Day One: Mesa Verde

It is time for our second annual National Parks road trip! We didn't think we would be able to take a trip this year, but here we are! A big thank you to everyone at home watching our animals and our houses  while we are away. Without you this trip could not have happened (now that I know you all read this I can thank you here too :) I really appreciate all of the support I've recently received in regards to this blog. You guys are the best!)

And what a great day to start since Phoenix is going to hit its first 120 degree day.

Our first stop is at Mesa Verde ruins, which offer amazing scenery and a tour I am greatly looking forward to. On the way here we took a similar route as last summer which means, drum roll please, we got to stop at Speedy's Truck Stop! The burritos were as great as we remember. Seriously, if you are ever on the US 64 and US 89 crossroads, try the green chili burritos. Yum!

The rest of the drive was ho-hum. Just a lot of driving. We stopped to look at the four corners, but did not go in. There was a big line and it would have cost us precious time. We figured that was a better stop for on the way home when we know how much time we have left.

We also did not get to see much of the scenery. All of Northwestern Arizona was just covered in smoke. We are guessing the smoke from all of the Colorado wildfires are settling in the valley in Northern Arizona. We could see the road, thankfully, but about 15 miles out on either side was just completely hazy. Hopefully it clears up by the time we head home, but I doubt it. Gotta love the desert in the summer.

We were convinced we would have to change our plans last minute. The roads Google told us to take were closed. But we talked to family and changed our route. We had to stop on one road that was only one lane, but it was worth not having to change our plans last minute.

So now we are at the Morefield campground at Mesa Verde. This campground is special, it comes with WiFi. Weird, right? Itis the most expensive campground we have stayed at. But it also comes with free showers as well. We also finally broke down and bought a national park passport so we can stamp our book at ever monument and park we go to. We're so nerdy.

While Kevin made dinner I worked on the first draft of the blog. And then I went to post it and it disappeared. (This draft isn't nearly as whitty or complete. Oh well.) So I yelled at my iPad, put it away and decided to go on a hike. We hiked on the Point Lookout Trail. It was a short 2.2 mile trail, but man, we are out of shape. Its time to start hiking at the Grand Canyon every weekend again.

The view from the top was gorgeous and we got to watch the sun set. We sat up top and enjoyed the view, and the wind, until we saw a storm rolling in. Halfway down the mountain it started to rain. And of course we forgot to put the rain guard on the tent. So we had to sprint down the mountain to outrun the storm. We got our rain guard up just in time. The storm lasted about two minutes....

So now we are at a ranger talking learning about mountain lion fetishes (not what you're thinking, I swear) and listening to a nearby thunder storm. Our tour of the ruins is bright and early, so there isn't much chance for a campfire, especially since it is so windy, which is a shame since the fire ban goes into effect tomorrow morning. But at least we brought the stove for our trip.

After our tour we leave for Vail, where we are staying next. Pus we have a few stops planned along the way. Stay tuned for more. I'm going to go enjoy some nature and some good company.

More later!

Tonto Natural Bridge/ Hippie Hole

Well, weekends never go exactly as we planned. No surprise there, that's for sure.

Plan A for our weekend was to go to south mountain and hunt once again through the mines. But we were given the opportunity to go back to Fossil Creek. The first time we tried to go, we ended up blowing a tire thanks to some AWFUL road, so we did not get to experience the creek itself. There was a little miss communication with plan B, and we ended up about 8 miles from the waterfall at Fossil Creek, but couldn't get to it (stupid closed road). There was a trail down to the river, but we didn't have any water with us. We made it about a mile down before turning around

So, we invented plan C.



We had passed Tonto Natural Bridge many times, and have even gone so far as to research going there. We hadn't yet, and thought this was the perfect opportunity so that our day wasn't totally wasted. And I'm glad we did.

Since it is a state park, we were concerned that there would be some outrageous fee to go into the park. And there kind of was at five dollars a person. So we chatted up the park ranger to see how much there was to do. He was super friendly and told us about "Hippie Hole." We decided to check it out and the guy gave us a discount. One that I'm pretty sure he wasn't supposed to give us.

The first rule about Hippie Hole, is don't talk about Hippie Hole.

Oops. But I wont tell you where in the park it is :).

We were told it was a quarter mile past the normal swimming hole, but it was much father. Maybe. The trip back went super fast (except when I fell and had to pull myself out of a rock.) We kept coming up to various pools, but we were told that it would be about as big as an Olympic sized pool and 10 feet deep in some areas. Just as we were about to give up we finally found it!

I'm just glad we stopped and bought tubes, because the water was freezing! Coming out of the waterfall, it was probably 80 degrees but in the pool itself the water was maybe 65.

The water was full of crawdads, but they would run away every time I would try to catch one. My biggest worry was that one of them would try to pinch my booty.

We had to be out by five, though, because Hippie Hole is the main watering hole for animals, and we were told we would see bears and mountain lions before they can to the park for a javalina snack.




I have to say, if you ever do this hike, don't do it in flip-flops. That was my number one mistake. Having water is also a great idea. This is definitely a trip I would recommend to anyone, but I hope it can remain unknown to most. It made for a peaceful afternoon.

Bear Poop!