[at-l] Car camping trip report (Not very AT related)

[Gary Ticknor <garyticknor@starpower.net>]

I just got back from a two week car camping trip with my 13 year old
daughter to the southern Rockies:

Itinerary:
 1: Saturday,  Aug 19:    Pecos NF CG
 2: Sunday,    Aug 20:    Bandelier NM CG
 3: Monday,    Aug 21:    Sugarite Canyon SP CG near Raton
 4: Tuesday,   Aug 22:    Colorado Springs Motel
 5: Wednesday, Aug 23:    USFS CG at Dillon
 6: Thursday,  Aug 24:    Bogan Flats CG
 7: Friday,    Aug 25:    Ouray Motel
 8: Saturday,  Aug 26:    Mesa Verde CG
 9: Sunday,    Aug 27:    Canyon de Chelly CG
10: Monday,    Aug 28:    Bighorn CG
11: Tuesday,   Aug 29:    El Paso Motel
12: Wednesday, Aug 30:    Cloudcroft
13: Thursday,  Aug 31:    Albuquerque Motel
14: Friday,    Sep  1: -  Home
Total mileage driven: 3036

Impressions:

Pecos NHP - Okay, good, but not nearly as spectacular as Bandelier or
Mesa Verde.

Glorieta Pass - Nothing much to see, but I had always wanted to see the
Glorieta/Santa Fe pass after seeing South Pass in Wyoming.

El Ranchero de los Golondrinas - Neat collection of 17th & 18th century
haciendas, farms, mills, old buildings. Complete with livestock and
furnishings and crops and irrigation ditches. Worth a visit.

Santa Fe area:

  Plaza - I preferred Taos and Albuquerque. They were having a craft
fair festival and the place was jammed.

  Loretto Chapel - not really worth a visit. All in all, I preferred
Taos.

Bandelier NM - Great! Some fire damage at park entrance. Good pueblo
ruins and great cliff houses, but not on a par with Mesa Verde. Nice
canyon walk.

High Road to Taos - Not really worth the extra time. IMHO.

Taos: I liked Taos:

  Rancho de Taos - One old church. NWTT.

  Taos Pueblo - Worth a visit. Kind of disconcerting, no elec, no
running water, only 50 people still living there full time. But only
remaining inhabited pueblo (I think), and may not last long. Most of it
was off limits. It would be more fun if you could explore it more. The
guide was good.

  Taos Plaza - Charming, but touristy.

  Kit Carson house - Not much to see. An old furnished house/museum.

  Blumenschein House - Neat, home of a southwestern artist with good
decoration ideas. Art Deco'y. Vibrant. I could see myself living there.

  Martinez Hacienda - Good 17th century restored hacienda in a rural
setting. Made you feel you were back there. All these three together are
worth a visit.

  Rio Grande Gorge Bridge - Scary! Steel bridge over 1000 foot chasm. It
sways :( Long walk over and back. Or you could just drive.

Colorado Springs area:

  Pikes Peak Cog RR - Good. Long. No oxygen at the top :). Great views.
Great woods, waterfalls. Saw two stags in velvet. Drink lots of water.

  Florissant Fossil Beds NM - Disappointing, little to see. NWTT. Go to
Petrified Forest NP instead.

  Flying W Ranch CW Dinner - Corny. So-so but generous food. It wasn't
Rock and Roll, but I  liked it. I guess I'm just a cowpoke wannabe at
heart. Worth a visit.

  Garden of the Gods - Just a drive through. Neat rocks, would make good
hiking country.

Denver Four Mile Historic Park - NWTT, not much there. Some farm
critters.

Georgetown-Silver Plume Loop RR - Great! THE RR trip to take in the
Rockies (unless you want to spend all day on the Durrango RR, which we
didn't).

Lebanon Mine - From the above RR. You go in 600 feet. Good guide. Watch
your head (they make you wear a hard hat) and your feet (mines are wet).
Take a jacket (mines are cool). Good history. Very real. I would not
like to be a miner (they were well paid, but didn't last long). See a
mine!

Leadville area: (Note: sleeping above 10,100 feet you huff and puff a
lot)

  Mining Museum - Much better than expected, with mine mock-up rooms you
went through.

