A beautiful waterfall in Willis Creek Narrows. This location is a beauty within the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument of Utah.
Dinosaur National Monument Canyon
Looking out over Dinosaur National Monument in Northwest Colorado is a wonderful experience. The canyons span out under you and you can see for miles into the heart of the beautiful American West.
Lone Raven Perched above Chaco Canyon
We were exploring the rim of Chaco Canyon when we came across this raven perched on the canyon wall hundreds of feet above the valley floor. Teig and I sat near him and he was not bothered by us. I loved his dark form contrasted to beautiful canyon walls. It was calming to watch him relax an the rims edge and the vast canyons stretch into the distance.
Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon
Waking up to a beautiful sunrise and this view in Chaco Canyon National Monument gets me motivated to saunter around the Colorado Plateau in northwest New Mexico.
Pueblo Pintado Two Story Ruins
Hidden on the Navajo Reservation in northern New Mexico is the Pueblo Pintado historical ruins. 16 miles east of Pueblo Bonito, Pueblo Pintado is the easternmost of the Chacoan great houses in the immediate Chaco Canyon area. Archaeologists call Pueblo Pintado a “Chacoan great house,” a civic and ceremonial center utilized by many surrounding communities. The structure is a massive L-shaped building, open to the SE. The building is terraced, from 3 stories on the outside corner to the single-story enclosed kivas (round, semisubterranean ceremonial chambers) on the interior corner. About 20 single-story rooms enclose the plaza and a large enclosed kiva. The entire great house contained 90 groundfloor rooms, 40 second-story rooms, and 5 third-story rooms. A hundred feet southeast of the building is a subterranean great kiva 58 feet in diameter. Most of the construction occurred at A.D. 1060-1061, during Chaco’s peak construction period, with a later reoccupation in the 1200s.
Chaco Canyon Pueblo Alto Ruins
Exploring the Pueblo Alta trail on the mesa at Chaco Canyon leads you to a wonderful ruin sitting lonely on the crest of a hill. Pueblo Alto Ruins are the highest ruins in the park and don’t have the pressure of tourists as the others because you have to climb a winding trail up the canyon walls then a couple mile stretch of the legs to the ruins but it is well worth the trip. I made it there in the early afternoon on a beautiful fall day just before Thanksgiving.
Cliffs above Pueblo Bonito
Teig and I spent an autumn day exploring Chaco Canyon National Monument in northwest New Mexico. We hiked the desert mesa and learned about the Anasazi Indians that settled the area between 800 and 1400 ad. We decided to hike the cliffs above one of the main pueblos. We were surprised by this beautiful view from a few hundred feet above Pueblo Bonito. We truly love New Mexico and it’s wonderful history, culture and landscape.
Cruising on the White Sands of New Mexico
A beautiful evening on the White Sands National Monument in southern New Mexico. What a perfect location for a traildog during late fall. The western sunset is awesome in the southwest.