Visit to "Best Friends Animal Rescue Sanctuary" Kanab, UT

http://bestfriends.org/

Our route to date:

This is our route: (A) Parkland, Fl to (B) Ocala, FL to (C) Navarre, FL to (D) Baton Rouge, LA (E) to Austin , TX to
(F) Llano, TX, to (G) Carlsbad Caverns, NM to (H) Santa Fe, NM to (I) Taos, NM to (J) Pagossa Springs, CO
to (K) Mesa Verde, CO to (L) Bluff, UT to (M) Kanab, UT - "Best Friends Animal Rescue Sanctuary"

The animals that come to this sanctuary are either sick, neglected or abused and all are homeless.  They receive all the care they need physically, emotionally and psychologically and are adopted into their forever homes.  Those that can't
take that next step are kept in the sanctuary for life.  We took a tour of the facility and it was even better than I imagined.
There are about 1,500 animals there on approximately 30,000 acres.  Besides caring for 700 dogs, same number of cats, horses, pigs, birds, bunnies and wild animals they have volunteer programs and training programs.  They are a leader in
the "No Kill" mission.  I hadn't realized that approximately 9,000 dogs and cats are euthanized every single day in the US simply because they don't have homes!

Welcome Center

The horses have lots of room to graze and exercise. Chubby, compulsive eaters need to walk farther for

their food and water to get their weight down.  

Angels Rest.  The animal cemetery is incredible with the sound of  hundreds of wind chimes echoing off the

canyon walls.

This sanctuary is a great place to visit or do a volunteer vacation.  Maybe we'll do that one day!

We left Kanab, Utah and headed to Las Vegas.

 The drive through the canyons.

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Our next stop was Mesa Verde, CO

Here was our route from Pagossa Springs, CO ("A") to Mesa Verde, CO ("D")

Mesa Verde is located near the four corners where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona meet.

Here is information about Mesa Verde National Park from their website: http://www.mesaverde.com/

 Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300. Today, Mesa Verde National Park protects over 4,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States. The stunning landscape of Southwest Colorado, near Four Corners, is the backdrop as you explore Mesa Verde National Park.

Campground

This is such a shockingly beautiful area!  The drive up here (approx. 6,000 to 8,572ft elevation) was really awesome and very scary (for me).  Sheer drops off the side with areas of no railings!  It's the only time driving in the RV that I was holding on to my seat in fear!!  Peter drove like a pro. 

View as we walked 1/2 mile down to dwelling

After leaving Mesa Verde we headed to Kanab, Utah to visit a place I've wanted to see for many years, Best Friends Animal Society.  We originally intended to go to the Grand Canyon after Mesa Verde, but
there was a major rock slide that closed the road two years ago and so we continued west to Kanab.
Many, many hours of driving through the desert was quite an experience!

Desert Rest Stop!

Beautiful and so, so HOT!!!!!

Our route to date:

We are now in Pagosa Springs, CO. ("J" on Map)

We visited friends Mike and Car (Caroleen) whom we hadn't seen for years. Mike and I worked together for over ten years in Florida and we wouldn't have missed an opportunity to visit with them.

Pagossa Springs is a gorgeous place spanning elevations from 8000 to 12,500 feet. Mike is a pilot and took me up in his Glasaii aircraft that he built himself. What a treat. In a small aircraft you see with different eyes.

Mike, Linda, Car and Lilly

View from backyard

Glasair III aircraft. Can fly 260+ mph

Cockpit

Chimney Rock

While Peter and Michael were out flying, and Car was sleeping, I took a gorgeous walk down their private road behind their house.  It was so beautiful and so quiet.  The only sounds were birds and the occasional clapping cricket.

Linda and Mike

                                                                  

                                                                           Pagossa Springs famous Hot Springs resort

                                                                                       

                                                                                          Colorado sky

                                                              

                                                                                     Potato shooting contest

                                                            Linda receiving her award for winning the Potato Shoot

We're in Taos, New Mexico. Time flies by so fast; it’s hard to believe that this coming Thursday, July 10^th, we will have been traveling 3 weeks. One of the blog comments we received was a request for us to write about our RV experience.

After 3 weeks we definitely now have an opinion. We love it! Our motor home is our traveling little house. It’s our rolling home.

Driving cross country in an RV obviously eliminates the need to find hotels, pack and unpack constantly, and eat every meal out.  In our case, it also allows us to leave our dog in an air-conditioned little home which she is familiar with, while we go off on an adventure for a couple of hours.   

Traveling in an RV is a lot of work but if you compare the different repetitive steps one must take each day and night, they both are tedious, time consuming and repetitive.

Where ever you go your home is with you. We feel cozy, happy and have all the comforts of home.  We really didn't know how we would adapt to RV traveling but we love this way of travel.

Our route from Santa Fe to Taos:

This route took us through a beautiful gorge

  

Driving up the gorge road from Sante Fe to Taos we stopped at a mountain overlook and saw this interesting part of Taos history.

Taos Pueblo, Indian reservation

main street

cemetery and church ruins

Church ruins

1000 year old Pueblo updated with windows and doors

Water supply

Linda walking across Pueblo's water supply 

Rio Grande Gorge

Earthship, off the grid sustainable community outside of Taos

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