Highway 1 Trip, Part 1 by Grace

My family and I went driving up Highway 1 in California in the Dormobile. We decded to do this because we were going to get a new/old car and not just any old car, a RANGE ROVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Range Rover was in Redwood Valley, CA. So, we decided to make a vacation out of the trip.

Yeah this may seem crazy, to take a 1968 Dormobile 2,444 miles round trip. But the only thing bad that happened was a flat tire.

We set off from Tucson on Sunday, June 12th. That night we spent in a hotel in Laughlin, NV. The plan for Monday was to get to the coast, but we didn't quite make it and spent the night in Bakersfield, CA. The third day was the real start of our vacation.

We drove out of Bakersfield towards the coast and visited Paso Robles. This is one of my parents favorite places to visit wineries. We visited a few. It was boring!!!
Finally, we got to the coast!!!!!!!!!!!! We camped at San Simeon State Park. The beach was just a little way from our campsite.We watched the tide come in, and the sunset.

The next we visited the Hearst Castle, but that is for the next post.

AZLRO Rally 2011 - My Saturday Adventure - by Grace

Trip Information:

Land Rovers: LR4 and 2 Dormobiles

Drivers:  All women!!

Diva: Grace

Trail: Queen Creek

At the trail line-up we took this picture with Bill Burke.  Bill Burke is an awesome off-road guy.  He put us on his Facebook page.  You can also check out his website.  My Mom, Dad and the other Diva Dad's took a three-day trail leader training course from Bill Burke in January. 

  I had to go on Queen Creek since my Mom was a trail leader.  I was a little disappointed since the other divas were going on a different trail. 

This the LR4 on our trail.  It was its first time in low range, extended mode and off-road.  Awesome!!!  Get Dirty!!!

These are the wagon tracks.  When I think of wagon tracks I think of little skinny wheel tracks that don't even make an impression on the ground.  These are different.  They are from ore carts from a silver mine that was run between 1887 - 1909.  You can even see where the hoofs of the horses were.  

Next we went to the old townsite of Pinal.  This was a can lid we found.  There is lots of cool junk left, but the buildings are just mounds of dirt 

Updated Trip Information: 

Land Rovers: LR4, 2 Dormobiles, 4 Discos, 1 Range Rover, 1 G-Wagon with Land Rover Badges (it was funny!!)

Drivers: 3 women and some boys

Divas: Grace, Izabella, Sydney, Samantha and Sophia

Trail: Still Queen Creek

At lunch all of the trail leaders from the rally, who did not have a trail joined us for the rest of the day.  In the end there were 7 trail leaders on my Mom's trail.  Who was the trail leader??  They were all fighting over it and kept passing each other to be the trail leader!!

After lunch we headed up to the rock shelters.  Here are the LR4's boys exploring one of the rock shelters.  These rock shelters are between 800-1000 years old.  We found pottery that dates back to that time. 

There are also Pictographs and Petroglyphs at one of the rock shelters. 

We went in with 3 Land Rovers and came out with 7 Land Rovers and 1 German Thing!!

It turned out to be a very fun day!!!

Grace's Fall Break - Trip to Chaco Canyon - Days 7 - 9

On Friday morning we packed up and left Chaco Canyon.  

Here are Felicty and Gracie dressed for a Land Rover Safari Adventure. 

We headed toward Farmingtion, NM, when my parents realized that Aztec ruins was just another 10 miles up the road.

This is kind of weird. The band of blackish/greenish rocks.  I have never seen this before.  It is especially interesting because they plastered over it.  So, why did they do it?

The people of Aztec had two Great Kivas.  One of the Great Kivas was reconstructed and we were able to go into the kiva.  It might have been what kivas looked like a 1000 years ago.  There are three types of Kivas.  Great Kivas, Keyhole Kivas, and Housed Kivas.  Great Kivas are really big.

  This is an original ladder from Aztec ruins.  I always thought of the Sante Fe ladder, but these were very common in both Aztec and Chaco.  In Chaco there were no ladders left, because they were scavenged for firewood.  Another thing that makes me sad.

After visiting Aztec Ruins we went to Four Corners Monument.  Four Corners is where Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico all meet in one place.

It was really fun.  You can say "I'm in AZ, no wait, NM, no wait, CO, no wait, UT, no wait, I am in them all.


