Good day everyone, Jodi and I left Benson, AZ to head to Lory State Park, CO. In the town of Bellvue, outside of Fort Collins, CO. We left Benson, AZ the 1st of April and took a month and a half to get to Colorado. We have seen some really interesting places on our trip. Everyone calls the places you most want to see a “Bucket List”. We have seen a few bucket list places along our trip.
For Information on each photo, please click on the photo, then scroll through the photos. You must view the blog through the web page. Click on the title of your email to go directly to the blog web page. The title to this blog is:
“Exciting trip from Arizona to Colorado”
Our first stop was Lost Dutchman State Park, Apache Junction, AZ
We were at Lost Dutchman State Park 5 years ago and had a great camp site with a view of the Superstition Mountains. Well, I got us another site with a great view, and it was really fun being there again and doing some hiking. We got some good pictures..
OUR NEXT STOP
Our second stop Camp Verde, AZ Montezuma Castle Monument & Fort Verde
Here we visited the Camp Verde, AZ Montezuma Castle Monument: cliff dwellings dating back to the 1100s. This was amazing to see. Fort Verde, was a military fort back in 1871 – 1891. It was Camp Lincoln before it was called Fort Verde. During the Indian wars they used this little fort as a supply base for the patrols and scouting expeditions eastward into the Tonto Basin. It was at the time of the end of the Indian resistance in central Arizona.
Montezuma Castle Monument, Camp Verde, AZ
Camp Lincoln/Fort Verde
The pictures below of Camp Verde/Fort Verde were taken from the Website of Fort Verde, I take no credit for any of the photo of the Fort.
OUR NEXT STOP
Our Third Stop Was Tuba City, AZ Navajo Nation Reservation
Tuba City is the largest community within the Navajo Nation. Tuba City is considered the western regional hub of the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Nation covers 17 million Acres (26,000 Square Miles) which is the largest land area assigned to a Native American Jurisdiction within the United States. The Navajo people traditionally call themselves DINE (din AY) which means “The People” in Navajo. This was the area that we were able to see fossilized Dinosaur Tracks just 5 miles outside the town of Tuba City. The Moenkopi Dinosaur Tracks are located on Highway 160 just west of Tuba City on the Navajo Nation.
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Our Fourth Stop Was Cadillac Ranch, Bluff, UT Bluff Fort / Monument Valley
Hole-in-the-Rock Trail
We stayed here for two reasons, we wanted to see Monument Valley and Fort Bluff, a small fort by about 260 or so Mormon settlers, men, women and children that did the impossible by settling this area of Bluff, UT. The story below of how Bluff Fort got started, helps to understand what this area of Bluff, UT is all about.
Bluff, the first Anglo community in southeastern Utah, was settled in April 1880 by Mormon pioneers seeking to establish a mission on the San Juan River in the present-day Four Corners area. The San Juan area of southeastern Utah was then known as a refuge for lawless men. The San Juan Mission would act as a buffer for the rest of settled Utah, establish law and order, and maintain friendly relations with the Indians in the area.
A “mission call” went out in December 1878 and was answered by numerous southern Utah families, many of whom gave up fine homes to move with all their possessions to the remote San Juan area. Seventy families consisting of around 250 men, women and children, left Escalante in south central Utah in October 1879 intending to establish the mission at Montezuma on the San Juan River.
Hole-in-the-Rock, Kane County, UT. Photos above by Kenneth Mays.
Using a route advised by a previous scouting party known as the “Escalante short cut”, the pioneers expected the 125 mile trek would take 6 weeks. Instead, the journey extended 260 miles over 6 months via the Hole-in-the-Rock-Trail in arduous, winter conditions.
Historians consider the Hole-in-the-Rock Expedition one of the most extraordinary wagon trips ever undertaken in North America and a fine example of pioneer spirit. Many sections of the trail were almost impassable. To allow wagon passage, the men spent 6 weeks blasting and chiseling a path through a narrow, 1,200 foot drop in the sandstone cliffs known as the Hole-in-the-Rock, which is still visible at present-day Lake Powell (Glen Canyon National Recreation Center). Brothers Hyram and Benjamin Perkins had experience using explosives from their days as miners in Wales, and were put in charge of drilling and blasting to make a path for wagon passage.
