Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Adventures in So-Col

Last weekend we took a three-and-a-half day road trip to Southern Colorado, and checked out a bunch of awesome stuff down there. I've recently discovered the awesomeness of the new full-screen slideshow option in Picasa web albums... click HERE for all the best photos, complete with witty commentary! Or, scroll on down for a few of the best shots....

First -- Mesa Verde National Park. Home of the 800-year-old cliff dwellings of the "ancestral Pueblo people" (the artists formerly known as the Anasazi).

Cliff Palace -- the largest cliff dwelling in North America








Square Tower House




Inside a reconstructed kiva




Back at the campsite, enjoying a gourmet PB&J dinner...


...and some card-game action.


After Mesa Verde, we stopped at the Four Corners monument, where you can put a different limb in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah:



It's also a fantastic spot for what I dubbed Four Corners Twister. "Left hand... Colorado! Right foot... Utah!"


Our last stop was at Great Sand Dunes National Park... a randomly misplaced sea of sand in the middle of Colorado. It actually has the tallest dunes in North America, at 750 feet.




We hike to the top of "High Dune," 650 feet tall, giving us a 360 degree panorama of sand.


19,000 acres of dunes
(For size perspective, notice the hikers in the lower center.)





4 comments:

ryan said...

awesome pics. what a great adventure... i envy you and your awesome travel mate.

my favorites were the spiderman/twister pose on four corners, the picture perfect valley shot, and the final hip shot in the sunglasses. and many more great ones.

i used the picasa slide show and used f11 for full screen greatness.

keep up the good camera work. let me know how that wedding shoot goes.

Unknown said...

Thanks. And don't worry... I envy you and your awesome travels as well. :)

Lindsey said...

I envy....your mom! actually I envy your travels, I have been wanting to go to mesa verde for quite some time, and the longing was only heightened when we came and visitied you guys. So close yet so far away!
I'm excited to see you both so soon!

Sarah said...

What a fantastic trip! That’s awesome! Those places bring back such great memories. My family and I did the same circuit a few years ago. Pretty fun stuff.

Eva-Lynn, you are sooo tan in those pictures. Hurray for sunshine and travel! :)