Duke and I left Wednesday on a six week U.S. road trip. From Reno we pretty much drove straight through to Cedar City Utah. We drove 527 miles. Nevada has some beautiful scenery and a lot of sage brush but we have explored much of it on previous trips.
Thursday our first stop was Zion National Park. We drove through the 1.1 mile Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel. it was built in the 1920s. In this picture you can see one of the ventilation holes in the tunnel.
Right on the other side of the tunnel is the Valley Overlook trail. It is a one mile round trip trail with an amazing view. It was a perfect day and a great hike.
From Zion we drove to Pink Coral Sand Dunes State Park. If you look very closely you can see Duke on top of that sand dune. You should also be able to click on the picture to get a bigger view.
Our next stop was the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River. The dam created Lake Powell in northern Arizona. I was surprised that it was just completed in 1966.
Our mileage Thursday was 487 miles so after our stops at Zion and Pink Coral Sand Dunes we didn't get to Far View Lodge in Mesa Verde National Park in south west Colorado until sunset. We watched a beautiful sunset as we were driving into the park and then had a fabulous dinner with a bottle of wine at the lodge restaurant.
This morning (Friday) we took a tour of the park including climbing down into the Cliff Palace Cave Dwellings. Native Americans lived at Mesa Verde and farmed corn, beans and squash for 700 years but the cliff dwellings were only occupied for about the last 80 years before the Native Americans migrated south in search of water.
Mesa Verde is covered with archaeological sites. We saw pit houses and a fascinating museum. I would like to visit again some day. After a picnic lunch we headed to Durango where we are tonight.
If you would like ot see all of our pictures from this trip they are available on Flickr here.
