Author: Valerie

Memorable Hikes – Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado 1992

Continuing my Friday series on memorable hikes…

Our family camping trip out west took us to several national parks in 1992. Each park is unique and so much fun to visit and explore. We are so grateful for those who went before us to preserve such wonderful lands.

Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde’s largest cliff dwellingNPS Photo

At Mesa Verde National Park we took a hike to see the cliff dwellings, for which the park is known. Mesa Verde is unique because the park preserves the ancient cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloans. When we were there in 1992 the park called the people Anasazi Indians, but when recently looking up information on the park I discovered they no longer use that term, and the correct name is Ancestral Puebloans.

View of Cliff Palace from aboveNPS Photo

The website reads the park “offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from AD 600 to 1300. Today the park protects nearly 5,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States.”

Long HouseNPS Photo

The website also gives permission to copy photos from their site as long credit is given to the NPS. “They (the photos) may be used for private, public, or press use. Please credit “NPS Photo.”

We went on a ranger led hike through the cliff dwellings. I remember the ranger’s warning that one had to be able to climb ladder steps and fit through small spaces in order to participate in the hike. It was fun to see the cliff dwellings up close and learn about the fascinating life style of the people who had lived there years ago.

Memorable Hikes – Tent Rocks Nat’l Monument, NM 2017

Continuing my Friday series of memorable hikes…

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument is located between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Kasha-Katuwe means “white cliffs” in the Pueblo language. I didn’t know the difference between a national monument and a national park so I looked it up and this is the answer I found:

“To laypeople, the distinction between lands designated as national parks and national monuments can appear finite. The primary difference lies in the reason for preserving the land: National parks are protected due to their scenic, inspirational, education, and recreational value. National monuments have objects of historical, cultural, and/or scientific interest, so their content is quite varied.”

In Tent Rocks National Monument, volcanic rock and ash have formed unusual slot canyons and tent-shape rocks that make up the landscape of this very unique park.

There is a 1.2 mile trail through a slot canyon up to a lookout point and we hiked it one day last fall. The slots through this canyon trail were sometimes very tight, unlike the slot canyon in The Narrows in Zion National Park. The Tent Rocks trail was interesting because of all the distinctive, smooth formations and conical-shaped rocks. The vistas at the top were great and at the bottom we hiked another mile along the base of these rock formations. It was a fun hike. I had never heard of this park until we planned our trip to New Mexico, but what a wonderful find!

I always enjoy discovering and exploring new places. There are so many in this world…

Pay It Forward

We had a trumpet for sale…we advertised it locally and got one response. We made arrangements for the interested party to see it. He stopped by and said he doesn’t play the trumpet…he was buying the trumpet to give away… to pay it forward. He explained, when his two girls were younger they were each given an instrument by someone wanting to help out his young family. He told himself he would pay it forward someday…and this was that day. He handed us crisp $20 bills, more than the asking price, and walked out the door.

We were surprised, but inspired.

Signs of Spring

I saw my first robin on Sunday afternoon, along Jefferson Road. This is my first sighting this spring, and then I saw two more.

This photo was taken early spring, 2017, on Carleton Campus.

After an evening walk, not in the dark because of daylight savings time (another sign of spring), I saw two robins in our neighbor’s tree. I looked through our binoculars to confirm. They were a pair.

Other signs of spring on my walk: the snow is melting (and a lot more snow will melt this week when the sun comes out and the temperatures rise into 50*’s) and there was no ice on the paths. However, there were lots of puddles.

I heard many birds chirping, and I heard water gurgling… both wonderful sounds… and I saw a few ducks already enjoying the thawed portions of the pond.

Spring brings hope once again.

*I’m not sure foxes are a sign of spring but Saturday evening while it was dark, before daylight savings time began, we watched a fox walk down a city sidewalk and cross the street in front of us…I think he was lost.*

This was not the fox we saw in Northfield. This picture was taken summer 2017 in northern Minnesota. We didn’t think this fox looked too healthy, but it’s the only picture I have of a fox.

Memorable Hikes – Cape Town, South Africa 2015

Continuing my Friday series on memorable hikes…

Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa

After spending Christmas and starting the New Year (2015) with our son and his family in Mozambique, my husband and I flew to Cape Town, South Africa. It was great to see another country on the African continent. Cape Town is a more progressive city and we were excited to see it and the surrounding area, including the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point, at the southern most tip of Africa.

Table Mountain is in the center of Cape Town and is visible from anywhere in the city.  It’s flat top makes it looks like a table, hence the name. We decided to hike to the top of Table Mountain.

