Day 5 - Mesa Verde National Park

Cliff Palace

We got up and drove an hour from Durango to Mesa Verde NP.  Then, once in the park, we drove another hour to the ruins.  The views from the drive itself were incredible.

It's hard to describe just how AWESOME they were.  We did the guided tours of Cliff Palace and Balcony House.  Balcony house had some pretty exciting climbs!

We squeezed through tunnels!

and we climbed on the side of a cliff wall!  This shows the slope of the cliff pretty well.

Here are a few more pictures of the ruins.

Day 4 - Durango

After leaving Black Canyon, we headed to Durango, CO.  We found a spot in an RV park on the outside of town, with a great view out the back window.  After looking at the picture, I realized it really doesn't do the view justice.

But, it was right next to the Durango - Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.  I have great memories of riding this when I was a kid.  And.....it didn't run at night!!

We walked around historic Durango, found a place to eat, then headed back to the camper.  That evening, we decided to head to Mesa Verde the next day, since we were close.

Day 3 - Black Canyon National Park

We got up early and hit the road.  After about a 5 hour drive, we ended up in Black Canyon Campground in the Santa Fe National Forrest, outside of Sante Fe, New Mexico.  It was a beautiful little park.  We didn't have reservations, but we were able to snag the last spot available.

The weather is unbelievable.  It was in the high 70s during the day and dropped down to the 50s at night with humidity in the 60s.  So of course we had a fire and roasted s'mores that night.

If you look closely, you can see Jen relaxing in the hammock in the pic below!

The next morning, Erin and I went on a hike.  It was short, but was a lot of fun.  This really is a beautiful park.

 

Sun setting behind the mountains

Day 2 - Lubbock

After playing in the river, we packed up and hit the road about 1:30pm.  We ended up in Lubbock at the Lubbock RV Park.  It was a great little park for an overnight stay.  One of the draw backs to our 'let's just drive and see where the road takes us' approach is we don't always get to do as much research on the park as we may like sometimes.  It had great facilities and playground for Erin and as a bonus the train tracks nearby and airport across the highway were great night time entertainment.
We stocked up on food for the trip, and packed the popup.  That was about it for day 2.

Can you guess where the truck keys are?!

Day 1 - Dinosaur Valley State Park, Texas

The title says it all!!!  This is a great little park outside of Glen Rose, Texas.  After driving about 5 hours on day 1, we settled in at DVSP, and found a Mexican restaurant for a margarita!

We also found the Dinos!!!

Greg commanding the dinosaurs!

RV spot

Breakfast of Champions

The next morning, we found the river.  We did find some dinosaur tracks in the riverbed, but they were under water and was not able to get a good picture due to the water level and build up of silt.

ROAD TRIP 2015 - COLORADO

After not posting last year, we decided to bring the blog back for the 2015 trip.  This year's trip is to Colorado, and the Rocky Mountain National Park.  This is our second year taking the pop-up, so we feel we have a much better game plan on how to do an extended trip in it.

And......we're off!!!

Day 15 - 19: Yosemite

Hey Everyone!  Sorry for the delay in posting.  There was no internet access in Yosemite or Sequoia, so we have been a bit out of touch.

We arrived at Yosemite early Monday morning.  We didn't have reservations, but there are a lot of first come - first serve sites in the park.  Jen found a great campground to try, and we ended up with a great spot!  We set up camp, then headed to one of the villages in the park.

The first thing we did Tuesday was drive to Glacier Point.  Words, or even these pictures, can't describe how breathtaking the view is.  

 

 

After that, we hiked up Sentinel Dome.  It was a nice 2 hour hike, and Erin did a great job with it.  Here are a few pics.

 

The next day, we hiked up to see Vernal Falls.  Once again, pics just don't do it justice.

It was about a 4.5 hour hike.  We were pretty tired after this one, so we went back to the Shasta and crashed!

Thursday, we spent the day letting Erin complete her Junior Ranger requirements.   Each park has a program for kids.  When they complete the program, you take it to a ranger station and the kid gets a small badge.  Erin is loving collecting badges from each park.  We even got her a pink hat to put them on!  Here is a pic of the Ranger that led Erin's activity group.

We woke up Friday, visited Glacier Point one more time, then headed to Sequoia!!!