Petroglyph National Monument, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque, New Mexico, actually has three locations where you can take a short walk, or a longer hike, and see some impressive petroglyphs etched into rocks by the Native American people.  We visited one of the sites, known as Piedras Marcadas Canyon.  We took a mile walk and were able to see many petroglyphs. We also saw a couple of roadrunners.

Fort Union, New Mexico

Driving through New Mexico, we stopped at Fort Union, a large military fort on the Santa Fe trail.  This fort was used as a supply post; over a dozen other forts were supplied from fort Union.  There are many partial buildings left and the footprint of the fort is quite large. The Santa Fe trail ran right through the fort allowing the wagon trains to stock up on supplies.

Jail house

Santa Fe Trail

Supply house

Chimneys left from officers quarters

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

We had the opportunity to see the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  This place is amazing.  There are over 30 square miles of sand and the dunes are right up against the mountains, so the setting is quite spectacular.  According to the park film, the wind blows the sand up against the mountains and then the wind off the mountain blows the sand back so that the dunes so not move around like some sand dunes do. 

State of Colorado

We clicked off our 40th state on this trip. WOW!  Colorado is also our last new state for this trip.  Heading back to Arizona in October.

Kansas and another world's largest

We drove into Kansas and stopped in a little town called Goodland.  In this town, they have the world's largest art easel with a replica of a Van Gogh painting on it.  Just to be clear, it is not the world's largest painting, just the easel.  The painting is a representation of Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting.  Since Kansas is known as the sunflower state, this all makes perfect sense.

Scotts Bluff and Chimney Rock, landmarks in western Nebraska

Scotts Bluff National Monument in Scottsbluff, Nebraska is a well known point on the Oregon Trail.  It was at Scotts Bluff that the wagon trains finally left the prairie and began to get into the rocks and eventually the mountains.  This landmark could be seen by the wagon trains for several days before they actually reached the bluff.  The wagon train went through a pass and on to the west.  The Mormon trail and the Pony Express route also went through this pass.  We drove through it as well.  It makes you stop and think about all the people who have traveled this same path.

Scotts Bluff

On top of the bluff

Driving through the pass

Chimney Rock

Chimney Rock lit up at night.

Nebraska, visit to Carhenge

We rolled into Nebraska, clicking off our 38th state.  We made a stop at a very fun roadside attraction: Carhenge.  It is a replica of Stonehenge but it's made from vintage cars.  It was built in 1987 and interestingly, it was one of the best places in the US to watch the solar eclipse last summer.  There are also some other art pieces scattered about this location.  Carhenge is a popular tourist stop that many people have heard of.  If you are in northwest Nebraska, stop by; it is definitely a fun place to stretch your legs and see how creative people can be.

"Car-nestoga" wagon

On our way through Nebraska, we ran through a nasty storm, par for the course for the plains weather. Made a super cool picture though.

Jewel Cave National Monument, Custer, SD

Jewel Cave National Monument in Custer, South Dakota is the third longest cave in the world.  We took a cave tour and were able to see some amazing cave formations. This cave has been a national park area since 1908.

This map shows the 195 miles of mapped passages.  It is estimated that only 4 percent of the cave is mapped.

Historic entrance to Jewel Cave

This formation is known as Bacon, it is 20 feet long and 1 foot wide.

This is called cave popcorn.