Day 40 Flagstaff, Arizona to Oceanside, California (home!)

We say it towards the end of every trip, but on a long trip, the horse can smell the barn. We were up early  (5:30am) and headed out into the hot day, knowing we would drive through some very hot weather and dry landscape on our way home.  We watched the landscape change from the Ponderosa Pines around Flagstaff to Cedars and grass to desert scrub to the driest we had seen in the whole trip once we crossed the Colorado River into California.

Today was mostly putting another 400 miles in which out of the nearly 8000 we had driven seemed like not very long. It was a hot and sunny day and we drove and drove and drove and drove and drove.  Patti had downloaded compilations of Garrison Keillor Prairie Home Companion stories.  This helped the time pass, but it was still a lot of driving.

It always felt good to cross the border into California, even though we knew it was still a long ways across the width of California to our house. We went along, enjoying what we could. And, ready to get home. We were pleased to pull in at Oceanside at around 3 o’clock in the afternoon. We pulled most of the stuff out of the car and started the process of settling in having been gone for 40 days. It’s good to be back home again.

Day 39: July 23, 2025 Moab, Utah to Monument Valley, to Flagstaff, Arizona

Up early in the morning with a nice breakfast at our Apache Motel. We then headed off for another 3 hour drive. As we headed south the land was filled with amazing formations carved by the rain and wind.  One was called Mexican Hat, a huge rock balancing on a small point. We also saw the mountains of Bears Ear National Monument. It looked like a great place to visit as we drove around two sides of it.  But, that would have to be another trip. Our initial destination today was Monument Valley. This was not a National Park but a Tribal Park that the Navajo Nation had set aside on their reservation in 1958. Native peoples had lived there for at least 1000 years. Like many of the other places in surrounding Utah and Arizona, it had a lot of spectacularly beautiful stone formations called, based on their shape, Mesas, Buttes, and Spires. Many truly looked like monuments. We knew we were in for a treat: a Navajo-led tour of Monument Valley.  At Moab we were very close to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks which we had visited previously. So many many beautiful places that have been set aside to be protected. We were so excited to get to our tour at Monument Valley.

Before we started our tour we had a picnic lunch behind our car in the parking lot and then explored the visitors' center.  There we saw a fine exhibit about the Navajo Code Talkers from WWII. Their code, based on the Navajo language, was never broken and allowed for secure communication throughout most of the war in the Pacific. This display was created by a high school class and they did so well on it.

The drive on the back of a four-wheel drive truck was spectacular. At times, it would just look like plain old desert scrub, then suddenly, out of nowhere, huge red, beautiful formations would pop up. Every few minutes we would need to take a wonderful photo of how beautiful it was. If we had had more time, we might’ve stopped at more of the places along the side. 

In an open air truck, seven of us were taken around and shown the beautiful areas as well as given a lot of the stories that came out of the Navajo tradition and more information about the area. There is a 17 mile loop that is open to the public to drive-through and we saw those areas but also went in some restricted areas that could only be seen by tours. Our guide, Larry, was very knowledgeable and had many stories to tell, as well as playing his flute for us in a wonderful cave. We also were shown a fine set of petroglyphs created by the Anasazi people more than a 1000 years ago. It was hot, over 90 degrees and bone dry, so a difficult place to linger too long. However, it was very beautiful and we were really glad to have taken that advantage of the opportunity. In past trips, we had been at the other national parks and monuments in the area. But neither of us had been here and it was gorgeous.

After our tour, we had another 3 Hour drive to Flagstaff, Arizona. A short distance south of Monument Valley was a huge remnant of a volcanic plug called Agathla Peack.  Very impressive. After about an hour's drive we could see the cloud of smoke rising from the fire on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was sad to think this fire was still only partially contained after three weeks. We were glad to see Mt. Humphreys, an extinct volcano that is the tallest point in Arizona, to the south and knew it was just north of Flagstaff. We looked forward to being in Flagstaff, it was only a really good night sleep and a solid drive the next day to be home. We are ready.

Day 38: July 22, 2025 Evergreen, Colorado to Aspen, Colorado to Moab, Utah

We woke too early, but Jenny had planned for a magnificent breakfast, which Dick cooked on her new grill griddle.  Delicious!!!!! And so final nice conversation before we headed off.

