View from a bridge at Zion National Park.

We left Tuesday after school and drove to Flagstaff AZ. The next morning we drove to the Grand Canyon via Williams, AZ. Tom had not been there since he was a child and it had been over 30 years since I was there. We were all certainly impressed – the weather was clear and sunny. We wore layers, which we were constantly taking on and off depending on the sun and shade. Crowds were low. I will post a few photos below. We spent the night there and the next morning tried to get out by nine am, but there is so much to see – it was probably after one before we left the park.

Tom threw Charlie over the side! Not really - there is a ledge underneath Charlie...

This huge elk was eating cactus at our motel. There was a traffic jam with eveyone snapping photos.

On the way to Zion - 89A the scenic route.

Zion Park - you can see a small bus at the bottom of the photo - I took this one.

Weeping Rock - it was surreal.

Charlie fit right into a little mini-cave.

There are two rock climbers in this photo.

There are three of them here and they are carrying sleeping gear.

Charlie took this one and the few below on his high rim trek.

Notice the chain they have to hold onto to get around this curve.

This guy was just standing beside the road - he was posing for people.

I recommend the Magestic View.

Tom and Charlie found a friend!

We left going out the same way we came in - this tunnel is a mile long and has windows for beautiful views. It was a little eerie going through this thing at night.

We started our drive to Zion National Park and saw some beautiful scenery, stopping lots of places to look at pottery and take photos. Now, I had read somewhere that you need to arrive at Zion National Park before dark because of the switchbacks going down in to the canyon. Of course I had forgotten all about that – cause I can’t remember things as well as I once did. So it is around 6pm and dark and we reach the park and I immediately remembered reading to arrive before dark. It was quite dark – and we could see a couple of headlights way, way, way down below us. Stayed at the Majestic View resort for two nights and it was so nice. The next morning was a delight – cause remember it was pitch dark when we got there. Honestly we were overwhelmed with the beauty of the place. We saw people rock climbing on sheer surfaces. Charlie took the high route treks and Tom and I stayed low. Zion was just a fabulous place. The photos cannot do justice to the enormity of those cliffs and rocks.

We took 264 across Arizona to get home on Saturday - saw lots of beautiful scenery - just went on forever.

Charlie and Tom are packing today to drive back to Georgia. I’ll fly back on the 20^th – same day Elizabeth is flying in from Alaska. Even though I have been working this fall I feel like we have been on an extended vacation.

Today I am posting a couple of photos of a really lovely sunset. Charlie took these photos. I am so busy at school I have hardly any time to update this blog. I have a second Family Night scheduled this week at school and then I have a book fair in two weeks.  I  had ordered the games for Family Night too late and they are not going to have arrived by Tuesday.

Tom and Charlies are leaving NM early - around the 30th. I will miss them  - but it will be nice and quiet here and I get to watch anything I want on television. I just hope I can drive myself to the Albuquerque airport and board that plane by myself - Tom takes care of all that stuff.

We had rain and sleet today in Zuni - it is pretty cold but not freezing.

We have decided to go to Scotland this summer and we are putting a down payment on the trip tomorrow. I went online today and loaded up my Netflix queue with movies made in Scotlant. We are really excited about this trip. We'll take the boat over, train up to Edinburgh and then spend two weeks drivng around with a rental car. I don't know that it could possibly compare to our trip to Australia - but I have high hopes. Two of my favorite actors, Brian Cox and Peter Mullan are from Scotland!

Tom and I have been really busy on the weekends recently. I work really hard at school during the week – staying late lots – but weekends are for traveling. I’ll start with our snowfall yesterday morning. Charlie took these lovely photos. Some snow is still here – Gallup schools started late today. I have these huge floor to ceiling windows in my library and had lovely winter views all day.

It was already beginning to melt when we woke up.

The second weekend in October we drove to Durango-Silverton steam train, which has been in continuous operation for 125 years. The scenery was fantastic and some of the curves were a bit nerve racking. We only had about two hours in Silverton – we should’ve taken the bus back – but Tom loves those trains.

Grumpy guys at Grumpys!

That is my old Size 5 coat - I look huge!

Scenes like this were at every turn.

We enjoyed eating and shopping – I bought a lovely Navajo pot that reminded me of a vase of my grandmothers. Mother said she always put Nasturtiams in it.

We stayed at a really old timey place that night in Durango – Charlie slept in the loft. Very comfy beds. It was one of those places that was probably pretty popular in the 60’s and 70’s before all the chains moved in.

