Mesa Verde and Boulder

Crossing the state line back to Colorado bought us in to cowboy country.  Lots of cattle farms, with real cowboys on horses herding cattle down the roads.  There was even a horse-driven plough.

Our destination, Durango, was close to the Mesa Verde National Park.  As a change from hiking, the attraction was the remarkable and historic cliff dwellings, inhabited by the Pueblo Indians from about 1100AD until 1300AD.

This area is very popular in the summer, but fortunately when we visited it was closing down for winter, and very quiet.  Our ranger-led tour of the Cliff Palace had only three people in it, in contrast to the height of the season when there would be 60.  The cave dwellings themselves are fascinating, well built out of local stone, carefully set out and in reasonably good repair considering their age.  Cliff Palace had around 100 rooms.  Just getting to some of the ledges would have involved either rock-climbing or ladders.  Now there are steps cut and steel railings.  No-one knows why the whole area was abandoned just after the construction was completed.

Driving back to Durango later in day we stopped to view two coyotes wandering through the dry scrub land.  Durango has a great little historic downtown area complete with western bar and hotel.  We had dinner there, entertained by a yodelling cowboy, typically attired in check shirt, jeans, pointy boots, and cowboy hat.  Our waitress had on a saloon girl outfit.

The road to Denver led up through the Rocky’s, crossing Wolf Creek Pass in a blizzard. The highway  passed through Del Norte on the to Salida, where we booked a night in the  Gateway Inn.  For $57 you get a room with 2 queen beds, wifi, ensuite, fridge, coffee maker and self-service continental breakfast.  We are getting used to these typical breakfast arrangements.  Usually there are a selection of coffee, juices, fruits, yogurt, cereals, pastries, eggs and even waffle makers.  It seems OK to take a bit of everything and wrap the left-overs for lunch later.

Salida is a funky seasonal resort town with the kayak-friendly Arkansas River running through it.  There are skiing, hiking and mountain-biking trails in the surrounding hills. The Mexican food and local beer in the Boatman Cafe are superb.

The road to Boulder and Denver continues up through vast dry plains watered by many pivot irrigators.  The scene is very much like that in the Mackenzie Country at home, except the elevations are 7000 feet higher. Light snow squalls swept across in front of the car as we crossed the Rocky’s one last time, at a steady 65mph on wide empty roads.

Waiting for us in Boulder were Steve and Jayne Miller, and their two boys Jeffery and Aidan. They kindly put us up for 3 nights, and organised a dinner with many fellow skiers from ski touring trips to Canada a few years back. It was fantastic, after a 5 year gap, to catch up with Kim Ryder, Dave Meldrum, Bruce Plodkin, and Emily Rothman (wife of Dave who was away skiing at Monarch near Salida).  They organised a short hike in the Eldorado canyon the following day, where we saw plenty of rock climbers, and later deer in the meadows above. Dara and I did some further exploring a day later, in the Gregory Canyon, on Flagstaff peak, and on the Mesa Trail below the Flatirons.  These distinctive flat slabs of red rock rise directly behind Boulder and provide a playground for climbers, hikers and bikers. Bears and coyotes are abundant and frequently get in to peoples gardens in town.

We helped Kim walk her delightful springer spaniel Katie around the neighbourhood.  Katie has a to wear a little brace to support a deformed front leg, and happily trots along with a distinctive tapping noise on the footpaths.  Katie narrowly avoided getting her owner a $50 ticket from the patrolling dog rangers, for not wearing her lead on the park.

We were sad to leave the busy Miller household and wished the kids well for their weekend events, Jeffery in a swimming competition that might get him a place in the Nationals, and Aidan in a violin recital. Having been treated to a special performance at home, we know he will be amazing.  In return, I had to perform a very rusty rendition of my old school haka for them. 

California and Napa valley here we come ....

Click here for photos of Mesa Verde and Boulder

Utah, John Wayne Country.

Moab is a classic US strip town with the main road heading right through the middle.  It is lined with motels, hotels, petrol stations and various shops.  While the town isn’t anything to write home about, the surrounding countryside is stunning.  It is a mecca for rock climbers and mountain bikers.

Just driving to and around The Arches National Park is a visual treat, filled with the most jaw-dropping gob-smacking scenery so far.  Red sand-stone, shaped by water and wind into high cliffs, waves, arches, fins and towers.  We walked around the Devil’s Garden loop in perfect weather, trying to capture the views on camera, but truly you have to be there to believe it.

We had a similar experience at Canyon Lands National Park, where Green and Colorado Rivers have cut a deep and colourful rift in the tableland.  This is real John Wayne country (quite a few movies John Wayne movies were filmed there, also the closing scene from Thelma and Louise among others).  Unlike the relatively populated Arches NP, the Murphy Loop walk we did was completely deserted.  For company we had many small lizards, cliff chipmunks, and a few tired mountain-bikers at the halfway point where our path crossed the White Rim Crater trail. 

As a bonus, the local Moab Brewery had a fine cafe for dinners.  I recommend the Porter Ale with strong hint of coffee.  Wines are also made in Utah.  The Outlaw Red was our choice, after a tasting session at the Canyon Creek winery.

Click here to see pictures of the Arches and Canyon Lands NP

Thoughts on USA food

A few words about food in USA

Well it is certainly different here.  No meat pies and no fish and chip shops.  So many different types of milk that it's confusing try to buy just ordinary milk. Milkshakes are rare.

Some of the more unusual  items we've come across are based on:

Pumpkin: pie, beer, milk shake, and cappuccino.

Blueberry: pie and beer

Lobster: roll, and ice-cream

Peanut Butter: double PB fudge ice-cream, chips, pretzels, snickers bars

Beer: pumpkin, blueberry, coffee, orange, coriander, raspberry

There have been a surprising number of towns with brew-pubs where they serve beer made on the premises.  All good.

The hamburger is the staple food for lunch or dinner and invariably good at cafes and restaurants. Definitely great value.

Here "entrees" are the main course.  Not sure why they are called that.  Entrees are called "appetizers".

In some places a 16oz cup of fizz costs the same as a 44oz! That's well over a litre, for 69c.

Nearly every wine outlet and restaurant we've been to has NZ savvy blanc on sale, same price as at home.

 Tired from the walking and tastings, we fell back on the good old American standby, the cheeseburger from Burger King, so we didn’t have to go out.  There are many burger joints to choose from, but we’ve never been desperate enough yet to try the interestingly named “In and Out”, or the “Kum and Go”.

Colorado

Colorado 

The change in scenery between NY and Denver could not be more dramatic.  NY with its endless man-made vista’s and Denver surrounded by flat desert, and back-drop of high mountains. 

The weather was fine when we drove North in our rental car, a Ford (con) Fusion.  The crappiest car we’ve had yet, but bigger and more suited to the long distances between Colorado’s towns.

The mountains were clear of both cloud and snow around Estes Park, in the Rocky Mountain National Park.  We woke the next morning to find about 14 inches (40cm in real measurements) of new snow on the car in the motel car-park.  It was several degrees below zero. Definitely a day to stay around town, and so we explored the laundromat, hardware store, and found an indoor climbing wall.  With Dara belaying me for the first time in about 15 years, I found out how out of shape you become after 2 months travelling and eating.  It was fun though, and I had sore muscles for a couple of days.

That evening we had dinner at the imposing, and reputedly haunted, Stanley Hotel, where Steven King gained inspiration to write “The Shining”.  It was very old-fashioned and kind of creepy. 

A day later, and with 18 inches of snow in the mountains near town we hired snow shoes and headed to Bear Lake.  There were herds of wild elk on the side of the road, with the stags bearing impressive sets of antlers. Despite having only 2 wheel drive we made it up the ice-covered road and set off in cold mid-morning watery sunlight.  My new $9.99 gloves fell to bits in the first 10 minutes. In the immortal words of Mike Brewer, “pay bollocks, get bollocks”.

After about 4 hours of trail-breaking with the snow shoes, the drifts were thigh-deep.  It was about 11,500 feet, windy and the altitude was having an effect, so we turned back without reaching the summit of Flat-Top Mountain.  Fantastic views though.

Following another great hamburger at the local diner we turned up back at the motel to find the lock was jammed.  Dara phoned the owner and he came round to check it out, but he couldn’t open it either. The neighbouring unit was empty so he let us in there to keep warm while he went home to get a ladder, thinking he might get through the man-hole in the ceiling and get through the attic space to the man-hole in our unit.  When he was gone I climbed over the balcony (we were 1 story up), along the window ledge, removed the fly-screen, found the window unlocked, slid it open and got in. We moved our stuff to the new unit and were given a free night as compensation!

Our next stop was Glenwood Springs, on the other side of the Rocky’s.  Getting there involved a drive through Boulder, then West through the heart of the mountains and ski areas.  The new snow made for spectacular views and there were lots of back-country skiers and boarders scoring runs off the 12,000 foot Loveland Pass.  We stopped at Vail for lunch but everything was shut and it was desolate.

Glenwood Springs was a pleasant surprise and we had a couple of excellent short walks while we were there.  The hot springs looked a bit tacky but they were packed with bathers.  The town centre was vibrant and we had no trouble finding good food and drink. 

Heading out of town on route to Utah, we made a small detour to pay homage at the grave of one of the USA’s most infamous gun-slinging gamblers and outlaws, Doc Holliday. For all you dentists out there, he was the original badass dentist To see the full bad ass of the week details click here   .

Aspen and Snowmass ski areas are only a few miles away, but weren’t on our agenda this trip.  Next time maybe........

The quest to find new Meindl leather boots for Dara ended in Grand Junction, where the newest and biggest Cabelas store had just opened.  “The World’s Foremost Outfitter”. This hunting and outdoor megastore stocked absolutely everything from machine guns to fudge.  The huge display cases of hand guns was fascinating and just a little scary.  Dara particularly liked the woman’s handbag called the “Gun-tote'n mama”, with concealed internal holster. They had the right boots though and what had been a mission impossible was sorted.

