kathy waved goodbye from her doorstep until we were out of sight—just like Mom and Dad always did.
Colorado bid us farewell with rain and snow storms. Boy, will we be happy to get back to Arizona and find some sun and heat!
The Highway Department had a special message for Moms on Mother’s Day….
Our first night on our homeward trip we stayed at the beautiful, deserted little town of Raton. It looked like it must have been a booming town at one time…but now the coal mine had closed and it looked like a ghost town, lost in time.
I surprised Dan with reservations in Raton at the Raton Pass Motor Inn. The motel advertised itself as “an authentic, vintage, cowboy motel.” Believe it or not, I was able to reserve the “Cowboy Movie” room for us! Can you imagine anything more perfect for my Danny?!!
And the motel didn’t disappoint us…in fact, it surpassed our expectations!
This is not a picture….it’s the shower curtain!
There was even an area behind the cowboy motel where you could sit or walk a dog (complete with doggie poop bags). It was prettier than many city parks, and there was a fantastic view of the surrounding mesas.
A young married couple owns this motel, Michael and Brandy. We felt that we were staying with friends, and were sad to leave our Cowboy Movie room. They sent us off with breakfast goodies, hot coffee, and friendly goodbyes. We highly recommend this unique and fun motel. It’s not really a motel, but an experience.
Beautiful New Mexico grasslands and more….
The Rio Grande….
This old road crosses our country from downtown Chicago at the lake front to the Santa Monica pier—Route 66….
We spent the last night of our road trip at another fun place…an old authentic Route 66 motel in Grants, New Mexico.
The Southwest Motel….the billboard says it is “nice and clean,” and it was. It was also VERY inexpensive.
We arrived at 12:45pm. Of course, we knew that check-in time was 3:00pm. We were tired so we decided to call the telephone number on the door, hoping that maybe we could get into our room early. Sure enough, “Kim” answered the phone and said that he wasn’t there, but would let us in. When I asked how long it would be until he got here, he said he was an hour away, but that he would let us in now.
Kim proceeded to tell me to go to the Pepsi machine, look at the ice machine next to the Pepsi machine, and then go to the hoses next to the ice machine. Kim said there was a bowl above the hoses with hoses nozzles in it. He told me to look in the bowl under the hose nozzles for a key with blue tape on it. This was the master key. He said our room was #114, and he specifically instructed me to be sure to put the motel master key back under the nozzles after we got into our room. What trust….we were amazed!
Here I am looking for the master key.
Right where Kim said it was!
Look at this sign listing all the fancy, most up-to-date amenities!
Note that the two pictures on the walls are identical. Two hours later when we finally checked in, we noticed that the same picture is in the motel office.
Every few hours we even had a view from our front porch….of the trains rushing by on the Santa Fe Railway!
We just love these quaint, old family owned motels that most people never see anymore. In fact most people we know would never bother to stop at these small towns like Grants, and if they did, they would stay at one of the big chain motels.
We drove through the Neon Route 66 sign in the morning as we left Grants, New Mexico….
Today we will be back at our sweet little cabin. We are so excited that we will soon see the pine forests and grasslands on the Mogollon Rim and then wind down off the rim to our very own small town of Pine.
We headed west on the interstate which follows remnants of the original Route 66 east-west across our country. It is sad to see all the small motels, restaurants, and gas stations that are closed and boarded up now that Route 66 doesn’t go through these small communities and towns anymore.
It’s good to be back in our home state!
The first thing we saw across the Arizona state line….
At Geronimo there is the”Worlds Largest Petrified Tree!” It is left of the teepee on the right of this photo.
A few miles before Winslow, we passed this….
What was that! It looked like something out of Road Warrior. We found out that it’s the Cholla Power Plant, powered by coal. It went into service in 1962, and is scheduled to close in 2025. This will put more people out of work, and add to the destitution and decline in this area.
We found a sign celebrating one of our favorite TV shows from the 1960’s. How appropriate since we were on Route 66 and tonight when we get home, we’ll watch a few episodes of the last season of High Chaparral.
In Winslow we left Route 66….
….and headed towards the Rim. See the trees on the hills in the distance.
We knew that we were on the Mogollon Rim when we saw the sign for elk (next 15 miles) and were surrounded by our lovely pine trees.
Home sweet home….
We enjoyed every minute together on the six days that we drove to and from Colorado. Why wouldn’t we? We were exploring our magnificent country and we were together. We both believe that our road trip was much more special because we drove, rather than flying. We added six wonderful days to our life together while driving, instead of losing two miserable days in cities, airports, and airplanes.
This road trip and the time that we spent with our daughter and her partner, Adam, our granddaughters, Kathy and Tonia, and our friends is always going to be a very dear memory for us. Thank you to all of you who we love very much!
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