Finding a Good Hike for a Good Old Pair of Boots

Today I went for a mountain hike with my almost sixteen year old son, and our exuberant and lovely dog. We were alone on the trail, and we both spent time reminiscing about all the time we've spent on the beautiful Italianos Trail. It was delightful to listen to my son remember his stories -- that …

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Why Dirt Road?

Why Dirt Road Journal? The short answer is because my family loves to get off road and have an adventure. But there's a lot more to it too. We are adventurous souls. Being on the road of life pushes boundaries and comfort zones, and adventure makes new rules and breaks old ones. That is where real …

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Rounding up the summer at Bobcat Pass

To celebrate summer and the beginning of autumn, my family and I ventured up to a special spot near Red River on the Enchanted Circle for an evening of good food and good entertainment. At 10,000 feet at Bobcat Pass, there's the Moreno Valley's Cowboy Evening. There they serve you up a ribeye hot off …

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Hot springs on hot days: Hooper Pool

“Hooper Pool,” officially known as the Sand Dunes Swimming Pool, feels like it sits back in time. If you weren’t looking for it, you’d never see it, but it is sure not to be missed. In the sand and the sagebrush, two miles off the highway, 20 miles north of Alamosa, sits the sparkling warm …

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Finding the Santa Fe Trail (Part I)

Sometimes things that aren't lost are pretty hard to find. And once you discover them, you realize you've simply got to tell everyone you know because the treasure just might disappear forever if other people don't know about it. This is how we felt about finding Fort Union National Park about thirty miles north of Las …

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Tent Rocks: someplace you gotta go, and my family thought they looked a little like something else . . .

Yes, they're called tent rocks, but as you wander through the trail to the top of the mesa, it feels like you're wandering through another world.  A bit like Star Wars or a bit phallus depending on your state of mind, but in either case, it is magnificent. The monument is about an hour north …

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