CC Trip - The Road Home

Well, we've left Las Vegas, and have started to head east, and sooner or later, we'll make it home. Turned 4000 miles for the trip so far.  While driving today, a kamikaze bird challenged me and he lost. Driver 1, Bird 0.  It was such a BANG!  that it even woke TZ up from his nap (!). We are passing through northern Arizona , New Mexico and Colorado again, to see some sights we missed.

Went to Meteor Crater.  It is thought that the meteor that hit here was about 150 feet across and traveled about 26,000 miles per hour - The explosive force is estimated to have been greater than 20 million tons of TNT! The crater is 4000 feet wide, 550 feet deep, and you can lay 20 football fields at the bottom.  This is what is left of the original meteor:

Look closely for the people, to see the perspective on the size of this thing:

Click the arrow for a short video:

Please excuse the finger in the picture!  I was holding it over the mics because of the strong winds.

Took the 26 mile drive through The Petrified Forest and The Painted Desert.  The original trees which grew in the plains had fallen in the floods, and the sediment which covered them cut off their supply of oxygen.  Silica seeped into the wood and eventually crystallized into quartz and the logs were preserved as petrified wood.  The wood is very dense, and heavy for its size.  Fossils of prehistoric animals are still being discovered, and petroglyphs carved into the sides of rocks offer evidence of civilization from more than 10,000 years ago until about 1400.

These formations are called tepees:

The Painted Desert was beautiful:

The mountains in western New mexico looked as beautiful as those in The Painted Desert:

Had another freebie, thanks to Tony's Geezer Pass:

Drove up to Capulin Mountain, an inactive volcano, which rises 1,300 above the plains.

There are 5 walking trails, including one that ventures down into the crater.  We drove to the top to see the crater.

The view from the peak was dramatic.

Back in Colorado, we visited Cripple Creek again as we passed through Colorado Springs, where Tony played a little Texas Hold 'Em.

Saw the Cliff Dwellings in Manitou Springs, at the foot of Pike's Peak.  Estimated to be more than 700 years old, they are set into a red sandstone mountain, and you can explore all of the separate chambers inside.  

This is where corn and other vegetables were ground down to prepare for cooking:

Visited Seven Falls in the Broadmoor area, outside of Colorado Springs.  

Can you see our blue jeep down in the parking lot? (And we were only at the mid-point of the falls).

Driving back, in a residential area, we interrupted a 6 X 5 mule deer in velvet, on his afternoon walk. He didn't even flinch as we passed:

In fact, I think he posed for us!

Passed 5,000 miles so far on the trip.  The plan is to continue through Kansas, into Missouri, to Kansas City, then St. Louis. So we have a few days of driving ahead of us.