Santa Fe, New Mexico

We left Colorado and headed to Santa Fe, New Mexico on our journey back to Yuma. When we traveled with our RV, we always stayed in a campground in Albuquerque. We were so close to Santa Fe, but never visited. So, this time, we decided to spend a day there. 

By the way, we decided to leave the fifth wheel in Wisconsin from now on. So, no more towing for Kevin.

I did not find many tour options in Santa Fe. There is one company that does trolley tours, so we made sure to be there early to get a seat as they don't take reservations. A driver had called in sick, so they only had one trolley running. Luckily, we got there early enough and were able to get on the first one. 

We learned a lot about the city. Santa Fe is the oldest capital city in the country, founded in 1610 by the Spaniards. There is a great deal of history here. This sculpture was outside one of the museums. The city is known for its art. We saw many sculptures and art studios during our visit. Most of it was quite pricey!!

After the tour, we visited the Basilica of St. Francis built between 1869 and 1886. It is a beautiful church in the old town area. In one of the side chapels is the oldest statue of the Virgin Mary in North America. It is a 30 inch tall wooden statue, hand carved from willow and olive wood. It is believed she was carved between 1448 and 1648 based on tree ring dating, and brought to Santa Fe by the Spanish in 1626. She has 300 outfits and an extensive jewelry collection which is changed monthly to correspond with the church calendar. A Papal Crown was bestowed to her by Pope John XXIII in 1960.

We wandered around the central plaza which is a National Historic Landmark. 

Santa Fe is the 3rd oldest city in the US, after St. Augustine, Florida and Jamestown, Virginia. There are a lot of shops and restaurants in the old town area. Along the Palace of the Governors (the oldest capitol in the US and now a museum), there were dozens of  Native Americans selling jewelry. I managed to find a beautiful turquoise necklace made by James B Eustace of the Pueblo of Cochiti Native.

Our next stop was the current capitol building built in 1966. It's the only round capitol building in the US and was designed to resemble the Zia sun symbol when viewed from above. The Zia sun is on New Mexico's flag.

The sun symbol is seen all over New Mexico including on their state seal. There is a beautiful mosaic on the floor in the center of the capitol of the seal.

The four sets of lines on each side of the sun represent the four directions of the earth, the four seasons of the year, the four times of the day, and the four divisions of life. 

There is a great deal of art on display in and around the capitol building. The Capitol Art Foundation was established in 1991 to assist in the acquisition of art by New Mexico artists for permanent, public display. I thought this sculpture outside of the building was amazing!

In five days we leave Yuma again for our next 35 day adventure. We begin by flying to Kauai, Hawaii for a 5 day stay. Then we fly to Sydney, Australia for a 4 day visit. On October 23, we board the Princess Royal for a 10 day Australian cruise including the Great Barrier Reef. Next, we stay on the same ship for a 13 day cruise to New Zealand. Then we fly 16 hours from Sydney to Los Angeles, and drive a rental car back to Yuma. I'm sure we'll be quite exhausted by the time we get back home. Not much time for rest, though, as golf leagues will have already started, as well as all the other activities at the resort.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

We left Wisconsin on September 21st and headed to Lincoln to spend a few days with our family there. It has been two months since we saw Eden, and she sure has grown during that time. It was so wonderful to hold her again. We took some walks and just enjoyed family time.

She is "talking" to her mom. She's so alert!

After some much needed snuggling with Eden, we departed and headed to Montrose, Colorado. National Parks are places we really enjoy visiting. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is our 43rd park visited. There are a total of 63 National Parks in the United States, so we have visited quite a few of them. Some of them are in very remote areas that we will probably never go to. There are about 10 more that we plan to visit at some point.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison does not get nearly as many visitors as some of the more well known parks. It was established in 1999, and has been on my radar for some time. As we drove across Interstate 70 through the Rocky Mountains, the scenery was just breathtaking. The aspen trees were in full autumn color. The area around Vail was beautiful.

The canyon was formed by the Gunnison River eroding the rock. It is a 53-mile-long canyon that’s one of the narrowest and deepest in the western United States. So deep, in fact, that sunlight rarely reaches the bottom—a feature that helped give it the name.

View behind the visitor center

At it's deepest part, the canyon is over 2,700 feet deep. This sign gives you a perspective on just how deep that is. The Empire State Building would only reach about half way. The tallest building in the world in Dubai is about the same height.

There is a 7 mile road with 12 overlooks along the south rim of the canyon with a visitor center at the start. You can also drive along the north rim, but much of that is a gravel road. We stayed on the south road. It was a beautiful, sunny fall day for our viewing pleasure. Some of the overlooks didn't have a parking spot for us, but we think we saw plenty at the overlooks we were able to visit.

We attended a ranger talk on the geology of the park. There are three main types of rocks that form the walls. I don't remember their names, but the lighter one is what creates the veins and makes for the pretty designs at the Painted Wall Overlook.

At one of the overlooks, we saw what looked like a castle. Let your imagination run wild!

Do you see it? (Top center)

Closer view

The area below is popular with rock climbers. We didn't see any climbers that day. There is no way I'd try that!

Chasm Overlook View

The Gunnison River runs throughout the canyon. From above it looks quite tame. The river drops 2,100 feet through 14 miles of the canyon. The sand and gravel grating against the riverbed act as a liquid buzz saw. During the spring runoff, the river roars with 2.75 million horsepower. A jet engine has 110,000 horsepower. That powerful water can move rocks weighing over 5,000 pounds through the river. Wow!!

Along with the river in the above picture, notice how the wall on the left is much steeper and more jagged than the wall on the right. This is due to more sun exposure on the left which evaporates the snow quickly. The right side has the snow stay on longer which causes more erosion making it smoother.

These scrub oak bushes were showing their vivid fall colors throughout the park.

We had dinner at the Horsefly Brewing Company in Montrose. The food was good. Kevin tried two of their beers, and said it was some of the best beer he'd ever had. If you're wondering how it got it's name. it's named after Horsefly Peak. 

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!