Destinations

Colorado Monument Offers More Amazing Sights to See

One of the important lessons one must learn about traveling is the need to be flexible. When I booked our hotel in the wrong town, we ended up closer to our next destination so we visited Black Canyon of the Gunnison a day earlier than planned. So with an extra day on our hands, I cast about for something to do. We decided to visit Colorado National Monument. Colorado Monument is a little over an hour north of Montrose where…

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Driving Along Black Canyon of the Gunnison’s Stunning Cliffs

To be perfectly honest I was not aware of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park until recently. However, it was a good one to add to our list of national park visits in Colorado. Someone told me it was like Grand Canyon National Park. To some extent that’s true, but the Black Canyon seems deeper and more narrow with its own beauty so it is worth visiting. We didn’t make an effort to leave Ourey very early. The…

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Are We Staying in Telluride or Ouray, Colorado?

When I was planning for this trip, I was focused on the three national parks we would be visiting. However, I couldn’t help notice on the map that we would be traveling near Telluride. If you don’t know, Telluride is a ski resort often visited by the rich and famous. I thought why not spend a night there if it’s not too expensive? So I searched on my travel sites, found a room I thought was quite reasonable, and booked…

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Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park Yields Amazing Vistas

They say timing is everything. We discovered that to be true in a number of ways as we visited Mesa Verde National Park in the southwest of Colorado. This was our second of three national parks on our agenda for this trip. It was quite a different experience from our visit to Great Sand Dunes National Park. The main focus of Mesa Verde National Park is preserving the Native American structures and sharing about their culture. Established in 1906, the…

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The Four Corners and Canyon of the Ancients

When I think of the southwest Native Americans, I generally think of Arizona or New Mexico. However, it turns out that in southwest Colorado a large population of Native Americans lived and thrived. In many ways they had connections to those native groups in New Mexico and Arizona. Because of that The Four Corners has become a place where various native groups can come together. The Four Corners is located where four state lines all meet in the same spot.…

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Beautiful Scenery and Unique Towns on Colorado’s Hwy. 160

After spending a day at Great Sand Dunes National Park, it was time to head to our next destination, Mesa Verde National Park. From our stay in Alamosa we would travel across the southwestern part of Colorado along Hwy. 160. It would take most of the day as we stopped from time to time to see the sights. We spent two nights in Alamosa. The town itself is really the nearest town for those planning to visit the Great Sand…

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Great Sand Dunes National Park in the Spring

Our purpose in visiting Colorado was to check a few more national parks off our bucket list. I don’t think we will ever be able to visit all of the 64 parks, but I am hoping we can at least make it half way. This trip will add three more to the list with Great Sand Dunes National Park our first one. I have to admit I had not heard of Great Sand Dunes until I started researching our national…

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From Colorado’s Pikes Peak to the Snowcapped Sawatch Range

On Sunday we spent a lot of time walking, especially through the Garden of the Gods. By contrast Monday we spent a lot of time driving. It started with a drive up Pikes Peak and ended nearly 200 hundred miles south in Alamosa, Colorado We started with Pikes Peak. Colorado refers to it as America’s mountain. Ever since I was a kid, I have heard of Pikes Peak. Therefore when we planned this trip, and I realized we would be…

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Colorado’s Manitou Springs and Garden of the Gods

One of the things we like to do is check out our country’s national parks. They are usually some of the best places around. As seniors we can enter most for free so it helps with the expenses of travel. It was with that in mind that we planned a trip to Colorado to check out three national parks along the southern corridor. We left on a Saturday in late April. We checked Colorado’s weather the morning we left and…

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Sites Revealing the Culture and History of San Jose

On my last day in San Jose I decided to stick close to the city and learn about its history. We think of San Jose as the center of Silicon Valley and all the modern technology that brings to mind. However, San Jose’s past goes back to a much simpler time. I set out to learn about some of that. We started with the History Park in San Jose. My daughter Andrea hesitated to go there as she considers it…

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