Yellowstone NP

(2018 Alaska Ep 15)

(Sorry for the delay in blog posts. There is no (free) wifi in Yellowstone and cell service is voice only in very limited areas)

We’ve just returned from a great week in Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone was established as America’s first national park in 1872, and is widely held to be the world’s first national park.

Yellowstone is treasured by Americans and visited by persons from all over the world. We met persons from numerous US states and from Canada, Japan, China and India. They were as awestruck with the scenery, thermal features and animals as we were!

This is our fifth visit to Yellowstone since we were married 38 years ago.

2018 Alaska Trip 1398 - 1805311906 — Cooking dinner after a busy day touring Yellowstone…Dutch oven chili with cornbread.

This time we stayed in three different campgrounds in the park (RabbiTRAILS Alaska Map pts #20-22). This allowed us to spend less time driving to/from hotels and campgrounds outside the park and more time in the park seeing Yellowstone.

Watch for upcoming blog posts about Yellowstone scenery, thermal features, animals, hiking and biking, and our list of things we like and don’t like about Yellowstone.

Until then…

Petroglyphs NM: Antient Art or Graffiti?

(2018 Alaska Ep 13)

A fascinating part of our travels has been to visit several locations with petroglyphs. Some 400-700 (or perhaps more) years ago, people chipped away the thin desert varnish on rock faces to reveal the lighter gray rock underneath – this left lasting marks we wonder about and enjoy today.

The marks certainly had cultural significance – they give clues about what was on the minds of the people at that time. Some say they have religious significance as well.

We visited Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque (RabbiTRAILS Alaska Map pt #13). The sprawl of the city now encircles the monument. Hundreds of petroglyphs can be viewed in three main areas. We endured a very warm couple mile hike to one – Piedras Marcadas Canyon. It was worth it!

A few days later we visited another site within Dinosaur National Monument (Map pt #17). Actually there is a lot to do there besides dinosaur stuff.

There were a number of lizards on one rock face. We wondered how the large lizard was etched, considering it is nearly 15 feet above the ledge below.

Finally, when we were in Thermopolis (Map pt #18), we saw a modern petroglyph. Perhaps today’s graffiti will be studied and valued hundreds of years from now!

Lots of Sand But No Beach

(2018 Alaska Ep 9)

We headed west from Blanco on May 1.

Our next stop was Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.

The drive was a bit too far for one day, so we spent the night at a west Texas state park known for its large sand dunes. They don’t call then dunes however – at Monahans State Park they are known as sandhillls.

One theory is the Monahans Sandhills were formed by remnants of the Rocky Mountains in New Mexico that eroded in the Pecos River. The sand was eventually blown by the wind into the area.

The sandhills are located atop the Permian Basin, one of the largest oil-producing areas in the world.

We visited some world class dunes in New Mexico also. Outside of Alamogordo is White Sands National Monument. The dunes are indeed brilliant white.

White Sands is the largest gypsum dunes on earth (275 square miles), the dunes are clearly visible from space and they are constantly moving – some as many as 32 feet year!

A couple interesting facts:

The White Sands dunes, created from eroding mountains to the west, are only about 10,000 years old.

In many areas, the water table is just a few feet below the dunes.

A dune selfie…hats and sunglasses are essential equipment at White Sands!