The Southwest in September

The Southwest is truly a beautiful part of the country.  I added almost 3500 miles on my trusty crv and camped in it too!  It worked out great and it was a great trip.  I visited friends (Mary and Paul) in Mancos, Colorado (near Durango and very near to Mesa Verde National Park.  In fact, you can see it from their front porch!  Mary and I then drove to Questa, New Mexico (near Taos) to visit our friend Rebecca.
The whole trip was filled with incredible sights, good friends, peace, fun and some interesting animal encounters.  A few of the animal encounters are included but the best (or at least my favorite) took place in the middle of the night in Valley of Fire SP in Nevada when I was visited TWICE by what turned out to be a ringtail cat.  He climbed in through my moonroof trying to steal an apple from my food stash.  It being literally the middle of the night, I didn't think to try to photograph him and shooed him away, the second time closing the moonroof.  It wasn't 'til morning when I saw the apple (from my friend Mary's garden) with little fang marks and on the opposite side of the car that I realized what the little critter was after.  Poor little guy!  I would gladly have let him have the apple if I had known!
Anyway, there are far too many photos and I've narrowed it down as much as I could.  Just a spectacular part of the country!

Hickison State Park Near Austin, Nevada

Some Beautiful Scenes Along the Way

My Trusty Camp Car

Castle Rock Campground, Utah

Dead Horse State Park

There is a yellow dot (look closely) where Thelma and Louise supposedly drove

off the cliff.

A bird who visited my campground

Canyonlands

Arches

Hiking near Mancos

Mesa Verde

Questa, New Mexico

Wupatki Ruins (there is an earth breathing hole here and a ball court!)

Navajo National Monument

The (VERY) Grand Canyon

An Elk at the Grand Canyon

Petroglyphs at Valley of Fire SP near Las Vegas

Valley of Fire State Park