Major Mom 
The day we stopped at Mesa Verde National Park and the Four Corners Monument, we had to eventually make it to the Grand Canyon campground. It’s only about 5-6 hours worth of driving from Durango, but we made several stops. So we were hard pressed to get to the campsite with enough time to pitch our tents before dark.
You can’t drive between southwestern Colorado and New Mexico/Arizona without stopping briefly at the Four Corners Monument.
The monument is operated by the Navajo Nation. Since we were in the Navajo Nation. We paid an entry fee of $5 per person to enter the monument area, and what I saw was quite surprising. Not in a good or bad way, I simply didn’t know what to expect.
This post is about the first of the four national parks we visited on our southwest vacation. We tried to jam this visit in during our drive to the Grand Canyon, and it was admittedly a really tight fit.
We spent about 3 hours in the park, but it could easily be turned into a 1-2 day visit. There was a lot we elected not to see.
Mesa Verde National Park is only about 35 miles west of Durango on U.S. Route 160. We got a nice early start from our hotel in Durango and reached the park before 8am. Once you exit west from Durango, the Rocky Mountains begin to disappear in the rearview mirror and you are left with the buttes and mesas that are characteristic of the American Southwest.
After a few minutes at the visitor’s center, it was a slow climb up into the mesas to get to the Spruce Tree House cliff dwellings. This area of the park is only about halfway through; there is quite a bit more to see, but in the interest of time we told ourselves “We’ll come back here one day.”
After our ride on the Durango & Silverton, we headed about 10 miles north of Durango (much of which was along the train route) to visit the Bar D Ranch.
These types of ranches are popular tourist attractions throughout the southwest. There are several in Colorado, including the Flying W Ranch right here in Colorado Springs. Our family had never done something like this, so it was a completely new experience.
Dave had been telling me about the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad for many years. Okay, perhaps over 20 years. It was the highlight of a Colorado trip he had taken as a teenager, and he was excited for a chance to share the experience with the boys and me. So we made sure to include this on our southwestern vacation.
In the summertime, it’s important to get the tickets well ahead of time. I visited my local installation tickets and tours office at the Air Force Academy and received discounted tickets about 4 weeks in advance. I also made sure to secure nearby hotel reservations. On a whim I made the family a reservation at a cowboy supper show for fun. I’ll write about the Bar D after this post.
I guess it’s high time I start writing about our family’s southwest summer vacation. After all, we left for the vacation exactly two months ago.
As usual with my lapses in writing, real life started to get in the way. I really truly want to write about these adventures while everything was still fresh in my mind. Here’s hoping it still is.
We took a week at the end of June and beginning of July and headed west. There were several places we wanted to visit on the trip and it was tough to prioritize things. We were able to visit four national parks, see several great sights on our drives, and even ride on a tourist railroad.
Last weekend I had the chance to participate in my first “color run.”
“Oh! Which one? The Color Run? Run or Dye? Color Me Rad? The Graffiti Run?”
No, none of those. I had the chance to participate in the Color Fun Fest 5K on its stop in Colorado Springs.
The event markets itself as a family-friendly combination of the ancient Hindu Holi festival with heavy electronica music. During Holi, which is traditionally celebrated near the vernal equinox, friends and families celebrate love and good friendship. One of the Holi traditions is tossing of colored powders.
You will feel this energy during the Color Fun Fest. Participants run a 5K race while having colored cornstarch tossed at them approximately every mile. It’s a relatively new event making its way around the U.S., and I think once it works out some growing pains, it has the potential to be a successful running event series. Read on for details about my family’s experience.
This week my sons started 4th and 6th grades. Both boys are very excited to be back in school. We’ve taken an incredible leap with Jacob’s school situation: we “choiced” him into a school other than the “neighborhood school” in our district. He’s now attending the school district’s STEM-focused middle and high school. I meant a(nother) … Read more
Okay, some of you knew about this, but many of you didn’t. I am currently on full time Reserve orders to teach differential calculus at the AF Academy. I will be in front of my first classroom of cadets a week from tomorrow. I am working at least the entire fall semester, and I’ve been asked if I could help out this spring also, but I won’t know about the spring until we know more about the FY15 budget.
So I’m back in uniform, this time able to commute to work like a normal person. It’s quite nice. I’m pleased as punch to have this chance to help out the Academy’s math department, which recently had a mass exodus of instructors who could take advantage of early retirement and other professional growth opportunities.
I have several posts to write about our trip out west in June, but between my full time work and making sure the kids are squared away this summer, I’ve been quite slow.
Feel free to browse these Grand Canyon photo albums and at the end of this post I’ll attach the text of the post I wrote for GeekMom about the Grand Canyon, which has a little of everything but not quite so much detail.
Grand Canyon Mather Campground Elk Sighting
Grand Canyon Bright Angel Trail
Grand Canyon Visitor Center & Mather Point
Grand Canyon Sunset at Mather Point
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When Geeks Go on Vacation: Grand Canyon, originally published at GeekMom.com 24 July 2014