Tonight we are back in Texas, at Balmorhea State Park. It has rained all afternoon, but we still managed to get in a little swimming. Since it was raining, we have also found the time to post a few more pictures from our stay in the Cochiti Lake area, 20 miles west of Santa Fe, New Mexico.



A House Finch in the twilight.

 Sunrise on the Mountains at Cochiti Lake

 Santa Fe street scene with St. Francis Cathedral at the end of the block.

 Little boy, little boy, I know you're going to save our souls one day. But now it's time for you to go to bed.

 Crucifix from St. Francis Cathedral, Santa Fe

 Architectural Detail in Santa Fe

 Dennis at the New Mexico Museum of Art

 Assorted Flowers

 Tent Rocks National Monument - Kasha Katuwe

 Veterans Memorial Overlook at Tent Rocks

Mike at Tent Rocks 

 Western Whiptail Lizard

 Mike in the Slot Canyon at Tent Rocks

 Our favorite beach at Cochiti Lake

We arrived in New Mexico yesterday. We had a very nice visit with Trisha and Paul in Taos - but forgot to take any pictures, so you'll just have to go see them yourself to see how nice they are and how wonderful their house is. Then we drove on to Tetilla Peak Campground at Cochiti Lake, which is lovely, but very hot. We must be back in the southern deserts.

And so, here are some pictures from the past few days as we traveled through Colorado:



The view from our campsite at Ridgway State Park

 A Teepee at Ridgway State Park

 The view from Ridgway State Park southward towards Ridgway and the San Juan Mountains

 The Opera House and Ice Cream Shoppe in Ouray. (It was really more crooked than this appears.)

 The Hot Springs Pool in Ouray

Various flowers along our journey.

Mike at the Buffalo Pass Campground

 Dennis at Buffalo Pass

Our Neighbor at Buffalo Pass - Alvin? 

 Sunrise at Buffalo Pass

Evening at Buffalo Pass

On our last full day in Idaho we visited the Red Rocks Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is down a twenty mile gravel road. It was established in 1935 to protect the dwindling population of Trumpeter Swans. The scenery and the wildlife were wonderful.

It was time to start heading towards home. We spent a night in a National Forest campground in Wyoming. Our site was in the forest a short distance away from a mountain stream. The next few days were set aside for navigating scary steep and winding mountain passes. Think of the Lucille Ball movie “The Long Trailer”. We traveled out of the cool mountains into the hot, dry deserts of Wyoming, Utah and Colorado.

We camped for two nights at the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area in Utah. The gorge is a red rock canyon through which the Green River flows. Then we were on to Colorado. We had planned to spend two days exploring the Colorado National Monument in Western Colorado but the 98 degree temperatures and lack of electricity for air conditioning changed our plans. The monument is a spectacular area of red rock canyons and rock formations but is best visited in  a season other than summer. After one hot night at the monument we decided to start moving up into the cool Colorado Rockies.

Swainson's Hawk

 Ranch land in Idaho

Mule Deer Doe bounding for cover 

 Proghorn Doe

 At the Red Rocks Wildlife Refuge

 Red Rock Lake 

 Sandhill Cranes

 Sandhill Cranes in flight

 Flaming Gorge

 Mike at the Red Canyon

 Dennis at Flaming Gorge

 Spotted Towhee

 Thistles

 Colorado National Monument