They told us at the Bears Ears Education Center in Bluff that we had to head over to Muley Point for the great views of the San Juan River and Monument Valley. We were not disappointed…

Bear Ears –

10/03/2019 Valley of the Gods

Found at the Moab KOA

Next, we drove through the Valley of the Gods and up Moki Dugway along a section of the Trail of the Ancients that we hadn’t seen before.

10/03/2019 Friends of Cedar Mesa

10/03/2019 Muley Point

I had purchased maps and gotten good information from the Friends of Cedar Mesa and wanted to stop by their Bears Ears Education Center. They gave us some good ideas on what not to miss in the area.

10/02/2019 Hovenweep Outlier Units

10/03/2019 Valley of the Gods

After lunch we headed out to some of the outlying units of the monument.

First was a hike to the Horseshoe and Hackberry Groups

Then up the road to the Holly Group

Back at camp we caught the sunset over the canyon.

10/02/2019 Hovenweep National Monument

10/03/2019 Friends of Cedar Mesa

We did the Hovenweep Ruins Trail this morning, which was a very enjoyable loop right from the campground. We enjoyed the monument so much we decided to stay an extra night.

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10/01/2019 Canyons of the Ancients National Monument

10/02/2019 Hovenweep Outlier Units

We left Mesa Verde and headed over to Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Outside the monument visitor center we visited Dominquez Pueblo and Escalante Pueblo. Then headed north to Lowry Pueblo and west to our destination, Hovenweep National Monument, where we hoped to get a campsite. Hovenweep has dispersed camping but we lucked out and got a site in the small campground on the canyon edge.

Sleeping Ute Mountain

McPhee Reservior near Dolores CO

Escalante Pueblo

Our campsite and Hovenweep National Monument

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9/30/2019 Mesa Verde National Park

10/02/2019 Hovenweep National Monument

We did a Ranger lead tour of Cliff Palace on Chapin Mesa in the morning. We had to do two different tours since we had Aragorn and didn’t feel good about leaving him in the car or camper. We hiked the Soda Canyon Overlook Trail to get a look at Balcony House. The Balcony House tour wasn’t being offered since it was off season. It was great that there were much fewer people which is why we decided to stay longer at Mesa Verde than we originally planned for.

We headed over to Wetherill Mesa in the afternoon to check out Long House which is another large house like Cliff Palace. The big loop there is a bike/hike road. We saw lots of burn areas as well.

Cedar Tree Tower

Cliff Palace

Balcony House

Long House

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9/29/2019 Mesa Verde National Park

10/01/2019 Canyons of the Ancients National Monument

Today we did the Mesa Top Loop

On the road into the park, views from the mesa…

Spruce Tree House

Cliff Palace –

Square Tower House –

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9/28/2019 Off to Mesa Verde

9/30/2019 Mesa Verde National Park

Packed and ready to go –

Kenosha pass was packed for fall colors –

Poncha Pass – the Decker fire continues to burn in the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness south of Salida

The West side of Wolf Creek Pass –

Dinner at Steamworks Brewing Company in Durango –

Camp in Mesa Verde NP –

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9/30/2018 Yellowstone National Park

9/29/2019 Mesa Verde National Park

We had planned to check out Yellowstone just before the park closed for winter this year.  I made a reservation at Flagg Ranch which is in between Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park for the night of 9/25 and at Madison Campground the next night.  The rest we were playing by ear.

We headed out on 9/24 for Yampa State Park just past Steamboat Springs.  There was quite a bit of smoke from a fire in the Gore Range on the way up.  We have found that this is a good stop to break up the drive so that we might arrive and Jackson earlier in the day and enjoy some time in the Tetons.

We passed more fires on the Colorado-Wyoming border and made it to Pinedale where we stopped at the visitor center to find that the Roosevelt Fire had closed the road to Jackson.  The nice lady in the visitor center showed us an alternate route on National Forrest roads which could get us west to Alpine and around the fires.  Well, so much for spending the afternoon in the Tetons…

North of Pinedale we turned left and down to the Cottonwood Creek road, over McDougal Gap and down the Sheep Creek drainage and the Grey’s River to Alpine, near the Idaho border.  Then, east along the Snake River to Jackson. 

That area of Bridger-Teton National Forest was gorgeous and the only people we saw were fire crews who warned us not to stop for the night as they were also mopping up a fire to the south of us.

The Roosevelt Fire burned over 60,000 acres with 55 structures lost.

We arrived in the dark at Flagg Ranch Campground for a very cold night.  June found that the camp dishwashing station was frozen when we were cleaning up in the morning.  We spent the day touring Yellowstone along the Old Faithful road and north to the Norris Geyser area.  We camped at Madison Campground where we were serenaded by the elk bugling and wolves howling along the Madison and Firehole Rivers.

We left the park through the west entrance and stopped for breakfast in West Yellowstone.  We traveled north toward the Big Sky Ski Area on our way to Bozeman. There were more fires along the highway on this edge of YNP.  The NPS policy was to let it burn, with just a few crews right along the highway.  We had lunch at Lone Peak Brewery in Big Sky and made it to the Bozeman Hot Springs Campgound, our destination.

We spent the next day exploring the area including a stop at the Schnee’s Store and a hike on the Drinking Horse Hill trail up the Bridger Canyon Road.

The next day we traveled through the north part of Yellowstone.  We went through Livingston and in the Mammoth entrance then the Blacktail Plateau Dr off the Grand Loop Rd, coming out near Tower.  Then, to Canyon, the Yellowstone River, by the lake and out the east entrance.  We stayed at the KOA campground in Cody.

It snowed in Cody and much of the next day.  We traveled through Thermopolis, Shoshoni and over to Casper and down I25 back to civilization.