Great Wild West Vacation Pics - Part II

Judith and I are back at our respective homes in the Natural State, after our whirwind tour of the southwest. What a great trip! I have to say, though, I'm glad to be back home with the hubby and the critters. Travelling is exhausting work...especially when you hit it hard like we did with no dilly-dallying.

Here's some more pics from the road:

Pottery sherds (is it sherd or shard?), which were scattered all over the ground at the Tsankawi Ruins at Bandelier. We would have taken some, but aside from being wrong, we just couldn't spring for the $10,000 fine.

Really cool valley somewhere in Utah (behind Judith). Judith spotted some elk waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy far away down in the vally, don't ask me how, but we verified them as elk through the "binos." (side note - "binos" is a term we learned that one uses in overly loud conversation when trying to impress your lady friend as well as nearby tourists, when you're actually full to the brim of absolute crap.)

Another kiva (one of the approximately 14,854 that we saw on the trip) at the Salmon Ruins.

Inside of the restored Great Kiva at Aztec ruins.

Gouldings museum and trading post, as seen in lots of old westerns I'm sure I've seen at one point in time.

Me and John...keeping an eye out for the bad guys.

Monuments at Monument Valley.

"Cliff Palace" at Mesa Verde. We sprung for the guided tour.

This was our ranger on the guided tour...she did an excellent job, and was NOT an incredibly arrogant boob like the ranger we would meet later.

What was really cool about these ruins, is that the complex seen directly behind the ranger are not living spaces, but administrative buildings and storage up high. Just imagine...you're living in a cliff pueblo 700 years ago, and you're STILL mired in bureaucracy. I can imagine it going something like this:

"Yes, we did recieve your reqest for a new water jar. However, you improperly filled out Form B, and therefore you must go over to the Balcony House pueblo down the canyon and fill out Forms C, D, and E. Please bring eight forms of I.D. and your damaged water jar to show you do indeed need a new one, and your new water jar will be delivered to you in 6-8 weeks, pending approval."

Judith and I, on our guided tour. In front of a kiva. Again.

More petroglyphs... I HIGHLY recommend Mesa Verde...everything we saw was really awesome, but M.V. just took the cake.

Our last stop was in Colorado Springs to visit my brother Trent. For fun we hiked the Manitou Incline...and when I say "fun" I mean the lung-splitting, heart pounding, leg-burning, gasping-for-oxygen kind. But, we made it...I'm not sure I would've without brother's prodding, but here we are at the top.

So that's our Wild West Trip in a very small nutshell. Only just over a week, but a week packed with fun and excitement, which everyone should have every so often. Grab a buddy and just take off, do some tent camping (until your air mattress springs a leak), and just see what you can see. And always remember - if your digital camera gets too full, you can always delete pics!(sorry...inside joke...;)