Giddy Up to Gallup 'n Greeley!

It’s time for a new adventure, and we’re real excited about it!

Tomorrow, before sunrise, we’ll be saying our goodbyes to Yuma, Arizona and heading up to Gallup, New Mexico. We’ll be in this historic Route 66 town for a couple of nights so that we can visit Chaco Culture National Historical Park and Aztec Ruins National Monument, and experience the Summer Nightly Indian Dances and the legendary El Rancho Hotel's movie history.

From Gallup we head up to Greeley and Weld County in Northeast Colorado. We’ll be there for about a week and we have a jam packed itinerary that includes the Pawnee National Grassland, the Wild Animal Sanctuary, St Vrain State Park, Colorado Model Railroad Museum, Greeley Blues Jam, Greeley Creative District and so much more!

Then it’s off to historic Florence, Colorado for a few days where we'll check out the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park, and then Santa Fe, New Mexico where we’ll visit Bandelier National Monument and the historic Santa Fe Plaza. We hope to get some time in the art community of Silver City too.

Colorado Riverfront in the Yuma East Wetlands 

We’re so glad Yuma is our Love Your Parks Tour headquarters. It’s nice to know that our cool and comfy rooms will be waiting for us at the historic Coronado Motor Hotel, and that we can return to our sunrise walks along the lower Colorado Riverfront. 

Giddy Up, Let’s Go!
Miss P.

A National Living Shrine

General Grant Tree, a National Living Shrine

This Memorial Day I would like to reflect on the General Grant Tree, the third largest tree by volume on the planet! We had the pleasure of seeing this giant sequoia tree on our visit to Kings Canyon National Park in central California. And boy is it a true giant! Did you know it would take about 20 people holding hands to make a complete circle around it? And, if the tree trunk could be filled with sports equipment, it could hold about 159,000 basketballs or 37 million ping pong balls!

On March 29, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared the General Grant Tree a "National Shrine", a memorial to honor the men and women of the armed forces who died in war. It is our country’s only national living shrine, and it is also the nation’s Christmas Tree! The tree was named in 1867 after Ulysses S. Grant, Union Army general and the 18th President of the United States (1869–1877).

General Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Park 

Nancy and Lisa had a “Generals & Giants” radio conversation with author/historian “Military Mike” who talked about General Grant, and General Sherman who has the largest tree (by volume) named after him. You can find that giant tree in Sequoia National Park, which is adjacent to Kings Canyon National Park…just follow the Generals Highway to get there! You can hear their conversation here on our site, NationalParkTraveling.com. 

Happy Memorial Day,
Miss P.