Mesa Verde and an off road journey

Mesa Verde was full of old cliff houses and pit houses and.... it was hot! There is very little shade to be enjoyed at Mesa Verde, It is amazing what those ancient people did there with so little shade. Maybe back in the 700-1200's it wasn't so hot? Maybe I'm weak. The Balcony House and Spruce Tree House were both amazing to be in and imagine people actually living there.

For you classic car lovers, I want you to know that it is still true that there is still caches of old cars rusting away in farmers fields. I have seen it first hand in Cortez, Co.

After Mesa Verde kicked our butts we decided to forgo showers and real food and push on to the farm. We almost made it too, we wound up camping at Devils Canyon camp ground in Manti-La Sal National Forest which it turns out is pretty darn close to the farm.

Today we made it to the farm, even after Google tried to get us stuck and/or killed. GPS showed no such address when we tried to use it to get to the farm and Cell reception was spotty but it got us a route to the address. The route we attempted lead us on a three hour off road expedition that started as a plausible gravel road took us over seriously treacherous rocks and ended when there was no longer a path of any kind to follow. We went back to town had "the most amazing (strawberry) milk shake ever!" at the Shake Shack, and asked Daniel at the gas station how to get to the farm, it was so easy after that.

On the way to the farm we saw some modern cliff houses . Nobody was at the farm when we got here, so we sat on the porch. We spotted Mary the ranch hand after around an hour and she let us decide if we wanted to work or go take a hike, we worked planting Pinot grape vines.

The Montezuma Canyon Ranch is beautiful and we are being treated to an awesome lightning and thunderstorm. The Ranch owner is still not home (we showed up a day early) but we are OK, He left the door unlocked (for us?). No cell service and manual labor for the next two weeks should do us some good.

(pictures to come....)

A Beautiful forest without a single standing tree

What a day we had yesterday! We made it to the Petrified Forest National Park but not before staying a night at Love's truck stop near Holbrook, AZ. Holbrook is on the old Route 66 and offered a Wigwam Motel, giant colorful dinosaurs and just about as much petrified wood for sale as the forest has to look at!

South to north we hit the Petrified forest where there was major wood then the Painted Desert/Badlands where the colorful dirt and rocks were so amazing to Marisa that our first born will be jealous while looking through photo albums. (no Mom's, don't worry, not any time soon) There was also petroglyphs sprinkled in there, none of which explained why they lived in the desert...

On the advice of Kern River Preserve Manager Extraordinaire, Reed, we made a side trip trip to the Canyon De Chelly National Monument in NE Arizona. We were treated to a beautiful canyon oasis with an ancient Anasazi dwelling built into the canyon wall and an 800ft. rock tower sticking up from the canyon floor. Pretty impressive, and free. Its in the Navajo Nation, Those guys are alright. Guided tours can be purchased to see more, check it out.

A late night drive followed, four corners was a bust and we stayed at a Walmart parking lot in Cortez, CO. Surprisingly nothing too crazy went down there. This morning we went to the Cortez Recreation Center and showered (twice!) worked out and swam in the indoor pool. The afternoon consisted of lunch in the park, reading in the shade and chilling at the Spruce Tree Coffee House. We now sit in front of the Dolores River Brewery where a Pizza, cold beer and live music await...
(lesson learned: Rec. centers rock)

P.S. We drove through Winslow Arizona and failed to stand on a corner... next time.

(currently having technical difficulties uploading pictures....may try again later.)

Grand Canyon!

The time has come, grab some lemonade and a snack!




We ended up getting a later start than we planned (surprise, surprise, right?). I got food poisoning (never again cafe med, never again.) and Albert added another leaf spring to the rear of the truck (our home on wheels).




Reached San Diego in evening the, 6/9 (picked up our sweet brand new backpacking tent, thanks Craigslist) and had an awesomely gluttonous weekend with Tina and Sara. So much good food, but none that topped their Korean Taco's! Checked out the wild animal park (We liked the rhinoceros) and the beach.


Late starts seem to be a trend, got to Jacob's Lake (45 min. or so from the North Rim entrance) at 2am--drove straight through from San Diego. We got our back country pass the next afternoon and took off on our hike through the Grand Canyon in the evening.