We drove an easy 3 hours over the heart of the Rocky Mountains, including Independence Pass.  What a beautiful part of the world. We were headed to another amazing part of Colorado: Aspen, home of the amazing Maroon Bells mountains. It is a very busy area, but we decided to ride from Aspen to the Bells on rented electric bikes. This was our first time riding these. It took a bit to get used to how they worked, but we were very appreciative of being able to use the electric assist to help go up the 7.5 mile grade to the foot of the mountains. Patti would like to testify that she still worked pretty hard on the ride and opted to let Dick continue the last mile for the best view of the Maroon Bells. She saw them close enough and took a little rest before going FAST downhill to the bottom of the road. She also had a slight mishap of accidentally turning the electric bike off, which drastically reduced the amount of assist available. Luckily, she worked it out. The mountains are spectacularly beautiful and it was the perfect day to see them from a bike. We even saw a deer on the way down.

After our ride we had another four hours to Moab, Utah. We are steadily heading for home. The change of scenery on this drive was dramatic: tall, rugged mountains to ever drier plateau to the desert of Utah.

In Moab, Patti had found us a vintage motel: The Apache Motel. This motel's claim to fame was this was where John Wayne liked to stay when he was filming westerns in the area. There was lots of John Wayne cut-outs and memorabilia around the hotel. Our room was actually next-door to the one that he had stayed at a number of times. We both have a lot of ambivalent feelings about who John Wayne was, but this was a really funky ,well kept up motel, and we enjoyed being there.

One of the things that made it fun was obviously this motel was on the radar of many travelers from around the world, and you could hear many languages being spoken.

We had a particularly nice interaction with a woman who was staying at the motel with her family. She works for the US State Department and is now on vacation away from an assignment overseas and back in the US. We had a very good conversation, talking with her about the realities of working for the federal government these days and the challenges for people like her,  who really cared about the work they were doing. We were glad to be able to hear her perspective and offer some support. It is indeed a challenging time. She agreed with us that sometimes even in challenging times going on vacation to beautiful places was just what was needed.

Day 37: July 21, 2025 Fort Collins, Colorado, to Rocky Mountain National Park and then Evergreen Colorado

Up early and we were at Rocky Mountain National Park by a little after 8:00 am. After 9:00, you had to have reservations to get into the park, which got taken up really quickly. Luckily Dick did his research and we got in before the reservation period. He took us immediately to a road that is seldom traveled which took us up so high.

We had a delightful conversation with one of the 400 volunteers who are working to keep things going at Rocky Mountain NP this summer.  His job was collecting trash, and he did it with a smile.  Thank you volunteers who are helping out. 

We drove slowly, soaking in the beautiful mountain air and the wildflowers. As we went higher, we eventually went up over the tree line and we were so happy to see the beautiful, beautiful mountains, as well as so many wild flowers in bloom.

At the very top, we stopped at a restaurant that we always stop at and had hot cocoa, which was delicious. In July, there are just a lot of people in Rocky Mountain National Park so it wasn’t particularly fun to get in and out of parking lots. We just knew that there was going to be a lot of traffic. But we were happy just to drive along stopping to take some photos.

We had hoped to see some wildlife, and we were not disappointed . We saw yellow belly marmots, picas, golden mantle ground squirrels, chipmunks, and were thrilled to see quite a few elk. This included a bachelor herd that was just lovely with the big racks of antlers.  We also l saw a mule deer, and a mother elk and her calf. A good wildlife day.

We found a nice place for a picnic lunch. We enjoyed being able to chat with a family who is on vacation and give them some pointers about getting around the park. 

But eventually, we had to come down off the mountains. The regular afternoon mountain rain showers looked like they were coming soon and we wanted to get into town. We spent a little bit of time at the local library getting some Internet work done and then headed two hours down the road to spend a night with one of our good friend, Jenny, in Evergreen, Colorado.

Jenny greeted us with a fabulous spread of appetizers , and then a fine Mexican meal at a local favorite.

We sat up late catching up, but finally headed off to bed. We had an early morning the next day.