four corners part one?
drove with jenni, michael, and zoey straight to sand dunes national park. epic ass day, hiked up these huge dunes, michael eventually had to ditch the boogie board because of the wind (and it wouldnt slide on the sand). winds coming in from the south and small hail/rain coming in from above. we were separated from zoe and jenni and decided to keep hiking upwards. "let's get to that dune and call it quits" i said, thinking about how hard as fuck it is to walk straight up sand. "i would kind of regret it if we didn't get to the top" hah michael said. YES! so we kept going, met this guy who has a tattoo shop in alamosa (which we later FOUND) who was waxing his board to take down the dunes.
"you want to try it?"
"hah yeah!"
"you want to put on these gloves? they are sweaty but you can keep your hands out to keep stable"
"ok!"
"i would resist the urge to turn or slow down, or you'll eat it", pointing to his open mouth going "gob gob gob"
"ok!"
man that shit was like 35+mph SO FAST, good advice too. michael tried it, then we sat down so we wouldnt have a heart attack (thin air, hiking straight up, 35 degrees). after a short rest we got to the top of a 750ft dune.
drove to pegosa springs, co that night. checked in to an inn, took a walk with jenni and michael. found some frozen ponds, walked to downtown. we thought it was a pretty small town, equivalent to npr's downtown. then michael is like "hey what's that steaming thing?" and we go to this steaming mini-volcano lookin thing with water coming out of it. it's a hot spring! we look over the edge and see a dozen more and a huge river and the other 75% of the town. it started dropping snow, we walked back soaked but smiling. went in the hot tub, passed out by 9, mountain time.
woke up early, had continental breakfast, showed zoe what we found, drove out to mesa verde. made the spruce tree house tour at 1pm. hiked down and saw ancient (1200AD) puebloan villages nestled under cliffs. snuck off from the tour and saw this old spring that was the major source of water for them in the area. spent the rest of the day checking out pit houses, sun temples, and half a dozen other cliff dwellings. those people climbed straight down cliffs via little holes they chipped. anyway, later that day left mesa verde and hauled ass over open range roads, made hovenweep just as the sun was setting. spent the next hour walking this trail that looped around a small canyon speckled with ruins. noone knows why they built those things. we broke some rules and went inside them, pretty empty shells of their former grandeur. it was getting dark, the girls wanted to head back but we wanted to check out this dwelling carved out of a boulder. i also snuck down into the canyon off the trail and went up to this three story tower. the rangers put cleaning supplies in that thing! anyway we ran back just in time
later we drove to arches np and camped there, air mattresses and all. today we hiked out to devil's garden, took this primitive trail that was pretty crazy... there were "rock scrambles" that basically implied we had to cling to tiny crevices on the sides of these huge sandstone fins and try not to fall in to a pond and later... a ravine. got lost for three hours trying to find another way only to turn around because the odds of slipping were too high (i'd say 25%). anyway, made it back, saw a few other spots
anyway gotta go, went to canyonlands np later, saw some canyons as a storm came in, large fires on the plateau, not sure what those were about.. now we are in a hotel in moab, utah
"you want to try it?"
"hah yeah!"
"you want to put on these gloves? they are sweaty but you can keep your hands out to keep stable"
"ok!"
"i would resist the urge to turn or slow down, or you'll eat it", pointing to his open mouth going "gob gob gob"
"ok!"
man that shit was like 35+mph SO FAST, good advice too. michael tried it, then we sat down so we wouldnt have a heart attack (thin air, hiking straight up, 35 degrees). after a short rest we got to the top of a 750ft dune.
drove to pegosa springs, co that night. checked in to an inn, took a walk with jenni and michael. found some frozen ponds, walked to downtown. we thought it was a pretty small town, equivalent to npr's downtown. then michael is like "hey what's that steaming thing?" and we go to this steaming mini-volcano lookin thing with water coming out of it. it's a hot spring! we look over the edge and see a dozen more and a huge river and the other 75% of the town. it started dropping snow, we walked back soaked but smiling. went in the hot tub, passed out by 9, mountain time.
woke up early, had continental breakfast, showed zoe what we found, drove out to mesa verde. made the spruce tree house tour at 1pm. hiked down and saw ancient (1200AD) puebloan villages nestled under cliffs. snuck off from the tour and saw this old spring that was the major source of water for them in the area. spent the rest of the day checking out pit houses, sun temples, and half a dozen other cliff dwellings. those people climbed straight down cliffs via little holes they chipped. anyway, later that day left mesa verde and hauled ass over open range roads, made hovenweep just as the sun was setting. spent the next hour walking this trail that looped around a small canyon speckled with ruins. noone knows why they built those things. we broke some rules and went inside them, pretty empty shells of their former grandeur. it was getting dark, the girls wanted to head back but we wanted to check out this dwelling carved out of a boulder. i also snuck down into the canyon off the trail and went up to this three story tower. the rangers put cleaning supplies in that thing! anyway we ran back just in time
later we drove to arches np and camped there, air mattresses and all. today we hiked out to devil's garden, took this primitive trail that was pretty crazy... there were "rock scrambles" that basically implied we had to cling to tiny crevices on the sides of these huge sandstone fins and try not to fall in to a pond and later... a ravine. got lost for three hours trying to find another way only to turn around because the odds of slipping were too high (i'd say 25%). anyway, made it back, saw a few other spots
anyway gotta go, went to canyonlands np later, saw some canyons as a storm came in, large fires on the plateau, not sure what those were about.. now we are in a hotel in moab, utah