Do you find you are extra tired, in need of rest after a vacation? Although we tried to be sensible about our daily activities, we still ended up that way. Hence this post is a day late. But we enjoyed the trip nonetheless–to southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. Here’s some tips and some highlights.
Ride the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. It’s a short (64 miles) but slow trip on restored cars pulled by an old steam locomotive. Traveling on narrow gauge rails along canyons between Chama, New Mexico and Antonito, Colorado the trip offers views that taking the highway can’t match.
Visit the Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park near Montrose, Colorado. It has wonderful and sometimes scary views for those with acrophobia.
It’s easy to get to yet is not packed with people like Mesa Verde National Park near Cortez, Colorado
or worse still, the very popular (for good reason) Arches National Park in Utah. You can see other interesting, although not as spectacular, sights in Canyonlands National Park nearby Arches with far fewer people to compete with for views or parking spaces.
Don’t go to the Utah attractions from mid-May through August if you don’t like crowds or hot weather. It’s mid-90s to 100 degrees at Arches during those months. You also need to get a very early start to get a parking space at the more popular sites.
A more out of the way place to visit is Natural Bridges National Monument. It’s worth a look if you have time and less busy, like Canyonlands.
Welcome back John. Thanks for sharing your exquisite pictures. I just love the desert and mountains. I’ll be taking a trip to Nevada next week, can’t wait. And to answer you, yes, it takes a bit of time to get back the groove after being away because we remove ourselves from the ongoing pressures we put on ourselves working. And also for me, I get overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to catch up on. 🙂