Arlo's wild west show....

[turtledude]

Re: Arlo's wild west show....

...we climbed around for about 2 hrs., jumped in the car and doubled back a bit, then drove n.W. toward Utah...about half lost, half of the time. Just past the "wash" in the road pictured earlier, a dog approached the car head on...so I stopped. He came around to L.B.'s side and barked, so she rolled the window down...but no dog. "he's coming around to your side"...so I rolled my window down, but saw no dog, so I got out and looked UNDER the car. no dog. Then I looked around the car for a mile in every direction and saw there was no place for anything to hide...and still no dog!....I thought of Tony Hillerman's book...about Skinwalkers....uh, yea, well, ok, uh, thanks for the greeting!...we'll be movin on now...

red roads and black rocks...



...looking back at famous Ship Rock, which we saw from the air on the way down...

[turtledude]

Re: Arlo's wild west show....

...the sun was sinkin low as we rolled into the four corners area...



...looking south toward Monument Valley...the backdrop for many a John Wayne movie and scores of other "westerns"...

[Nanook]

Re: Arlo's wild west show....

OHHHHHHHHH this one is nice!



Dog tale is giving me the twilight zone tune! This is so nice. Post alla the pics what the heck, heheh...

[img]/forums/images/graemlins/70458-applaud.gif[/img]

[Ochigal]

Re: Arlo's wild west show....

BRAVO! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70458-applaud.gif[/img] Awesome trip Turd...thanks for taking us along.

I was thinking about you last week, wondering if and how you survived the storm. We were lucky here in the burbs...didnt loose power for more than a few minutes at a time. My sister in Duval was without for over a week...looked like a freekin war zone over that way.

HOpw your home and surroundings held up OK. Some big ole trees no longer standing in these parts!

Thanks again for the journey...your aunt looks like a wise spirit!

[turtledude]

Re: Arlo's wild west show....

[img]/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]Nan, I lied...I think there are about 430 pics, though lots are "duplicates" [img]/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img] annyway, uh, I'll kinda zip thru deh tale... an post some "artsy" ones at the end...or somethin...it's gunna take a while to upload more to photobucket...an I gotta take LB to the walk in clinic today for sinus clog ishews...

Ochi!...not much to do upon arriving home...cept I still have to pick up branches in the yard....That heavy snowstorm earlier had already wiped out the weak stuff! ....need a chainsaw for a few things. Daughter Unit kept things goin OK....she said there were huge trees down over the road into here...had to drive under some of them that were hanging on the wires [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img] I've had to do that before, myself... [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70459-hugs.gif[/img]

[Nanook]

Re: Arlo's wild west show....

OHH TD, well that's a whole lotta pics with dial up, I remember now. Gosh I'm so beggy beggy! (((Feel better LB!)))
[img]/forums/images/graemlins/70459-hugs.gif[/img]

[turtledude]

Re: Arlo's wild west show....

ok...let's see. where was I? ...uh, we got up at daybreak to head into the valley of the gods. I had been there before and taken pics, but they never came close to capturing what I saw and how the place made me feel. A camera just can't take it all in at once...the width and the depth, and the impact. I didn't do much better this time....Here's a pic from the mesa up above the valley, looking down to the turn-off where the road runs to the left...it goes wanders for about 17 miles...





...again, we were the only humans in there...

[turtledude]

Re: Arlo's wild west show....

[turtledude]

Re: Arlo's wild west show....

...I got more pics of the valley that I can post later...we spent about 3 hrs in there, and came back out to the road that heads up the cliff to the top of the mesa. It's called the "Moki Dugway"...carved out so that ore trucks could bring loads down to the valley to be processed..."back in the day"...

[turtledude]

Re: Arlo's wild west show....

...

[QK13]

Re: Arlo's wild west show....

[ QUOTE ]


[/ QUOTE ]

YIKES!! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[ohliz]

Re: Arlo's wild west show....

Very cool turtle!!

This freaks me out more than a little though...

[turtledude]

Re: Arlo's wild west show....

...yea Ohliz...I recall, say, about 14 or so years back when I'd been driving all day on some small dirt roads from Colorado, and then came across the top of this mesa, only to find myself descending down this thing from above...without any previous warning or signs...dismayed (at that time)that there were no turnarounds, and praying to god that nobody was heading up, as I headed down...cuz there was like, no (censored) room. I had a death grip on the wheel. This time it was this <.> much better!

[turtledude]

Re: Arlo's wild west show....

ok...finally got more pics uploaded! It amazes me that it always takes longer to do the report than to take the trip [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]. I forgot to mention something about that sign with all the stickers on it. It stood just out of reach behind the chain link fence in the foreground...LB's comment: "NOTHING could get me to put a sticker on that thing." believe me. No small task... those were merit badges.

Anyway...by this time it felt like we already had a full day in, but my goal was to reach Durango and spend the night there, so we could be back in Taos on the day after...but there were a lot of distractions....like this dirt road...



...and that little canyon...



...and that pinon (pin yon) growing on rock, (I wondered how old it was, maybe over 200yrs.)

[turtledude]

Re: Arlo's wild west show....

...stopped somewhere for lunch in Blanding, was it? here's my Official S.W. Tourist Photo pose...Arlo looks kinda serious, tho....maybe even a bit worn out [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img].



...then it was off down another dirt road heading east, in and out of canyons...spotted a cave off to the side and we had to go investigate...



...turned out to be another abandoned house...



...then after about 30 miles we came upon this place in what seemed like the middle of nowhere...probably the last real trading post in existance...It had a few groceries and stuff, and some Navaho pottery and things...but not much. An old lady was there. I asked her how long she had lived there. She said she had been tending the store for 55 years and had never missed a day. I was speechless.