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 …

Continue reading Why Dirt Road?

Bushwhacking Education

My son at the summit of his first 14er. I had never considered myself “that kind of mom." Last year I let my son drop out of school. He was not yet 16, the “legal age” a person can drop out. In order to work around those legalities I was confronted with owning the title …

Continue reading Bushwhacking Education

On the Santa Fe Trail (Part II)

As we approached Bent's Fort, my son noted that there were two busloads of children touring the site. It is certainly not as "lost" as our trip to Fort Union felt. And as we approached the Fort itself, we recognized it as re-constructed, not at all like the ruins of the Fort in northern New …

Continue reading On the Santa Fe Trail (Part II)

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 …

Continue reading Finding the Santa Fe Trail (Part I)

Old tomboy mine and her brides

As I travel the backroads of the west and explore the past of the old roads, the stories take me to other stories and yet other stories.  The first time I traveled Imogene Pass out of Telluride, Colorado I found such a story.  The Pass itself is magnificent.  The road is a sight, and to …

Continue reading Old tomboy mine and her brides

The Beauty of Pearl Pass

Pearl Pass, Colorado, near Aspen, at a summit of 12,705' . Cira 1872, miners from Crested Butte built a make shift road from Crested Butte over Pearl Pass to the mining town of  Ashcroft, and eventually made the road to Aspen.  The road is one of the most difficult we driven. The boulders, the steepness, and the …

Continue reading The Beauty of Pearl Pass