December 17, 2022 - Petroglyph National Monument, Albuquerque, New Mexico

We are heading to Arizona for the holidays and have driven from Colorado there more times than we can count. We made the decision a couple years ago that we would try to actually see things along the way instead of just zooming past them. Today we stopped at two of the three sites in the Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

We picked up maps at the Visitors Center, where there are actually NO petroglyphs! There are walking trails with flowers and plants, but we drove a couple miles up street and arrived at the Boca Negra Canyon site. The trail is about one mile round trip with three short, uneven moderately strenuous paths. Some the the trail had concrete steps, but much of it was boulders to climb up or around. It wasn't bad, and they estimate there are about 100 petroglyphs.

The boulders have images made by the Ancestral Pueblo People 400-700 years ago. Some of the images are things we recognize today, however, their meanings are only known to the original carvers.





Back at the RV we had lunch then headed another five miles to the northern most site, Piedras Marcadas Canyon. This part has the densest concentration of petroglyphs along the 17-mile volcanic escarpment, with an estimated 5000 documented images of the monument's total of 20,000! Along the 1.8 walking trail you can see up to 400 of the 5000. This trail was an easy, level sandy trail which skirts the edge of a residential area! Piedras Marcadas Canyon means "canyon of marked rocks," and we certainly did see lots of them.

Archeologists believe that groups traveled near and from from pueblos along the banks of the Rio Grande and elsewhere to offer prayers and carve images sacred to them.

The carving on the left side of the rock below - just to the left of the large light spot - reminds me of an airplane!





As we were going along the trail, we spotted a road runner. He didn't seem afraid of us and followed us for quite a while! We kept thinking about Wylie Coyote and the Road Runner cartoons ... Beep, beep!



And, thankfully, the trail was well marked!

We were thankful the weather was mild, about 40 degrees and sunny which made the exploring pretty pleasant. We decided the stop was well worth it and were happy we did it. There is one other site to explore, Rinconada Canyon which we may do on another trip, but for now it is on to Arizona!

November 7, 2022 - Winnipeg , Canada to Fort Collins, CO - WRAPUP

Our bags were packed and ready to go, but I'm not sure I was! It was cold, however, and VERY windy, so I am counting my blessings that we had an amazing week in Churchill with pretty mild weather and lots of wildlife sightings. Our shuttle dropped us at the airport around 8:30 this morning for our flights back to Colorado. There were three other women from our group on our flight to Toronto so we had a chance to visit a little while longer. We had a schedule change, so our flight didn't arrive into Toronto until 2:20 and our connection was boarding at 2:50. Doesn't sound bad, but we had to clear US customs and it's a LONG walk from our arriving gate to a different concourse! They had already started boarding by the time we ran and got everything done, but we did make it. We got back to Denver and picked up the car around 5:30 and home by 7:30.

We are both tired and feel like we have colds. We will test for COVID tomorrow, just to make sure we don't have it. Ugh.

Again, I can't tell you how much we enjoyed our adventure with Natural Habitat Adventures, https://www.nathab.com. They do an amazing job! This afternoon Amanda, our representative in Boulder, called to welcome us home and ask about our trip. They probably do that for everyone, but it is the first time we have had a tour company contact us after a trip to see if we enjoyed it! To wean myself off the excitement of the trip I am still watching the live feeds from the webcams from Polar Bears International explore.org.
https://explore.org/livecams/polar-bears-international/polar-bear-cam

ANYWAY, I am just going to post pictures and some videos with brief descriptions.

Miranda took this picture of the red fox at the top of the rocks as we came into Churchill from the airport on our first day.
The trash / recycling station which wasn't built until 2006! Before that there was a dump which attracted many polar bears.
Prices in Churchill are extremely high. Everything is imported either on the train or by air. Natural Habitat Adventures, which we booked our tour through, flys all of their trash and recycling back to Winnipeg! A 12-pack of soft drinks is $13.99 CAD - about $10.50 USD!

Sue driving the tundra rover with Tobey's help.
Miranda got a shot of our group taking pictures of the bears off the back deck.

