Northeast Gardening: Travel destinations, what are your favorites # 2, 5 by ViburnumValley

ViburnumValley wrote:
Colorado parks...where to begin? We've been through a couple times (October 2004 and July 2005), and I'd love to go back again.

Fall 2004

Mesa Verde was quite interesting - Marianne was hot to go there because of her interest in archaeology and past civilizations. It wasn't far off the path we chose to drive from KY to Salt Lake City for the ASLA conference in 2004 - which included Pike's Peak, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Silverton/Durango, and Arches in Utah.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison is simply unreal.

After the ASLA conference - and a breeze through the southern Utah national parks - we hit Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction. That is worth the price of admission as well.

Summer 2005

On this trip, Marianne and I were squiring David - our oldest German nephew - around some of the impressive sights of the western United States.

We started out going through Rocky Mountain National Park, and proceeded on to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison again. That drive through the northern course of the Colorado River is spectacular in itself. We then went down the little-traveled State Route 149. You must pay homage to the site of the Slumgullion Pass mass wasting. Get your geology geek on...
http://landslides.usgs.gov/docs/schulz/FieldTrip_C.pdf
http://slumgullionecotrade.com/services

Finally, we visited Great Sand Dunes National Park (in a flooding rainstorm, at that) before heading south into New Mexico. On the way back to Denver, we got to see the immense surprise canyon of the Rio Grande - which is not evident from just driving around southeastern Colorado or northeastern NM.