After Four Corners we headed to Canyon de Chelly.  We got there after dark and camped at the campground.

We drove the south rim of Canyon de Chelly the next morning and I heard all about the time my parent's got to camp at the base of Spider Rock.  Maybe someday I will get to do that.


Our next and last stop was Hubble Trading Post.

We were lucky enough to get to go inside the Hubble House.  Here I am in the entrance way.

This is bread oven.  I think they said they baked 250 loaves of bread a week in this oven. 

 Cool Barn!! Sometimes they had up to 10,000 sheep here!  I bet that was stinky!!

Here I am with my 6 Junior Ranger Badges and patches.

The last night we spent at our friend's cabin in Show Low, AZ.  We are so glad we could stay there in comfort and hot showers after 8 long days in the Dormobile.  Thanks Tom and Jane.

I had an awesome time.  On to our next adventure!!!

Grace's Fall Break - Trip to Chaco Canyon - Days 3-6

Chaco Culture was the main stop on our trip.

On the first day we went to Una Vida. It is one of the first great houses built in Chaco Canyon. Now it looks small, but in the 900's it was very big!!

On the second day, I hiked 8 miles to see the Supernova pictograph. 

On the way there was a Petroglyph side trail.  We took it and here are some of the Petroglyphs. 

The square is a Kachina.  I think this is really cool!!

Under the Supernova Pictograph there was a petroglyph of Halley's comet. The hike was long, and my mom got lots of blisters on her feet to prove it.

On the bluff above there were ruins called Penasco Blanco.

On the third day, we went to Hungo Pavi, Chetro Ketl, Pueblo Bonito, Pueblo de Arroyo, and Casa Rinconada. 

Pueblo Bonito

Pueblo Bonito is the town square. It is Huge!!! It was first to be built and the last to be completed. On January 22, 1941 a rock face fell on an 8th of Pueblo Bonito. Here are some pictures of Pueblo Bonito!

 This is a drawing of the different stages of building at Pueblo Bonito.

 The famous curving doors of Pueblo Bonito.  Awesome!!

 This is the original wood ceiling beams in this one room of Pueblo Bonito.  The room has original plaster, but the park service plastered over it, because people were vandalizing it.  There was a lot of that kind of stuff here.  It made me sad.

This is a rare corner door.

Chetro Ketl

Here is the "Great Wall" at Chetro Ketl. Which is another great house about 1/2 mile from Pueblo Bonito.

These are original mosaics that are blocked off, but a nice park service ranger came by and opened the door to the room, so we could get a better look.  He told us there were several other examples in the park, but they have closed them off to visitors for safe keeping.

Casa Rinconada

My favorite of all the ruins!!!

Casa Rinconada is a Great Kiva. On the summer solstice a light shines on a niche on the wall. A Great Kiva is a ceremony room sort of like a church.

Pueblo de Arroyo

 This a "tri-wall" or triple walled kiva.  They are rare and only a dozen have been found in the four corners area.  This is the only one at Chaco.

 These mealing bins have metate's in them.  The women would sit down with feet against the wall and knees against the mealing bin and grind corn. 

Chacoan Stairway

Chacoan stairways were carved into rocks.  They have found many stairways around Chaco Canyon.

Chaco was Awesome!!!

More to come - Aztec Ruins, Four corners, Canyon de Chelly and Hubble Trading Post

Memorial Day Weekend on Mt. Graham. The Rover Divas visit The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) by Grace

 

 My Dad works at the LBT. We planed a trip so more people could be as amazed as us by the telescope.

This is our camp site at Treasure Park.  We had a lot of fun here.  

There were 7 Land Rovers and we had our Chevy Pickup.  We don't like to drive the Dormobile during the summer, since it does not have air conditioning.  Besides me there were 4 girls and 3 boys.

My Dad and Jon Christianson both had telescopes. We looked through them at night.  During the day Jon put a white cover on his.  We thought it looked like a ghost, and thought about putting eyes on it. :)

 

The Girls built a fort. It was awesome!

The adults sat around the campfire(booooooring), while we had FUN!

Their was still snow on the ground, so we had a snowball fight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:)

I love visiting the LBT!!!!!

 

The girls couldn't find a seat at once, so we sat on each other. Poor Aslyin the littlest on the bottom.

The kitchen always has otter pops. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

The LBT is amazingly impressive, but because of its massive size its The Largest Telescope in the world!