Author: Colleen

This author has written 284 articles
Read more about the article Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument

After a two hour drive through beautiful desert/forest countryside we arrived at Gila Cliff Dwelling National forest that is the home of the Cliff Dwellings.   The Cliff Dwellings were the home of the ancient Puebloan people.  Archeologists call this the Mogollon area. It is believed that these were built approx. 700 years ago and were most likely home to several different groups.  Evidence suggests that the Apache migrated to the upper Gila River in the 1500s.  Apache leader Geronimo (tribe name Goyahkla) was born in the Gila River area.   To get to the cliff dwellings you hike a…

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Read more about the article White Sands National Park

White Sands National Park

Today we explored White Sands National Park in New Mexico about 40 miles east of Los Cruces.  Wow!  The National Park is completely surrounded by the White Sands Missile Range! The park covers 145,762 acres and is a field of white sand dunes composed of gypsum crystals. This gypsum dunefield is the largest of its kind on Earth, with a depth of about 30 feet, dunes as tall as 60 feet and about 4.5 billion tons of gypsum sand.The sand is so white it is truly blinding in the bright sun.  One of the rangers told us that people get lost…

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Read more about the article Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Travel update

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Travel update

Due to Covid everyone must get online tickets to tour Carlsbad Cavern.  We had tickets for 9am on Monday!  There are 2 ways to get into the cavern...by elevator that goes down approx. 1000’ or you can walk the Natural Entrance that followed the first explorers’ route, also descending approx. 1000’; we chose the Natural Entrance!  This route enters through a large “natural” hole and the path is similar to hiking the Grand Canyon!  It is hard to explain how steep the paved trail is, with switchback after switchback and fairly dark.  The “natural entrance” travels about a mile and…

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Read more about the article The Texas Panhandle!

The Texas Panhandle!

Welcome to Texas!  After our day in Prison outside of Knoxville TN we decided to head west sooner than later.  It took 3 days to arrive in Texas.  We are Caprock State Park in Quitaque TX.  This park has free roaming bison that are direct descendants of the original free roaming bison herd. At one time there were as many as 30-60 million bison free roaming the plains until the “great slaughter” where professional hide hunters killed off so many bison the the herd was down to less than 1000!  We have had the opportunity to observe the bison in…

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