Oregon to New Mexico

Hello from Mark and Laurie! We are on the road again - heading east and south. We left home on September  20 and took took route 26 across Oregon as far as John Day. The next day we visited the Kam Wah Chung State Historic Site - this is a Chinese grocery and Chinese medicine apothecary that remains the same as when it closed in 1941. It was really interesting!

Kam Wah Store

Idaho Botanical Garden

Our next major stop  was in Boise, Idaho. We have driven through Boise many times, but have never spent much time there.Our campground was on the Boise River with our campsite backing up to the 26 mile long Boise Greenway and we biked about 11 miles of the beautiful trail.We also went to the Idaho Botanical Garden which was built on the site of the former Idaho State Penitentiary. It was a very nice garden with an unusual setting. We are making it a point to stop and see state capitols whenever in are in a capitol city so we toured the Idaho Sate Capitol. We have now seen about 10 or so. Tours are definitely different in COVID times as all of the usually open rooms were closed to tourists.

Idaho State Capital

Garden on Penitentiary Grounds

Boise Campsite

Moving south, we crossed into Utah and made a slight detour to see the Golden Spike National Historic Site where the Central PacifIc Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad met In 1869 while building the Transcontinental Railroad. When we arrived the two recreated 1800’s steam engines were out and steaming. We were lucky to arrive just in time for a ranger talk and to see the engines move down the track and recreate the meeting of the railroads. It was really fun.

We spent the next two nights at Wasatch Mt. State Park near Heber City, Utah. The next morning we took a train ride on the Heber Valley Railroad along the Deer Creek reservoir.

That afternoon we went and visited Cascade Springs in Unita National Forest. It was a lovely spot and had nice boardwalks and paths. Somehow we ended up on the Alpine Loop Road which meandered 50 miles through the Wasatch Mts - it was a lovely road with lots of fall colors.

The next day we headed south to Capitol Reef National Park and we really enjoyed our time here. We went to campfire programs, a star gazing program, and took lots of really neat hikes. We walked the Capitol Gorge Trail, the Hickman Bridge Trail, the Grand Wash Trail, the Sunset Point Trail, and the Gooseneck Trail. We had some rain storms while we were there which quickly caused flooding on some roads and in some washes. This is a really remarkable park.   

 

Our next stop was in Colorado at Mesa Verde National Park where we spent part of the day visiting the ruins. We saw ancient dwellings of indigenous people including pit houses on the mesa above and and cliff houses along the gorge. Most of the cliff houses, we had to see from the distance because roads and trails were closed and limited tours but we did get to hike to the Step House Cliff House. It is a very interesting place to see the cliff dwellings and wonder what happened to all these people.

Pit House 

Cliff House

Cliff House

We moved on to New Mexico and spent a fabulous day riding the Cumbres and Toltec Narrow Gauge Railroad from Chama, New Mexico to Antonito, Colorado. The 64 mile trip took from 10 am to 4:45 pm and included a bus ride back to Chama. The train ride was so beautiful with the mountains and the fall colors. We were up to 10,015 feet. It was a truly amazing day.

Aspens

Now we are in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We got here at about noon and are camped above the city at Hyde Memorial State Park at 8,500 feet. We drove into town for lunch and I just picked a place off of a list on my phone. When we arrived at La Choza 

and saw the long line of people waiting to eat, we knew we had made a lucky choice. The food was delicious! After lunch we went downtown to see the plaza. This brings you up to date. Check back to see how our trip progresses.