August 2015 – Page 4 – Kline Road Trips

Mesa Verde to Grand Canyon National Park

August 15, 2015 Amy Kline

August 10th

We only had about 5 hours of driving this day, so we decided to explore Mesa Verde in the morning and get out of the park by noon. We took the hour-long driving tour which followed one of the mesas along the top. A very beautiful drive!

We got out at the Cliff Palace excavation site, but did not have time to take the hike. The hike would have taken another hour, plus we would have had to climb a really tall ladder to get to the site. If you would like more information on Cliff Palace, click HERE to find out more information about this fascinating cultural site.

The ancestral Pueblo people, also called the Anasazi, used ladders to get to the different levels.
The circular areas, called kivas I think, are used for a large variety of purposes.

I try to get all fancy and do “photography” with my real camera whenever I get a chance. On these trips, that tends to turn towards animals and plants. Here are a few plants that I discovered at Mesa Verde National Park:

The boys earned their Junior Ranger badges to add to their vests from last year. Unfortunately, I forgot to pack them so we will have to wait to put them on until we get home.

After we left Mesa Verde, it was a short 5 hours of driving to get to the Grand Canyon. Along the way, we stopped at the Four Corners, the only place in the US where four states meet at the corners. Surprisingly, this is not a National Monument, but the Navajo Nation runs it and created a nice place to take a cheesy tourist photo.

After that the drive was pretty uneventful. It sprinkled on and off and there weren’t very many towns. Just the occasional herd of cattle.

Towards the end of the drive, we started to see canyons. Some of them were pretty deep. This was the northern tip of the Grand Canyon that is part of a National Forest I think.

We entered through the east side entrance so had to drive another 25 miles to get to Grand Canyon Village and our campground. There was only 1 “animal gawker” traffic jam when these elk were grazing along the side of the road.

We got our campsite set up, ate cheese and sausage for dinner, and than went to sleep. The stars were beautiful and I did take a picture but I was too exhausted to play around with the night options to get actual stars to show in the photos, so just went to sleep. Satisfyingly exhausted 🙂

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Oakley, Kansas to Mesa Verde National Park

August 15, 2015 Amy Kline

Oakley, Kansas to Mesa Verde National Park.

After Poptarts for breakfast, we were on our way for another day of driving. This drive was a lot more varied in scenery than yesterday’s. This country is just amazing. We went from fairly flat Kansas to beautiful mountains, to dry upland prairie.

The road started out very flat with only the occasional grain co-op.

We started to get up in the mountains where we sat grazing cattle and the shadows of clouds on the prairie.

Did I mention that we drove along a train track for much of the day? Jeff was in heaven!

And finally the mountains! No scary roads like last year, but definitely still beautiful!

Going through the tunnels was exciting too.

I applaud truck drivers who drive these roads in the winters; they must have nerves of steel!

This is a runaway truck ramp to be used if a truck’s breaks fail on the way down the mountain.
It is a deep sand road that rises and will slow the truck down.

We stopped for lunch at the Old West Cafe in Fort Garland, CO. Delicious!

We arrived at Mesa Verde National Park about 5:00 pm. We got our camp set up, made some “camping” mac and cheese, and then I took the kids to the Ranger talk, so Jeff could attempt to get some grad school work done.

We were on a hill but had a great view of the sunset.

Our view

Our view a couple minutes later.

This is us waiting for the Ranger Talk to start.
Carson is into making faces for the camera this week 🙂

The Ranger spoke about all the animals that live near Mesa Verde and the adaptations that help them. She also played to the crowd by showing slides of the animal babies. Did you know that the skunks around there have different markings than the regular skunk that we all know and love? And that the mountain lion can run 60 MPH? Also that you can’t necessarily determine the age of a rattlesnake by the number of rattles on the tail? Some years, they molt (and gain a new rattle) more than once during the year. Don’t worry, we didn’t see any of those animals, but the boys (and I) loved to learn about them. There was also a warning on the info board near the bathrooms to be aware of Brown Recluse Spiders and Black Widow spiders. Yikes!

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Galena, IL to Oakley, Kansas

August 13, 2015 Amy Kline

Drive to Oakley, Kansas

August 8, 2015

The actual road trip portion of the vacation began at 5:30 AM. We hit the Galena McDonald’s for some McGriddles (Yum!) and were on the way. It was a long day of driving but the kids handled it very well. I began to read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to them a few chapters at a time. They also played an hour of their devices, read books, and Carson napped a bit. Jeff and I took turns driving and sleeping. Iowa and Kansas are big states, though Kansas is not nearly as flat as I thought it was.

Carson loves the neck cushion.

Spencer is a reading machine!

It did get very, very hot in central Kansas. We were driving the entire time so did not have to endure it at all, but I did take pictures as proof. It had cooled down to about 80 by the time we stopped for the night.

We stopped for the night in Oakley, Kansas and camped at a small campground that was connected to a restaurant. The owner told us that he made a 600 mile weekly trip to Loveland, CO to pick up the pizzas that were made there so the kids and I ordered one and it did not disappoint! Yummy!

There was also a resident cat there that enjoyed posing for pictures. He really wanted to get petted on the belly, but since I am allergic to it, he had to settle for photos. I also got a few pictures of another rainbow. It sprinkles a bit after we were all set up, but then the sun came out in time for a spectacular sunset. Overnight we did get a thunderstorm but there was no wind and just a little thunder and lightning.

Here are a couple pictures from my explorations: