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"Family Fandango 2006" Santa Fe, Wild Rivers, Ouray, Telluride, and Moab - June 30 - July 9, 2006 (7/13/06 - Still haven't even washed the jeep or unpacked, but couldn't wait to get the photos uploaded...Stay tuned for the "official" scrapbook, maps, and other info about these tours, including some interesting things we learned and fun side trips.)
Some of the tools for a successful adventure... (OK, so the Patron isn't a tool, but that cool margarita sure was nice by the campfire!) This year's trip also features a new addition....our own "Lucky Lucy - the Jeep Dog".
(Sometimes it's handy to have a jeep dog to help out when the winch just can't cut it!) Days 1 - 3: New MexicoWe met in Santa Fe on Friday night with K's mom, Frances, his 2 brothers, Randy and Ty and his wife Dorrian with their daughter, Megan. After a long day's travel we all just wanted a bite to eat and a bed to sleep in. The next morning we met at the Farmer's Market (corner of Guadalupe and Cerrillos) and did some shopping and visiting until it was too hot to stay in the sun. We adjourned to the Plaza for more shopping and visiting, then had a light lunch at a cute restaurant called "The Shed". We had to wait for over an hour to get a patio table, but we comfortably passed the time looking in the shops on the courtyard and visiting amongst the bright flowers and interesting people on the little courtyard patio that served as the waiting area for the restaurant.
Our daughter Kim and my mom got into town that evening, so we all met at Tomasita's restaurant, a long-time family favorite in Santa Fe. Frances said she had been going there since around 1984.
(Clockwise from front: Dorrian, Frances, Kim, Kevin, Megan, Linda, Alice, Randy, Ty) Early Sunday morning K and I prepared the jeep for the camping portion of the trip, checked out of the motel, then met the rest of the family at a pretty little park about 6 miles North of Santa Fe in the National Forest. Randy and I had prepared a "church service" - mainly consisting of some favorite old Church of Christ songs - and we all sang like idiots right there at the picnic table (reminiscent of our family "sunrise service" at Easter on Lake Nocona). It's something we'll never forget, and very moving when we considered how lucky we all were to be happy, healthy, and together for a special vacation.
The rest of the family spent the day lost in Santa Fe (so we hear), and we also heard a rumor that Kim and Alice escaped to one of the Indian casinos North of town.... In the meantime, K and L are off on their own adventures! We traveled North on Hwy 84/58/522 (depending on where you are) to Taos, where we stopped at Eske's Brew Pub for lunch and a quick beer. We've been there before, so we knew that we could get one of their excellent sandwiches and save half for left-overs at the campsite later. We stopped in Questa for gas, then continued on to State Hwy 378 that winds toward the Rio Grande and Wild Rivers Recreation Area. It had rained off-and-on all day, but the campsites had covered pavilions with picnic tables, so we were able to get the whole tent under cover and (sort-of) kept most of our stuff dry when the clouds opened up with a deluge that night. That area has been in drought conditions so the rain was welcomed and we weren't too inconvenienced by it, although we were still hoping to find some pleasant weather for camping further up North in Colorado. Although we were just passing through on this trip, we made a note to come back to this area some time and actually hike down to one of the rivers that converge there...the Red River and the mighty Rio Grande. Day 4: To the Mountains!
We made it!! This is what we wait for all year. K had this particular campsite in mind since we first saw it many years ago, and because it was getting late and campers seemed to be scouting for the same thing we were, we grabbed this site at Angel Creek on the Camp Bird county road that goes up to Yankee Boy Basin and Mount Sneffels. It's an easy spot to get to and we wanted to be able to base camp here in order to get into town (Ouray) or up to some of our favorite off-road trails (Imogene, Engineer, Corkscrew, Alpine Loop, etc). The "creek" (we would call it a mighty river in Texas!) had apparently gone out of it's banks recently (probably the same storm that came through Wild Rivers Sunday night). The water was running milky white (runoff carrying that gray sandy mud from the mountains high above), and the camp site was still pretty wet but the weather seemed to be drying a bit so we figured we were OK for 2 nights. There were no campfires allowed because of the drought, but any more rain would make that law obsolete soon (at least, we hoped). For tonight, though, we decided to go into Ouray and have a steak at a favorite restaurant, "The Outlaw" (the leftover sandwiches will wait). Yum...now we have left-over steak and pasta. The cooler is getting pretty full... Day 5: A July 4th Celebration!
The population of Ouray is 813, but there were easily twice that many spectators for the annual Ouray 4th of July Parade. We had breakfast at one of our favorite vacation breakfast spots, the "Main Street Cafe" in downtown Ouray, and finished just in time to watch the parade from the front steps of the restaurant. We refreshed our cooler and prepared to put the jeep in "granny low" for the first time this trip.
With the intention of making Imogene Pass this afternoon from the other side of Telluride, we took the Ophir Pass trail over to Hwy 145. By this time the rain was coming down pretty hard, so we ducked into a deli-bakery in Telluride for lunch (more stuff for the cooler) and to wait out the rain. It became apparent soon that this rain wasn't the mountain-variety afternoon shower, and we'd have to make other arrangements for this afternoon's tour besides Imogene Pass (we've done that one before in the rain, and K said he didn't want to go "uphill against a waterfall" in the new jeep...probably a prudent decision). Instead, we explored a few trails off of Hwy 145 and got back to Ouray in time for dinner and to find a good spot for the 4th of July Fireworks display. We parked on the mud-road near Box Canyon Falls and opened up the sunrider roof over the front seats in the jeep to watch the big event...I had brought a cd with marches and patriotic music, so our soundtrack was the perfect accompaniment to the fireworks exploding over the town lights below us in the valley. What a perfect celebration!! Day 6: Housekeeping and Travel DayWednesday morning we were dragging....partly a result of little sleep in the tent (Lucy still thinks she needs to chase every critter in the forest) and partly just the fatigue of traveling. We were out of underwear and everything was covered with mud....at least the creek stayed within its' banks, but the threat of more rain sealed the decision to move on to (hopefully) drier climes. After breaking camp (2 hours!), we went into Ouray and had breakfast once again at Main Street Cafe (they know us there by now), then did our laundry and took a quick swim at the hot springs pool. The hot water was exactly what we needed to sooth our aching bones, and clean underwear always has a calming effect! We finally got back on the highway sometime after noon, still driving in the rain, towards Utah.
Day 7: Moab, Arches National Park, Dead Horse PointOK, so we're in the desert and it's still raining! It rains an average of 9" a year in this part of the country, and aren't we lucky that we are here to witness it all??? Well, it actually didn't rain all the time, and the clouds created some beautiful scenes (especially at sunset). Since we decided to bag the whole camping aspect of this trip (by now everything's wet and muddy), we can be a bit more mobile and perhaps get in some serious offroading while in the world-headquarters of offroading. First things first, though, and for the first half of the day we visited Arches National Park just North of Moab.
I wasn't prepared for the breathtaking beauty of the red rock formations....we slipped in a classical music cd and witnessed God's handiwork with the soundtrack that was as majestic as the scenery. Lots of photos here, so to see the entire slideshow go to our Flickr album here.
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