Hello All,

We are on a small trip up into Arkansas and over to Memphis.

We spent the first night away at Wright Patman Lake, just west of Texarkana. We stayed at Piney Point Campground, which is in a very deep, dark pine forest right at the lake side. And then we traveled on to the Hickory Creek Campground on Beaver Lake just outside of Fayetteville, Arkansas, where we visited our friends Lucy and BJ and took in a half day at the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas. (BTW, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is a gift from the Walton Family - of Walmart Fame - so thank you for shopping at Walmart.)



Mike at our campsite at Piney Point Campground

 Fisherman at sunset on Wright Patman Lake

 Sunrise at Beaver Lake - with a Great Blue Heron and Ducks in the morning mist.

 Silver Tree at the entrance of Crystal Bridges

 The entrance pavilion for the Bachman-Wilson House

 BJ, Dennis and Lucy at the entrance pavilion for the Bachman-Wilson House

 Bachman-Wilson House (by Frank Lloyd Wright) at Crystal Bridges

 Red Spotted Admiral Butterfly at Crystal Bridges

"Maman" (French for Mother) by Louise Bourgeois (who was 88 when she made this) - in the Crystal Bridges entrance courtyard.

Keith Haring Sculpture in Crystal Bridges Courtyard

 Lucy, Mike and BJ with Keith Haring Sculpture

 The Great Hall at Crystal Bridges

And there was an outdoor exhibition of glass art works by Dale Chihuly along the forest trails adjacent to the museum buildings.

Since some of my fondest childhood memories come from our wood and canvas canoe when we lived on a lake in the pine forests of New Jersey, this came to represent a whole boatload of memories for me. (Dennis)

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