In you were ever wondering if bears do .... in the woods, I'm not sure, but they do on the tundra!

If you look closely, you can see a bear swimming in the water! Miranda got these shots with her super long camera lens! Did you spot it?
Here's a hint ...
This is a picture taken by another rover guide of bears at our rover!
Checking each other out
Let's rumble!

I think I will take a break!

Do you want to know a secret?

I told you I don't want to play!

Big yawn

Just slippling along the snow.
Hey, look at me!

Our group at the Inukshuk

Dog sled adventure

Miranda got a shot of Tobey and me on the dog sled, November 5 at Wapsuck Adventures https://www.wapuskadventures.com/.

Flag Trees - the pines tend to grow only on one side because the wind is so strong.

Miranda's shot of the mom and cub - November 5Bear Crossing

VIDEOS - the link will open in a new window.
November 2, 2022 - hard to see, but a fox on the way into Churchill
https://youtube.com/shorts/uNz7vS9piQM?feature=share

November 3, 2022 - Bear checking out our rover video
https://youtube.com/shorts/BF9Xlfs9LHk?feature=share

November 3, 2022 - bear coming under our rover
https://youtu.be/l_gIEsqwwGs

November 3, 2022 - Bears rolling in the snow video
https://youtube.com/shorts/UgRk-TVkjyY?feature=share

November 3, 2022 - scooting along the snow - Miranda took this video
https://youtu.be/9wDUnMJa4Z0

11-4-2022 bears sparring
https://youtu.be/Dfv6dYTJU3Y

11-4-2022 - bear walking near rover
https://youtu.be/pOw8LWyo2qA

22-4-2022 -Bears digging for kelp
https://youtu.be/yw47k8nXSxM

November 6, 2022 - Churchill to Winnipeg, Canada

We turned our clocks back last night but wished we could have rolled them back more than one hour. I was not ready to have this amazing trip end, although we awoke to snow, strong winds, and bitter cold temperatures and we were thankful this wasn't the start of our trip. A couple of the women in our group went out early and made a snow person just outside the hotel.

After a late breakfast, our group took a short drive by the Polar Bear Holding Facility and the "Miss Piggy" plane crash site.

On our way, Krista spotted a cross fox on the hill.

The holding facility is kind of like a polar bear jail. It can house up to 26 bears that are considered troublesome or dangerous. They have been caught in town in live traps and then isolated here in individual "cells" before they can be relocated. It is not open to the public, but we were able to get out of the shuttle and read the signs and see some of the live traps. The first picture is the bear holding facility which is part of the mural project, as well.

The "Miss Piggy" plane, a Lamb Air C-46F, crashed shortly after taking off from the Churchill airport on November 13, 1979 due to a mechanical failure and an oversized load. It was attempting to make it back to Churchill aiport, but fell short and crashed on a rocky patch of land. The three occupants of the plane were only slightly injured, but the plane was badly damaged. It rests in the same spot and became part of the mural project from Churchill!

Back in Churchill, we had a wonderful presentation by Sandra Cook, a local indigenous artist. She had slides of her work and told us her story. I had tears listening to her talk about her life.

The garage door is one Sandra painted on her husband's garage! It's beautiful.
We made a few more stops in town to see some of the other murals.


As if we hadn't eaten enough, we had an early lunch before our flight back to Winnipeg! It was still snowing and the wind was really blowing. Once we took off, we couldn't see anything because of the clouds.

We arrived back at the Fort Garry Hotel about 5, turned in our heavy winter coats and boots and had a little time before our farewell dinner. Our tour guide, Miranda, put together a small photo show that ran throughout the dinner. Krista introduced us to "air drop" on I-phones as a way to share our pictures. It's pretty funny watching a group of 50+ year olds attempting new technology on our I-phones. (me included!)

Natural Habitat provided us with some really cool coffee mugs to take home with pictures from Churchill and the bears on them. We have some amazing memories and they will give us that visual reminder of this wonderful trip. We are off to bed because we have an 8 am shuttle to the airport so good night!