Today was a long road trip around Utah, Colorado and Arizona.  First stop was Mesa Verde NP.  This is a shot of Cliff Palace.

After Mesa Verde, the next stop was Four Corners, where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah all meet.

After Four Corners, we drove to the Goosenecks of the San Juan River.

On the way back towards Bluff, there was a nice view of a classic monocline.

Returning to Moab, there was a thunderstorm in the distance and Amy was obsessed with getting some photos of the lightning.

Been off the grid for a couple of days.  On Friday traveled from Colorado Springs to Crawford CO to visit a friend.  Along the way we passed by Royal Gorge, but the bridge was closed because of the recent wildfires.

Just west of Poncha Springs, we passed the southern end of the Sawatch Mountains.

At Gunnison, we left Rt. 50 for CO 92 and began to climb up towards Fruitland Mesa. Along the way we got some glimpses of the Black Canyon.

After arriving at Rita's, we went to the Black Canyon Park proper for some more photos near sunset.

We also saw some wildlife on the way back.  The first were some elk in the park -

the second was Rita's Leopard tortoise Biko.

Today we made on more stop by the Black Canyon in the early morning before leaving for Moab.

We took SR 128 from I-70 into Moab, and it was a spectacular drive through the Triassic and Jurassic formations of the Colorado Plateau.

Will report back more from our travels around Moab tomorrow.

Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak

Went to Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak today.  The view of Pikes Peak from Garden of the Gods this morning was spectacular.

The monoliths of pebbly Lyons Sandstone in Garden of the Gods have been tilted to near-vertical by the Laramide Uplift of the Rocky Mountains.

There was some wildlife visible at Garden of the Gods - a mule deer.

Later we climbed Pikes Peak (by car).  The summit was wrapped in clouds, but I got some photos a little lower down.

And a close-up of the coarsely crystalline Pikes Peak Granite.

Tomorrow we leave for the Black Canyon area.

The Great American Desert

Left St. Louis and crossed what used to be called The Great American Desert (more commonly called the  Great Plains today). Below is a photo from the Kansas plains

We stopped in Hays KS to see the Sternberg Museum of Natural History.  There were some very good animatronic displays of Early Tertiary mammals and birds.  Here's a photo of one of the mammoths.

The trip across Kansas was long as usual and ran into another thunderstorm in eastern Colorado, just like last year, but the storm cleared as we reached Genoa and we were able to see Pikes Peak in the distance.

Reached Colorado Springs at sunset.  Will explore around Colorado Springs tomorrow before heading to Gunnison on Friday.

Rockin' Down the Road Again

Left NoVA for parts West again today (7/22).  Arrived in St. Louie after almost 14 hours of driving.  Road conditions were pretty good except for western MD (cloudy and rainy) and Indiana and Illinois (lots of road construction).

Will reach Colorado Springs tomorrow - will be good to see the Rockies again :-)