An update on our 2016 trip west

 

     Today two months into our “western tour” we sat down and started to make a list of the National parks, monuments, state parks and state major attractions we visited so far. Following is a list of those attractions in no particulate order. 

     Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Guadalupe National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, Monument Valley  Navajo Tribal Park, Natural Bridges National Monument, Gooseneck State Park, Edges of the Cedars State Park, Hovenweep National Monument, Grand Canyon, North Rim, National Park, Sand Island Petrographas, Valley  of the Gods, Bandelier National Monument, The Manhattan Project National Historic Park – Los Alamos,  Twin Rocks – Bluff UT, Fort Bluff, Mexican Hat – UT, Moki Dugway.

     Hopefully we didn’t miss any natural wonders or sites.  We have well over 1500 photo’s and are now trying to go through them and get them organize. Here are just a few. Here is a peek at  some of our photo's, not necessary in order.  We still didn't down load some of the recent photo's from the past week and a half.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Guadalupe National Park
    Just our luck, wanted to hike a few short trails

 So we toured other parts of the park still open. This is Frijole Ranch House, a very interesting story.

Bandelier National Monument

Take the picture already, I made it to the top

The Manhattan Project National Historic Park Los Alamos

Mesa Verde National Park

Walking thru history

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park

Why is Linda and our guide, plus some others from a different tour laying on their backs Looking up

Both our guide and the guide from the other group sang Navajo chants. This was a holy place for the Navajo. The hole is in a large rock outcropping you can walk under. It is like a hole in a ceiling.
  The totem pole rock, most all the rocks had names.

I believe this was called the family

Hovenweeps National Monument

A young jackrabbit

A very steep trail, if you can call it a trail

Edge of the Cedars State Park and Museum Thousand of artifacts

 

 

Found intact

 

Gooseneck State Park curve by the San Juan river

 

Moki Dugway, a dirt and gravel road up up and away. Don't look over the side

I said don't look down

Curve after curve

 The GPS was going nuts.

That is were we came from.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way to Ignacio Colorodo

     A little change here, we are going to start from the near present and try to fill in some of the places we have been in the past six weeks when we started this journey. We left you in Louisiana and we will start now in Colorado  June 4,2016. We are here for about two week. Here  is just a taste of the area.

Bob doesn't like Mexican food, well here he is eating some, about his third meal of Mexican food. Chicken taco's, with some type rice with raisons We use Trip Advisor for picking restaurants'  and places to visit.

The sign tells it all, along route 550 in New Mexico

Much of the route was similar to this. This is high desert.

This is the San Juan river.

This is the river many feet below the road. See how the road winds

The Navajo Dam

The river below the dam. Note we are above the power lines.

We are about to cross the dam.

 

Navajo lake with many house boars. Taken from above by zoom, we are way above the lake.

 

 

This is the narrow twisting road, route 172 New Mexico going into Colorado

 

 

Is that snow? Many of the high mountains still have snow on them.

Abita Springs, New Orleans

While in Abita Springs, we also visited the Abita Mystery house at the UCM museum. UCM- you –see –um. I didn’t get it the first time either. It has been featured on many TV shows on national networks, according to their brochure. The owner told us Mike and Frank from the   "Pickers" hit  TV show were there, and did do some picking. It is just 5 miles off I 12 in LA. With a very low $3 admission it is a great deal. No parking for RV’s  See  www.abitamysteryhouse.com. 

The entrance

Made of computer hard drives

 The 30 foot alligator

The shard house

  We had no intention of going to New Orleans, but what the heck we may never get the chance again. It was about 40 + miles from the RV park, over the longest bridge in the US. It is 24 miles long. There is just a $3 toll going into New Orleans   no toll coming out. We did this twice each day parking at the Basin Street Visitor Center for just $5. a day. The reason for parking there was to get on the Hop On Hop Off bus. The bus was $44 each for a 3 day pass. We had been to New Orleans several times, but never did the bus. The double deck buses depart every 30 minutes.  It did take us to neighborhoods we would not have seen by just walking on our own. The live guide narrations were great. It gave us a much better in site into New Orleans. There are 18 stops along the way. We do recommend the bus. Do not miss the National WWII Museum. This can take from a half day to a whole day + to tour. There were many other things to see . The tour guide pointed out the old warehouses where NCIS New Orleans TV show is shot. See   www.citysiteseeingnew Orleans.com. We had delicious beignets at Café Du Monde, at the French market among all the other great food.

New Orleans in sight

The Superdome

The place were many scenes from the TV show CSI New Orleans are filed

Linda's tour guide, note the poncho, slight rain,  provided by the bus tour

The world famous beignets

So many corners had street bands

Can't go to New Orleans without trying a po'boy

The iconic wrought iron rails.

The Marti Gras museum

Thanks for following along