Getting closer to the top…deceiving photo though – you cannot see the people in it.

It was going to be another beautiful, sunny day in Cape Town so we started hiking up the mountain in the morning with much anticipation and energy. The climb soon became difficult: it was steep, rocky, hot and slow going. But we made it to the top and we were glad when we did.

As we were hiking two people stopped to ask me if I had enough water. I did. We are always careful a about carrying enough water with us when we hike. As people passed us up I noticed a lot of them were younger than we were. About two thirds of the way up we stopped to rest under a rock overhang, to stand in shade for a minute because we were so warm. A young man came up to me and asked if I had enough water. I said yes, and then he asked me to hold out my hat…when I did he poured his water into my hat and told me to pour it over my head. I did and it felt so good. I said thank you and he took off and continued on his way and I never saw him again. I was impressed with such a random act of kindness.

A beautiful view of Cape Town off to one side of Table Mountain.

The views at the top were fantastic and we spent a fair amount of time up there. When it was time to head down we took a cable car instead of hiking. The cable car is continually taking folks up to the top of the mountain and back down again. Usually hiking down is harder than hiking up, so I was grateful for the option to ride down the mountain.

From the window of the cable car.

A funny story about the cable car is we happened to be first in line for the next ride down. When we stepped into the cable car we were excited to get a front row view out the window. Once the cable car filled up and started descending, the floor of the cable car started rotating so everyone was able to have a chance to have that front row view. It was surprising, but what a great idea.

A cable car coming down from the top of Table Mountain.

Even though the hike up Table Mountain was a difficult one, we are happy we did it!

The Jetsons, part two

Article from StarTribune, March 4, 2018

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about The Jetsons, a comic book based on a cartoon series back in the 60’s (link to blog post). So when I saw an article in the Minneapolis StarTribune on Sunday, March 4th entitled George Jetson would be impressed I was intrigued.

The article written by Daisuke Wakabayashi and starts out:

“Flying cars are just starting to inch their way out of science fiction. But that is not stopping some companies from planning for flying taxi service.

A grow collection of tech companies, aircraft manufacturer, automakers and investors are betting that fleets of battery –powered aircraft will give rise to air taxi services, perhaps as soon as the next decade. Some of those taxis, the companies hope, may even use artificial intelligence to fly themselves.”

Hmm…It seems this “George Jetson air travel” may become a reality, and it may come sooner than expected.

Name and date of newspaper with article about flying cars.

Tulips

My tulip garden.

My friend gave me a bulb garden last fall. She had an abundance of tulip bulbs and decided to plant a few in baskets to store over the winter so she could bring a little spring indoors six months later. I wrote a note on my calendar to bring  the basket from our garage into the house on March 1st, so I did. I stored the bulb garden in a cooler next to an inside wall in our garage during our Minnesota winter. I didn’t how it would survive the freezing cold. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the cooler and five bulbs had already popped through the soil, and had grown an inch already. I was delighted! The basket is now indoors where it is warm and enjoying some good afternoon sunlight. It will be fun to watch the tulips bloom and grow.

I think there is a lesson in this somewhere…like “bloom where you are planted!”

Memorable Hikes – Tucson, Arizona 2003

Continuing my Friday series on memorable hikes…

In 2003 we went to visit friends who spend their winters in Arizona, away from the Minnesota cold, snow and ice. They bought a lovely town home in Tucson and we enjoy visiting them, over a long weekends, in February, when it works.

There is a lot to do and see in the area where they live: Tuscan Botanical Garden, Saguaro National Park, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, DeGrazia Gallery, Old Tuscon Studios, Mt. Lemon and the Santa Catalina mountains, good restaurants and several places for hiking. Sabino Canyon is one of those places.

Sabino Canyon is a desert oasis in the Coronado National Forest. When you arrive at the park you can take a tram up the canyon and walk back down if you desire. That’s a great way to hike! But there are several trail options available to hike back down. We have hiked in this canyon on several different trips. On this day in Sabino Canyon we were casually hiking down along the canyon in the beautiful, warm, sunshine. There was water in the canyon; water pools in the canyon during winter months and being near water while hiking is a always a treat. As we were walking we caught up with a couple in front of us that had stopped on the trail. They pointed to a rattlesnake coiled up in the sun on a rock along side the trial. We tiptoed past it and kept on going. That’s the first time, and hopefully the last time, I see one of those snakes!

Desert cactus in bloom.

Other than the snakes, the desert landscapes in this park are beautiful and it’s especially nice when one can enjoy warmth and sunshine knowing it’s cold and icy back in Minnesota.