A brief pause in the southwest U.S.

Before we set off for the UK, we decided to see a bit more of this beautiful country…..

Montezuma's castle

Grand Canyon - everytime we saw tourists taking cliff-hanger photos, we would start singing, "It's going down, I'm yelling timber…."

We took the mile hike down one canyon, turned around shortly after we heard a swarm of bees coming up from the bottom!

Truly grand

Canyon De Chelley Nat'l Monument 

Mesa Verde - so many cliff dwellings!  How did the ancient Puebloans build these homes?!

Aaaah, one of the most film-captured scenery:  Monument Valley

and of course, you can't go to the southwest without stopping at the 4-corners (maintained by the Navajo Nation, the 4 states are Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado).

I think the girl learned a lot from this trip because shortly after returning from the southwest, she chose to do Arizona for her state project.  She did this all by herself with the exception of photo printing and gluing the side structures.  She got an A+!

I didn't do Idaho justice, I was told, so here are a couple more beautiful pictures of the Red Horse Mountain Dude Ranch:

My horse Lou is the one on the far left - only his rump is showing :-)

The view from one of the top ranges, accessible only after a 2 hr horse-back ride to the top.  Oh, my rear!

 Lastly, this is what I completed crocheting during that trip - faux cable stitch using lots of scrap worsted weight yarn:

Close-up view