Spring in the Desert

 The desert is a muted area of green and brown--at least until spring comes.  Then we see color everywhere.

Especially because we had some rain not long ago, we have seen flowers blooming all over the place.

All of these are sights we saw on our morning walk around our resort recently.

 Here are a couple more.

In addition to the native flowers, we also found a garden full of snap dragons, petunias and other traditional flowers from up north  (in Colorado or Kansas or Pennsylvania).

Isn't spring wonderful?

Travel to Telluride

 The scenery along the route from Montrose to Telluride is spectacular.  Only the skies hazy with smoke from several wildfires limited the beauty.

The forest and rock formations are great.

 

Unfortunately, some unknown (so far) problem is causing large stands of Aspen to die.  

There are sharp peaks.

And long smoky vistas of other mountains.

In places, we had a good look at the different colors of stone in these mountains.

Telluride is right in the middle of these mountains at an elevation of 8750 feet above sea level.  This is a view along one of the side streets.  I was standing on Main Street.

We could tell where the ski trails are in the winter.  Notice how steep the roofs are.  It helps the snow to quickly slide off the buildings, rather than drifting on the roof and causing damage.

I love the paint job on this house and the attractive front porch.

This is a galloping goose. Signs like these marked the bus stop where people could wait for the rail-riding vehicle that traveled through town and between the mountain towns decades ago.

  

This is a galloping goose.

There is something about the thin mountain air that really helps flower baskets to thrive.  Aren’t these beautiful?

This sign tells a little about the mining past of Telluride.

Homolovi Ruins State Park

We enjoy Homolovi Ruins State Park near Winslow and have been here at least four times.  The sites are really spacious.

There are lots of pretty things to see here.

Flowers are blooming.

And we saw this beautiful 1958 Flying Cloud Airstream, pulled by a 1961 Chrysler.  It has been fully restored.  I loved the license plates on the car and trailer.  Cars with those fins were sure cool when I was in high school!

And the ruins, of course.  There are two main sections of ruins visible to visitors.  We walked to Homolovi I the other day.  Here are pottery shards.

And some structure walls have been restored.

This, however, is not something you want to see.  Our campsite has water and electric but no sewer at our site.  When we drove to the dump station, the black tank valve wouldn't open so we couldn't empty the sewer.  An RV technician from Winslow came to try a repair.  He wasn't successful so he ordered a new part.

He returned yesterday with a new part. What he found was that the black tank and the black pipe between the tank and dump valve were full of calcium deposits. The water in Arizona is extremely hard and white deposits develop on (and in, obviously) our plumbing. We couldn't believe how many large clumps of white deposit he was able to flush out of the tank. When we tried to empty it originally, a chunk of that stuff had blocked the tank opening.

Everything seems to be working correctly today. We hope it stays that way.

Bloomin' Beauty

There is beauty everywhere in the Arizona this year.  We have had rain and the cactus is gorgeous!  What a bright spot amidst Covid-19, quarantines and shelter in place orders.

The Argentine giant cactus blooms have started to open.

Prickly pear are loaded with buds and blooms.

I'm not sure of the name of this one but I know there will be either flowers or new growth soon.

Even the non-native plants are loving the warmth and putting on blooms.

These look like very small sunflowers.

The runoff wash near our entrance gate is full of yellow flowers.

There are so many things we can't or shouldn't do right now, but here in Arizona we can go outside and enjoy God's beauty in creation.

Creede

We enjoyed time walking around Creede when we were parked there earlier this month.  We saw this small garden, complete with a mural and a young girl walking on the stone wall.  She reminded us of our granddaughter Kylie who used to balance on a wall near our home in Centennial.

The were flowers blooming everywhere in downtown Creede.

There were also a number of interesting sculptures, like this long-legged bird.




Our RV resort, Mountain Views at River's Edge, is beautiful.  We enjoyed walking around there, too.  Love this small lake and the reflections.

These sculptures are scattered around the resort.

The antler light fixture in the meeting hall is really impressive.

We will definitely stay there again, if we are in the area.