Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, CO

This is one of those little known gems of the national park system.  It is quite lovely and well worth a visit. !! Very impressive,  the canyon drops 2700 feet to the river below.  We drove to the park from Durango in the jeep and so had to cross 3 - 10 to 11 thousand foot summits.  We were happy when we did it that we had changed our previous plans of driving the motorhome that route!!  As you can see, we had some "weather" along the way!  It was beautiful and fun.  We did an overnight in Ouray just driving the jeep.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

it was a beautiful spring day!

apparently you can kayak this river.....if you can do at least  5 rapids!!!!!

view from our motel in Ouray

Mesa Verde National Park

We are enjoying our stay in Durango, CO, in spite of the crazy weather!  It was beautiful the first week and now we are having rain and snow on and off!  Expected to be like this for the next 3 days, its kinda crazy!

Mesa Verde NP is one of those not to be missed parks.  I had been there many years ago but was happy to go back again with Mike.  Besides, we were able to do the Long House tour which I had not done previously.  These huge pueblo ruins built in alcoves under the mesa rim are truly marvels!  You must plan ahead if thinking about seeing this park as tours have to be planned ahead of time and ruins open for the season at different times.

What you see below is a fraction of the ruins that you will see as you drive the mesa rims at the park!

Getting ready to tour Cliff Palace

local Mesa Verde resident

a nice petroglyph panel on a trail

Spruce Tree House

Square Tower House

Sunset House (I think, saw from across canyon)

on our way to tour Long House

yes, we got to climb ladders

Long House has the best view!!!

we were able to explore Step House without arranging a tour

on the way "home"

Iguanas and lizards of Key Largo

This past month we have been parked in Albuquerque, NM, visiting family there and flying around to other parts of the country on a couple of smaller trips.  One was to Key Largo in Florida so Mike could get in some diving.

Home to many colorful lizards and iguanas that are not native to Florida, they have become permanent residents and do pose so nicely for the camera.....what can I say??

this guy was massive even from my viewpoint which was looking up 12 to 15 feet halfway across a parking area!

i had lots of posers on the deck at our resort

brown anole, sorry about the quality

curly tailed lizard

enjoying some fresh water on the patio

this is a red headed agama