Look behind us to see the huge - infinite valley just before we got to Mesa Verde.

The next morning we drove over to Mesa Verde National Park. On the way, driving through Colorado – we saw some of the prettiest and happiest cattle I have ever seen. The fields were so green and the cattle were black as could be and spread all over those huge fields. They just looked happy.

Tom at the ruins we visited.

I did not go below - but of course Tom did.

That's old Ann after she climbed back up from the ruins - it was quite a climb, but I did it.

Charlie crawling down to the ruins.

That's Charlie in the middle front.

The drive up the mesa to Mesa Verde was breathtaking. I swear we could see for a thousand miles – huge plains that just went on forever. We kept going up and up and up. The weather was clear and beautiful. We finally got to the top. Tom and I walked down to some ruins we could get to pretty easily. Charlie took the two tours where one has to tread rocks down, through, around, up, and actually climb ladders to get in and out. I never in my life though I would be able to see these cliff dwellings. It is something I’ve wanted to do since I was a child …and there we were. To know how old these places were and how hard life was for the people who lived there was a really odd feeling.

Last week I had my first family reading night at school – so I was really nervous and planning for that all week. We had over 70 people and it went great. I had made a scavenger hunt to learn about all the different activities and areas of the library. The parents seemed to have a wonderful time. So last weekend I was really relieved for the week to be over with. We were going to stay home and relax – but then we figured we could easily get to Monument Valley and back in two days. So I called up and made reservations at Guilding’s? Lodge – what a smart move!  The next morning we had to deliver Roxy to the kennel and then stop by Wal mart. We can’t go anywhere without stopping by WalMart first. Charlie was really impressed with Window Rock and the other scenery we had on the way there.  We got there after lunch and were just so surprised and pleased. This motel was really special and was backed up to a huge rock – I mean huge – I was a little nervous it might fall forward.

The motel is over to the right.

We could see Monument Valley from our room. We took a much needed nap and then headed out for the 17 mile loop though the valley. We were not disappointed. The road was rough and ready and we got some fabulous views. Now the reason Tom wanted to go to Monument Valley was because his favorite human being, John Wayne, made some movies there: Stagecoach, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and, my favorite John Wayne movie, The Searchers. So we were able to see some of the same scenery from the movie.

These horses were roaming free at the turn in to the Valley.

Nice photo. There were several folks with tripod and big cameras trying to capture the colors - it was almost dusk.

This was John Wayne's cabin or something in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

Charlie and Tom went to the motel theater to see Stagecoach that evening – I worked on school stuff. The next morning we ate breakfast at the restaurant, went to see John Wayne’s cabin (actually a set used in one of his movies there), and visited the gift shop where I bought two pots. We debated about whether we would drive home – or if we wanted to drive north a bit. North won out.

We headed towards Mexican Hat  - but looking back we saw absolutely beautiful far off views of Monument Valley. We had to stop like ten times before we got to Mexican Hat. We saw a gravel pile so huge it looked like a lake. Mexican Hat is called Mexican Hat because it has a rock formation shaped like a Mexican hat!

We decided to go be further North to Gooseneck Park – where the San Juan River has eroded some rock and looks more like a snake than a gooseneck. It was special – there was nothing there hardly to keep one from falling over and down – I was a little nervous because the wind was blowing and I just knew one of us would blow over the side. We didn’t.

We decided to keep heading north and intersect with 191 before we headed south. About a couple of miles north of Gooseneck Park, we came to Valley of the Gods – a mini Monument Valley. It was okay but the best was about to come. We could see a huge mesa in front of us – but we could not tell where the road was going. Ended up – it went pretty much up the side of the mesa – switchbacking all the way, skinny gravel road, straight up and straight down on the side. How exciting! I held my breath the whole way, thankful that Charlie was in front and Tom could not see me gripping the seat.

 At the top there was a dirt road off to the side and it led to a point. Eager for another great view we took if and drove several miles to the end. Oh my gosh! It was the highlight of the weekend! We ended up at Glen Canyon – there were huge rocks everywhere and we all started climbing on them – the views got better and better. I felt like we were at the Grand Canyon. There were only two other people there  - just sitting there looking at the view. It really was fantastic. I’m so glad we kept going.

I love this photo of Charlie - it can't possibly show how grand this place was.

This is my pot I got at Four Corners.

I got this one at Monument Valley. These are Navajo horsehair pots.

We ended up going to Blanding Utah, then catching 191 south from there. It was dark when we got home. It was a wonderful weekend.