Southwest National Parks

June 10 – 20, 2019

Monday, June 10

Arrival Grand Junction, CO

Visiting new home of Don Musselman and Ella Blum

Tuesday, June 11

Glenwood Springs Hot Springs Resort (image from web source)

Boasting an on-site hot springs pool, Glenwood Hot Springs Resort is 320 metres from the city centre of Glenwood Springs.

Wednesday, June 12

The National Park Road Trip begins with visit to

Hovenweep National Monument is located on land in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, between Cortez, Colorado and Blanding, Utah on the Cajon Mesa of the Great Sage Plain. Shallow tributaries run through the wide and deep canyons into the San Juan River.

Thursday, June 13

The National Park Road Trip continues South to New Mexico

Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park in the American Southwest hosting a concentration of pueblos. The park located in northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington, in a remote canyon cut by the Chaco Wash. Containing the most sweeping collection of ancient ruins north of Mexico, the park preserves one of the most important pre-Columbian cultural and historical areas in the United States.

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Late afternoon arrival in Santa Fe

Nestled in the heart of Santa Fe, New Mexico, between the historic Plaza and the art-filled galleries of Canyon Road, the Inn on the Alameda is the ideal location. It is easy to explore the town’s unique attractions, unique museums, fine dining, distinctive boutiques and local festivities. (adapted from Trip Advisor)(three images from web source)

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Friday, June 14

Today we visit Santa Fe.

Museum of Indian Arts and Culture

The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology is a museum of

Native American art and culture located in Santa Fe, New Mexico

(two images below from web source)

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Lunch near the Plaza and then to Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum is dedicated to the artistic legacy of Georgia O'Keeffe, her life, American modernism, and public engagement. It opened on July 17, 1997, eleven years after the artist's death. (image above from web source).

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Saturday, June 15

Day trips from Santa Fe

Bandelier National Monument is a 33,677-acre United States National Monument near Los Alamos in Sandoval and Los Alamos Counties, New Mexico. The monument preserves the homes and territory of the Ancestral Puebloans of a later era in the Southwest. Most of the pueblo structures date to two eras, dating between 1150 and 1600 AD.

Fellow traveler Robert Fanning hiked to the top of valley for this great photo.

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The Bradbury Science Museum is the chief public facility of Los Alamos National Laboratory. It was founded in 1953, and was named for the Laboratory's second director, Norris E. Bradbury. Among the museum's early exhibits, artifacts and documents from World War II Manhattan Project were displayed upon declassification. Other exhibits include full-size models of the Little Boy and Fat Man atomic bombs. (two images below from web source)

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Sunday, June 16

On the road South and East

(above image on right from postcard)

White Sands National Monument is a United States national monument located in the state of New Mexico on the north side of Route 70 about 16 miles southwest of Alamogordo. The monument is situated at an elevation of 4,235 feet in the mountain-ringed Tularosa Basin and comprises the southern part of a 275 sq mi field of white sand dunes composed of gypsum crystals. The gypsum dune field is the largest of its kind on Earth.

Monday, June 17

One more step South and East (almost Texas)

Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico contains some of the largest caves in North America—a must-visit stop for vacations in New Mexico. As you pass through the Chihuahuan Desert and Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico and west Texas, filled with prickly pear, chollas, sotols, and agaves, you might never guess there are more than 300 known caves beneath the surface. The park contains 113 of these caves, formed when sulfuric acid dissolved the surrounding limestone. This includes Lechuguilla Cave, the nation's deepest and fourth longest limestone cave at 1,567 feet (478m). Carlsbad Cavern includes a large limestone chamber, named simply the Big Room, which is almost 4,000 feet (1,220 m) long, 625 feet (191 m) wide, and 255 feet (78 m) high at its highest point. The Big Room is the fifth largest chamber in North America and the twenty-eighth largest in the world.

(image below from web source)

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Tuesday, June 18

Long ride North to Albuquerque

(three images below from web source)

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Arrival Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town

(two images below from web source)

Wednesday, June 19

Time for a relaxing day for town walk with shopping.

Lunch and Happy Hour on our final day.

Short visit to Petroglyph National Monument

(image above from web; below from postcard)

Viewed exhibit and film at visitor center.

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Almost all photos from Dianne, some from Jack or Don.

THE END

Additional Travel Photos at http://www.retkuprof.com/TravelPhotos.html