The Deschutes River

This is the view from our motorhome at the Oak Springs Fish Hatchery. 

Our home for the month of September

Here we are at the Oak Springs Fish Hatchery just north of Maupin, OR. We will be helping them gather fish eggs so little trout can be raised in the cement "aquariums" to the front right of our motorhome. We are parked in front of the building in the back...with a great view of the Deschutes River below. Today it was very hot...hope Sept. brings some relief to this heat! Watch for pictures of our life at the trout hatchery. Life is good. 

Mesa Verde National Park

We visited Mesa Verde National Park today. An ancient civilization lived in this area between the 500s AD and 1100-1300AD. The cliff dwellings were first discovered in the 1870s. There are several cliff houses that are in very good conditional and some that show the ravages of time. They say there are about 600 cliff dwellings in the park...we saw several on the car trail. This place is awesome! Life is good! 

Cliff Palace

The Cliff house is one of the dwellings that can be visited..up close. This is the largest cliff dwelling in the park.

Spruce Tree House

The Spruce Tree House is one of the largest cliff dewllings in the park. It had 129 rooms and 8 kivas. They think between 60 to 90 people lived here at any time.

Four Corner Crawl

Here we are (Max and Sandy),touching four states at the same time. 

Sleepy little Silverton, CO

We took the Narrow Gauge Railroad from Silverton to Durango today. We decided to take the bus up and the train back. WOW what beautiful country! Silverton is a really little town (400 inhabitants in the summer and 200 in the winter). Lots of old buildings...only 2 paved streets and lots of shops and restaurants. It has lots of closed gold and silver mines in the mountains around it. We just enjoyed the great views up on the bus and fantastic views back to Durango on the train! Life is good! 

Next to the Animas River

Here we are....a little ways out of Silverton heading to Durango. What a beautiful ride!!! WOW 

Taking on water

 

Animas River north of Durango

 

The back of the train

I took this picture of the back of our train. We were traveling through a canyon with the Animas river at the bottom...a long way down!!! 

Delicate Arch

Arches National Park southwest of Grand Junction, CO is a must see. This park is beautiful. They have camping, (looked like the big rigs would find it a bit tight), easy to strenuous hiking trails, four-wheeling, and lots and lots of photo ops! We spent about 4 hours traveling the 21 miles in and 21 miles out of the park with 10+ places to stop and take pictures. We didn't see some of the arches since 8 of them requires a 4 mile hike and a couple more would have taken the PT over roads we really shouldn't take it! I posted a few of the 100+ pictures I took today. WOW is all I can say. Tomorrow we will leave here and head into Colorado. Want to see the 4 corners, The narrow gage railroad in Durango and Mesa Verde National Park. Life is good!

Sandy with Max in front of a HoDo

 

Double Arch and Cove of Caves

 

South Window on left and Turret Arch on right

 

Ed and the big rock

 

Balanced Rock

 

Heading into Moab, UT

We are in southeast Utah. Beautiful red mountains. Tomorrow we will spend the day checking out Arches National Park. Should have some great pictures. Life is good. 

Golden Spike National Historic Site

Today we visited the Golden Spike National Historic Site 35 miles west of Brigham City, UT.. Here are replicas of the two steam locomotives, Jupiter and 119, that met at Promontory Point when the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railways completed the first transcontinental railroad line on May 10, 1869. I forgot my camera, so I purchased a couple of postcards. There wasn't much else to see except these locomotives and the spot where the spike was driven. Tomorrow we head southeast toward Colorado. Life is good! 

The Last Spike

Here is the picture taken at the time the last rail was laid and the last "Golden SPike" was driven on May 10, 1869. 

Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake

Again without my camera....we also visited this Utah State Park. We had fantastic views of the Great Salt Lake from several high points on the island. Camping is permitted on the island in 2 different campgrounds. Dry camping for $12 per night. The Bridger Bay Campground has big pull-throughs. The island is home to free-roaming herds of bison, bighorn sheep, mule deer and pronghorn antelope. We saw one antelope and several herds of bison during our drive through the park. Wish I had my camera!!! 

The Three Sisters Mountains

I took this picture from the Elks Lodge in Bend, Or. You can't really see the North Sister on the right due to the wildfires around the town of Sisters.

Bend,OR Elks Campground

Bend, OR has a new campground with 30amp service. 8 spaces, water not at the sites but available if you need it. We are here just for tonight. Thought we would be boondocking in the parking lot. Tomorrow we push on...going to Grand Junction, CO.