The first evening I fell in the Grand Canyon, we encountered a rattlesnake (which doubled our hiking pace) and Albert got stung by a scorpion!
(lesson learned: never wear flip flops at night in the canyon)

We camped in Cottonwood camp (a steep 7 miles from the trail head) both nights and hiked down to Bright Angel Ranch and the Colorado River on the second day (another 7 miles, but flatter), an elevation change of 5761 feet. The Colorado River was muddy and fast, but Bright Angel Creek was refreshing, as was the lemonade (and ice!) from the canteen at the ranch. The campsites there were awesome, right along the creek with waist deep pools in some spots. It was HOT! In the shade, 112 and at one point beyond the thermometers reading (140) in the sun.

On our way back to camp from Bright Angel we saw a lady coming up quick on the trail, she was running home. Running home through the Grand Canyon, because she lives on the South Rim and had just finished doing some work on the North rim. Incredible.



The views from the North Rim (Point Imperial), campsites, and hikes are amazing. Albert was pretty impressed "It's SO BIG!"

I definitely recommend hiking the Grand Canyon to Bright Angel Camp. The North Rims rough, but worth the trouble. Someone pointed out that the people coming off the South Rim hike were a little fresher looking (it's a slightly shorter hike).

We spent last night in Kaibob National Forest, for free! Now we're making our way to the petrified forest and badlands.

Internet/phone reception is spotty, but we'll call, update, mail as often as we can. We'll put a link to some more pictures as soon as we get a decent net connection.

Hey Everyone! We finally have a few things figured out. So we can update those of you we've talked to recently and give those of you who had no idea what's going on with us a hello and heads up!

Just a quick run down for those of you that I haven't spoken to recently...Albert and I got engaged in January, quit our jobs and moved out of Oakland in May and have been in Bakersfield, Tahoe, on a 5 day bike trip along Ca-1, and in Mexico since then. We're currently working to get Albert's house rented out again and we'll start our U.S. road trip after the 4th of July. (We're thinking we'll get married some time in 2012)

So, this is what we're thinking for our trip. We're going to see and do as much as time and our budget will afford us. (super rough draft, and no precise timeline as of now)

We're going to leave bakersfield and head to San Diego for a few days. (So if anyone wants to touch bases while we're in the area, get ahold of us!)

From San Diego we'll drive through Arizona, stop off in the Grand Canyon, check out the petrified forest, Mesa Verde and the four corners. We'll probably car camp/find a KOA's along the way.

After Arizona we'll drive over to Utah where there's this ( http://montezumacanyonranch.com/ )farm we would really like to wwoof at, so when we have the timing figured out we can contact them, and hopefully they'll take us on for a couple of weeks. Along the way, or afterwards for a couple of these places we hope to see Arches National Park, Zion, Grand Staircase Escalante National Park and Salt Lake City.

We could probably spend over a good month trying to see and hike as much as we can in Arizona and Utah...so timeline, timeline...ehhh....

From Utah it seems to make the most sense to head to Oregon (bypassing Nevada and Tahoooeee altogether--We were really looking forward to chilling with Derek and posse again, but it looks like we'll have to wait until after the trip and when we're back and more or less settled in California...) In Oregon we're thinking we'll head to Bend drive through salem to Portland and maybe do some couch surfing there and along the way. We're not really sure what else to do in Oregon and what to see in Portland...suggestions??

We'll head to Washington next where the main things we are hoping to see are Olympia, the Hoh Rainforest and Seattle. Probably do some more KOA's and couch surfing. Any suggestions of other things to do and see in Washington??

Next up, Montana, all we were thinking was Glacier National Park and some wwoofing.
Wyoming, Yellowstone and Grand Teton.
South Dakota; Badlands National Park and Mt. Rushmore. Maybe the Crazy Horse Memorial, Deadwood, Falls Park and Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead in De Smet (because, Yes, my mom read me the whole Little House on the Prairie set of books!)

We're not sure what to do in Wisconsin other than try and hook up with some sweet farms to wwoof at.

From there Illinois, where we'll hit up Chicago, but aren't sure what else there is to do there.

And this is where it gets really rough from there maybe go through Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan before we drive through to Canada where one of Albert's friends is getting married on September 25, just north of Toronto. Afterwards make our way past Niagara Falls, to New York, Maine, Pennsylvania, DC and as many other places we can get to before we're in N. Charleston, South Carolina for Thanksgiving with friends and family.

As of now, that's all we've got. It'll be a constant work in progess, so please throw out suggestions of places to see and go people you know who would love to host some traveling couch surfers and any other ideas, suggestions and message love you want to leave.

Oh and if any of you want to add us or vouch for us on couchsurfing.com, that'd be sweet! http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/alnrisa/

Look forward to hearing from you guys, if not now at some point on our trip (keep us updated on your life!).

Love you guys!