It's Thanksgiving, 27 November 2024

A day of preparation and new ingredients

Our Thanksgiving menu:

Roasting a 10 lb turkey, basting with butter and Old Bay seasoning. Old Bay is a celery salt, with red and black peppers and paprika.

Sides: 

a traditional Green Bean Casserole, steamed fresh green beans, Campbell's cream of mushroom soup and French's Crispy Fried Onions. Mix beans with the soup, mix in half the onions, bake for about 1/2 hour. Just before serving sprinkle the rest of the crispy onions over the bake.

a Sweet Potato Casserole, cook and mash the sweet potatoes, the topping is a brown sugar, flour, butter and pecan nut crumble.

a Pork Sausage and Apple Stuffing is baked separately from the turkey. The dried cubed bread is mixed with the cooked sausages and onion, the herbs and celery, grated apples and dried cranberries, fresh parsley and finally the stock before baking in a casserole dish.

Dessert is pecan pie and ice cream with the seasonal Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark Collection.

As a nod to all our South African roots we had a bobotie and green salad as a starter.

Meeting up around a turkey, Craig and Shawni with Tenille and Mike from Pittsburg.
Fred loved carving the bird which Mike had perfectly prepared.

As Tenille said it was a 'who would have thought moment' for her. She and Shawni were flat mates for many years in Cape Town during their university years, and here they are married, with children and having Thanksgiving dinner together in Granby, Colorado.  She and Mike have been in the US for 12 years and are so pleased to have Craig and Shawni move across to Seattle from New Zealand. 

It was a treat to have Tenille sharing her traditional Thanksgiving recipes and bringing a true sense of this special American holiday to all of us.

For Fred and I our first Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for and I appreciate being around this table at this moment in my life.

White wonderland: beautiful and intimidating

 

As much as I am loving this experience of snow here in Granby, Colorado it is completely intimidating.
I am nervous driving even though Fred is handling the conditions very well.
Thank goodness for the graders who are keeping the roads passable.

Its been snowing slowly and steadily all day and I love how it builds up on the buildings and the trees are looking like Christmas!

The scene from our unit here at Mountainside at Silver Creek when we arrived, we are now a white wonderland.

We all braved the snow conditions and drove down to the lodge to enjoy the indoor and outdoor spa's. 

I had such fun swimming with Kirstie in the outdoor pool, which is heated to 82 degrees F, while the snow was falling around us. The pleasure of the hot tub at 101 degrees F was 'delicious'. 

We are now bunkered down and watching snow falling. I'm doing food prep for dinner. We are a group of 10 - so lots of meal planning from Shawni and Tenielle as well as the shopping just in case we get snowed-in. Did not think I would be writing about that!

Fred enjoying the photo opportunities.

Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Centre

We needed to pivot after our day was truncated on Pikes Peak and we booked an afternoon tour to experience the grey wolves, the incredibly rare red wolf, coyotes, red and silver foxes and singing dogs - yes, from New Guinea.  The facts about how we have treated wolves are not pretty to hear and the Centre pulls no punches in telling their story.

The tour ends with a collective human and wolf calling moment, just incredible to see a wolf with snout up in the air and howling!

Some of the pack here at the Centre.

Current wolf numbers in North America
Also a rating per state on how legislation attempts to protect their wildlife.

Driving a "11er rather than a 14er: Pikes Peak Highway

The start of the 19km to the summit

So plans do not always come together and today was one of those days. 

After the highlight of being in Utah at the Arches National Park other ideas for the weekend felt like slim pickings. 

Fred then mentioned Pikes Peak, Ian showing him the crazy race up this mountain in Colorado, donuts at 14000 ft and our plans were made.

Nowhere did we factor in snow. The weather forecast was good, the website confirmed that the Pikes Peak Highway was open. 

Our turning point

We arrived. Sure it's open but only to mile 13, the summit with its crazy switchbacks is closed for the winter, snowed in. 

The toll gate attendant mentioned that the summer queues to get up the highway stretch back for a mile. We almost had the highway to ourselves today and got a senior discount - this is called counting blessings.

We drove what we could, took in the splendour and managed the feeling of disappointment reasonably well. 

We got to an elevation of 11440 feet, the air was thin, it was really cold too - so we have done an 11er but have not joined the 14er club here in the Rockies!

And we could see why the Pikes Peak Highway was closed to the summit. This is a hairpin bend coming towards mile 12!

The drive is still impressive, en route up the Highway the views are endless.

Up above the treeline and into the raggedness of the southern Rocky's.

America's Mountain: Pikes Peak, Colorado

Pikes Peak, known as America's Mountain is our destination for the weekend. We are based in Woodland Park and we are here to drive the 19 mile scenic route with an elevation gain of 8000 feet which is a unique experience for a mountain with a height above 14000 feet. 

Fred heard about this drive from our cousin Ian, who showed Fred a YouTube video of the annual epic automobile hillclimb to the summit - the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, also known as The Race to the Clouds.

A mountain that inspired Katherine Lee Bates' famous poem, America the Beautiful.

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

Pikes Peak looming ahead, about 40 kilometres away!

A dominant feature indeed.

Early morning and late afternoon in Arches National Park

The miracle of light in Arches National Park. 

 

At times it is not about planning, but just being at the right place at the right time.
Fiery Furnace ablaze as the sunsets over Arches.

The same day but a cold palette of colour over the petrified sand dunes looking out to the La Sal Mountains.