Click here to see photos of Rocky Mountain National Park

Washington DC

A Day in The Capital

Washington DC

Dan Brown, in his thriller book “The Lost Symbol”, had his main character run around the city looking for clues in the buildings and memorials.  We followed in his footsteps on Saturday, ably guided by our hosts Jan and Herb.

Our friendship with Herb and Jan was the result of spending time with them in the mountain ski lodges in Canada.  We were privileged to be their guests at their house at Pooleville, where we met their two adorable Persian cats Selkirk and Halifax.

It was only an hour or so drive to DC.  The city is quite compact and in a day we wandered around the centre taking in the monuments, memorials, the Capitol, White House and Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.  It was just an overview of the attractions and to see it all would take weeks.  Herb had lived in the area since 1992 and still was seeing sights for the first time.  There are no buildings higher than the Washington monument.  This gives the city a spacious feel that is quite different from the heavily built-up city of NY. 

On our second day in Pooleville we went for a walk around the beautiful forest paths on nearby Sugarloaf Mountain.   We were back well in time to watch the RWC final, delayed coverage on Herb’s Cable TV. Herb had never seen a rugby match before and was amused by the haka and a bit confused by the rules. Rugby in pretty much unheard of around here and we were surprised it was on TV at all.  A great result, well done AB’s!

Click here to see photos from Washington DC with Jan and Herb

Shenadoah

The Shenadoah Valley  and Blue Ridge Mountains should be familiar names to anyone who was listened to John Denver’s song “Country Road”.   They are close to and popular destinations for all the city people in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia who want a taste of wilderness.  They can experience the grandeur without even getting out of their cars thanks to President Roosevelt’s vision that the views should available for anyone to see.

The Skyline Drive as it is now called is 105 miles of incredibly scenic winding road with a speed limit of 35mph (55kph for those too young to remember the days before metric.  The Appalachian Trail (AT) walking track also winds along the ridge. 

We made the mistake of staying in Front Royal, at the northern end of the valley.  To put it bluntly the town is a run-down hole of a place.  The highlight was finding the tattoo parlour, which proudly advertised a “family atmosphere” above the door.  Right next door, conveniently, were the pregnancy centre and the bail bond shop.

The weather was terrible the day after we arrived and this was a good excuse to drive the Skyline Drive with all the local grey power following behind in tour buses and house busses.  After 33 miles we gave up as the mist was too thick to see anything.  Another opportunity presented itself on the way back to Front Royal as we passed a vineyard ............ wine-tasting!  A fortuitous find which cheered us up considerably.  The wines were excellent, especially the cabernet franc and viognier.

Fortunately the following day was fine and we headed in to the Blue Ridge mountains to climb The Old Rag.  While only 3200 feet high the top part of the climb involved some tricky scrambling up bouldery cracks and slippery worn granite slabs.  Loads of fun and at the top, the usual endless view of disappearing ridges coated in colourful autumnal forest.  We were treated to the sight of three wild black bears running across the road in front of us on the way home.

Next stop a day later, Maryland, which was only an hour or two east. First we did tour through the amazing Luray Cavern which exceeded expectations.  The route then took us through historic Harpers Ferry, where we walked a bit more of the Appalachian Trail, and checked out the old town where John Brown made his famous stand against slavery in 1859.  He was executed for treason and his efforts were immortalised in the song “John Brown’s body lies a mouldering in his grave, but his soul goes marching on”.

 My dad had a working flintlock pistol that was a replica of an original made in the Harpers Ferry Armoury in the mid 1800’s and was fascinating to see the site. Scarily, this armoury was considered the birthplace of modern techniques for mass-production of military weapons.  Previously each gun was handmade.

Next stop, Poolesville, Maryland, home of Surefire Sherfy and the Herbinator.

Click here for photos of the Shenadoah Valley

Driving South

Camden

It was time to head South, following the lines of honking Canadian geese we’d seen from the mountain tops of New England.  Our path deviated through the coastal town of Camden, which has a pretty port area full of sailing and lobster boats.

Why Camden?  Back in the 1980’s, a young Irish student studying English at Cork University came here for holiday work.  Now living and teaching in Oamaru, Tiernach Farrell had entertained us with many stories of his exploits in Maine.  He had recommended the lobster rolls served in Cappies Chowder Bar in Camden, and that was enough excuse for us to pay a visit.  It was worth it!

Winding down the convoluted coast reminds us of how much coast-line there really is on the East Coast USA.  It is massive.  Camden is a picturesque town right on the harbour.

The rest of the drive south, which was about 1200km and took 2 days, was pretty dull on the freeways.  The section through New Jersey was memorable for being so incredibly ugly.  Nothing but man-made structures, all industrial, cranes, tanks, pipes, chimneys, factories, power stations, under and overpasses, fly-overs, old concrete and rusty steel.  This is the other side of USA that we don’t hear about at home.

to see photos of Camden click here