  Healy House Museum - Victorian boarding house. Something to do.

  Tabor Opera House - Neat, you could go all over, and backstage too.

  Matchless Mine - You hear Baby Doe Tabor's story of nouveau riche to
starvation. You don't go into the mine. Fun though - good guide, made it
come alive.

Independence Pass - Long scary drive up and down. Short hike at top in
tundra. Needs air. Thought of Jim and Jenny last year >>descending<< to
this.

Glenwood Springs Hot Springs Pool - Huge, HOT, and smelly. 140 degrees
cooled down to 105. I was never so relaxed. Purrrr...

Glenwood Canyon Drive - Freeway had to go carefully through paradise :(
What can I say?

Ft Uncompahgre Living History Museum - Neat! Good trading post, good
character actors, good cats, good history. Watch out for Diablo the
longhorn. Black Widows in the powder magazine. Worth a visit.

Colorado NM - Spectacularly beautiful! Great short hikes. Photo city!

Black Canyon of the Gunnison NM - See Colorado NM above, but a river
runs through it. Both definitely worth a visit.

Ouray Box Canyon Falls - Saw this in Swiss Alps - gravel laden stream
acts as a band saw and cuts a slot canyon using a waterfall. Wet and
humid. Loud!

Silverton-Durrango Million Dollar Highway -  Badly needs guardrails. I
hate trucks. The San Juans are beautiful.

Mesa Verde NP: The high point of the trip. Entrance and north end and
part of campground burned. Awful sight. They were putting in new
guardrails - the old had burned. Saw (over two days) Chapin Mesa Arch
Museum, Spruce Tree House, Cliff Palace (most photogenic), Cedar Tree
Tower, Balcony House (best of all), Farming Terrace Trail, Far View
Complex (also neat). We got Kiva'd out! Weatherill Mesa & Long House
were closed because of the Pony Canyon fire, and may be for some time.
This park is indeed one of the crown jewels of the Park system.

Anasazi Heritage Center - I expected this to be a tourist trap, but is
was a NPS hands-on museum instead. Worth a visit.

Four Corners - tourist rip-off. Just a spot in the desert, and me a
former surveyor. Wonder why I went.

Canyon de Chelly NM - Beautiful, would have been better to take a guided
(but expensive) tour of the valley floor. I am using it as my current
screen saver.

Petrified Forest NP - Great! Includes Painted Desert, badlands, Anasazi
ruins and some petroglyphs. Not as scenic as Canyon de Chelly but more
interesting.

The Catwalk NRTr - Disappointing, poorly signed and maintained.

Pinos Altos Ghost Town - Not a ghost town. A run-down artist colony.
NWTT.

El Paso/Juarez: - A taste of the third world. Juarez has beautiful parks
and a vibrant sense of style missing in the US outside of NYC - it
reminded me a bit of Rio. Shopped (and haggled) in the Mercado Juarez,
and saw the Plaza Principal with its Mission and Cathedral. Not the best
Mexican City, but worth a hop over the border.

Carlsbad Caverns NP: Another trip high point. Took every tour possible
in a 1 day stop:  the Natural Entrance Tour, Big Room Tour and King's
Palace Tour. I am a sucker for caves, but this is the big one - worth a
day.

White Sands NM - Disappointing at first until we got deep into it, then
everything expected: towering sparkling white dunes with NO sign of life
whatsoever. Eerie and silent. Cool (well, hot).

Albuquerque area:

  Oldtown Plaza - Also charming. Photogenic. Pleasant. We liked it.

  Sandia Tramway - Like its European counterparts. Good views. Nice
hikes in spruce/fir/aspen at the top.           Saw two deer. Would like
to see the view at night. Worth doing if you're in Albuquerque.

  Petroglyph NM - LOTS of petroglyphs. No "Will we see one?". You WILL
see one. You will see hundreds. Worth a trip if you have never seen
petroglyphs, or are really into them.

Well, that's it. Anyway, that's why I missed HATT.


- Gary from Fairfax

* From the AT-L |  Need help? http://www.backcountry.net/faq.html  *

==============================================================================