The Three Gossips: Arches National Park

Our final trail this morning was along Park Avenue, the sheer walls of the canyon reminded early visitors of buildings lining a big city street. The massive monoliths and soaring tower walls are intimidating and made me feel small, the scale is quite unbelievable as we walked along the bottom of the canyon.

One of my favourite outcrops is the Three Gossips - would love a gossip with some friends right now!

The monumental Three Gossips, seen from Park Avenue Trial, rise 150 metres above the surrounding terrain.

The sheer canyon walls leading up to the Three Gossips. 

Walking along the Park Avenue Trail

Craning our necks looking up at these monolithic walls!

Road trip into Colorado: a pause for art and wine in Palisade, Co

Wine tasting and art stroll in Palisade

We are on the road, driving back into Colorado from Moab. Our en route stop is in Palisade, a community focus on vineyards and fruit trees. We started with wine tasting to provision for Thanksgiving with the family.  Pottering around the historic downtown and enjoying the barn quilt and sculpture trail.

Rather good combination - wine and art.

The Windows Section: Turret Arch

Turret Arch, named for the rock tower to the left. The towering spire is a giant sandstone fin.

The castle like free standing Turret Arch in the Windows area of Arches National Park, an easy walk from the North and South Windows. I particularly love the porthole window next to the main arch.

Using people in our photos to remember the scale of these windows!

Arches as windows: all about the angles

 

North and South Window from this angle look like a single structure, the pair of glasses on the horizon from many viewpoints in Arches. They are in fact two separate and enormous windows.

Arches are windows when they have glorious views across the landscape and particularly at The Windows Section in Arches National Park.

The easy, short trail up to North Window.

The vast scale of North Window.

The approach to South Window.

Windows and endless views

The development of an arch

 We have seen so many arches! Here is a snapshot of how we have experienced them.

A 'recent' arch forming at the base of a sheer cliff face.

A small opening peeping through this sandstone monolith

The arch starts to erode, opening up more and interesting shapes emerge.

Eventually a monumental arch has been formed and the next phase will be the collapsing of the arch.
I an fascinated by this arch which is called Broken Arch - can you also seeing the two dinosaurs touching noses!

And perhaps this would have been an arch! Sheer walls of the canyon along the Park Avenue Trail

We are not the first at Delicate Arch

 

A geologist pointed out these Jurassic era dinosaur footprints along the trail!

American Indians have been here for thousands of years. Petroglyph panel on the trail to Delicate Arch

The weathered log cabin 'Wolfe Ranch' settled in the late 1800's. A peep into the past when explorers came looking for minerals and ranchers found grasses for cattle and sheep

The many attitudes of Delicate Arch

 

Fred clambering up the slippery sandstone to get an unusual angle to Delicate Arch.

The classic angle.

Delicate Arch from a window in the rock along the trail, another climbing moment from Fred and patiently waiting for a people free moment.

The Kersten's at Delicate Arch

A magical moment, taking in the magnificence of Delicate Arch.

In planning our stay in Moab, I figured we would use the 4 night stay to to do a whole lot of different outings. Once we spent our first day in Arches, it was not even a debate, we would spend all our time in this one park. We have travelled extensively all over the world and into many natural wonders and hands down Arches has completely captured our souls. 

Our return to Delicate Arch was along a fabulous trail, rated as difficult because of the 5 kms with a steep 150m elevation gain and the exposure to heights. 

We relished being on the trail. 

There is no sign of the Arch until you round the exposed cliff path and then there it is. 

Delicate Arch floats high above the valley on the brink of a canyon, with the dramatic snow-capped Le Sal Mountains as a backdrop. 

Fred at the Arch in what we called the TikTok generation pose.
It's what most of the youngsters do, whizz down, take a photo and leave.

Bird of Arches National Park: Common Raven

The sound of Arches is the croaking of these huge ravens

From crows in Seattle to ravens in Arches, the family Corvidae certainly making their presence felt on our trip.

Mighty geology of Arches National Park: Sandstone is the scenery maker.

Arches is dominated by exposed bedrock, featuring cliffs, spires, canyon walls, hoodoos, rock domes, plus the famous windows and arches, all made of bare rock. These erosional phenomena are all carved from the sedimentary rock layers with sandstone being the major rock type. Its beautiful shades of reds to oranges, interspersed with cappuccino white, give the park its special palette.

I am fascinated that sandstone is strong enough to form cliffs and domes and yet able to support spans to create magnificent arches like Landscape Arch, the longest arch in North America - almost 100 meters! At its narrow point it is just under 2 meters in diameter. 

A huge chunk fell off the arch in the 1990's and it feels like it is hanging on by a thread. 

The spectacular Landscape Arch

Each angle is quite outstanding.

The approach from the Devil Garden Trailhead is quite surreal.

The walk is an easy 3km, but the temperature was barely 1 degree and with the windchill we were cold. 
This first view is a just a taste of how incredible the views are along the approach.

Arches National Park: Mule Deer

Our first sightings of Mule Deer which is indigenous to western North America. In the northern section of Arches National Park we were coming back from Landscape Arch and found these deer in the grasslands near Tunnel Arch.

Mule Deer buck on the trail around Tunnel Arch.
These deer have white rump patch and a small white tail with a black tip. 

Keeping a keen lookout to see what the buck was up to. The gentle looking does with their 'mule-like' ears