Two Days in Rocky Mountain N.P.

The wait is over!  Atom & Susan arrived Thursday afternoon!   It is so nice to have our friends with us for a portion of this journey.  We are in Estes Park and have had a delightful few days.  We explored Boulder, toured and hiked in the national park and enjoyed a wine tasting yesterday afternoon.   We have encountered a variety of weather, yesterday after visiting the Alpine Visitor Center (approx. 12,000 feet of elevation) there was sleet and hail and the temps dropped to 48.   We have a little compound at our campground! Today, we are exploring…

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Hickman Bridge Trail, Capitol Reef NP

After leaving Escalante we headed to Hanksville UT about 35 miles from Capitol Reef National Park.  Capitol Reef is a great park and is just a little bit less crowded than the other big parks of Bryce, Zion, Arches, and Canyonlands.  This trip, we found the park to be less crowded and very pleasant so we were able to hike this cool trail; Hickman Bridge.  The trail is 2.4 miles long with an elevation gain of 733ft; this trail is listed as moderate.  The entire hike was beautiful and the “Hickman Bridge” is a 133’ long, 125’ long arch named…

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Wire Pass/Buckskin Gulch

Some days you just don’t know how your plans are going to work out.  Well, today’s plans beat all expectations!  We hiked Wire Pass to Buckskin Gulch…both are amazing slot canyons in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area.  To reach the trailhead of Wire Pass you drive 8.3 miles on a dirt road. Wire pass starts out hiking through Coyote Wash and after about a mile you enter the most colorful slot canyon. Halfway through the pass there is a wooden ladder that drops about 10 feet.  Wire Pass opens into the high walls with petroglyphs and meets up with…

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Bandelier National Monument

We have been in Santa Fe for a couple days, checking out the town and enjoyed a delicious lunch yesterday at The Shed. This morning we checked out the Railyard Farmers Market.  Our winning purchase was a “Hatch Chile Croissant”!  To our surprise it was so good!After the Farmers Market we headed to Bandelier National Monument about 35 miles from Santa Fe and is part of the Jemez Volcanic field. This monument dates back more than 10,000 years.  Native Americans moved in and out of this area following movement of game animals.  Bandelier National Monument consists of ruins of above…

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