Most of the Hole-in-the-Rock Trail is still visible and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Two sites on the Hole in the Rock Trail are part of present-day Bears Ears National Monument, Shash Jaa Unit.
By April 1880, the pioneers were too exhausted to continue to their intended destination 20 miles upriver and chose to settle along a flat area in the river valley. Calling the new location Bluff City, the pioneers began dividing the land, building log cabins, and digging a ditch from the river for crop irrigation.
We had reserved and paid for a 3.5 to 4 hour tour of Monument Valley and for some reason there was a mix up on our reservation. They were going to tack us onto another 2 hour tour so we were not going to get our 3.5 to 4 hours. We contacted the company and they ended up giving us a private tour with just the two of us. The tour guide was a young indigenous individual from the Navajo area and he was very knowledgeable. We had a long 4 hour tour and it was amazing. Here is what we saw of Monument Valley.
MONUMENT VALLEY TOUR Utah/Arizona
If you have watched any western movies with John Wayne and other famous movie stars back in the early 1930s to 50s, the backdrop of many of them were filmed in Monument Valley. Monument Valley became famous due to John Ford, a director that filmed many movies there, drawing many people and tourists to Monument Valley years later. The first western movie by John Ford with John Wayne was “Stagecoach” released in 1939 filmed on location of Monument Valley. Other movies were “Fort Apache” with John Wayne and Shirley Temple released in 1948, and Tom Hanks in “Forest Gump” in 1993 when he did the “Run Forest Run” scene with Monument Valley in the background of Tom running up the road, then stopping in the middle of the road.
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OUR NEXT STOP
Our Fifth Stop was Moab, UT Arches National Park
We started nice and early and had to have a reservation time to get into the park. This park gets really crowded fast and we got there at 9am. We had an awesome day seeing most of the park. It got really windy later in the afternoon, and we did see just about everything we could during our time that we had. Here is what we saw.
OUR FINAL STOP
We are here at Lory State Park hosting for the next few months. We arrived here the 16th of May and have been hosting a little over three weeks. Such a beautiful park. Its just outside of Fort Collins, Co. Cheyenne, WY is about 50 miles due north of us, and Denver is about 70 miles due south of us. Fort Collins has a lot to offer, shopping, breweries, wineries, live music, and it even has a Drive In Theater. The State Park is a day use park and has over 26 miles of hiking, biking trails and some horse equestrian trails. Jodi and I have gone on two nice hikes so far, and plan on doing many more on our days off.
The job we are doing here is kicking our butts, but we are getting in shape. A lot of it is grounds maintenance like mowing, weed eating, cleaning BBQ grills, emptying trash cans, power washing, painting picnic tables and keeping all of the restrooms clean and stocked. Its an all day job, but we do have 4 days off to recover from working very hard at doing all the above. Its rewarding. We work hard and then play hard.
Here are some pictures of our view from the site near the park’s maintenance building. This is our home for the next few months.
Pictures of our first 2.8 mile hike in Lory State Park. The Well Gulch Nature Trail
Pictures of our second 2.5 mile hike in Lory State Park. The Quarry Ridge Loop Trail. Such a beautiful park full of hiking trails.
This Blog has been a long time coming, and we worked hard on this blog to get you some good information on our trip from Benson, AZ and our travels to Colorado. It was full of some of the best tourist locations such as State Parks, National Parks and private parks. We had a great time and enjoyed all of our travel adventures on this 1,000 mile trip. We are excited to be here at Lory State Park and we are enjoying every day we work and the days we don’t. Exploring this State Park and exploring the surrounding areas of Ft. Collins. Hope you all enjoyed our blog and pictures. We do work hard and we also play hard when we do our travels from place to place. We enjoy hosting and volunteering at various State Parks, National Parks and Corp of Engineer parks.
To everyone out there, we are thinking of you all and hope you are all doing well. Stay tuned and keep your eyes pealed for the next adventure blog that we post…
The Bobble Head Travelers, Jodi and Mark
Jeff & Vi Polk June 14, 2022
What are your days off? We are only @45 minutes south of you in Berthoud.