The Cross-Country Road Trip of
1931 with
Martha, Tud and Stacia
Pikes Peak
Monarch Pass
Denver, Colorado
Horsethief Canyon
Big Thompson Canyon
June 8th, 1931
Oakley, Kansas
Wheat! Wheat! Wheat! Miles and miles of it as far as the eye can see and that's plenty far!
Yesterday we saw the monument marking the exact geographical center of the United States.
And today we passed a pretty valley called Horsethief Canyon and could just imagine horse thieves driving their stolen horses up into the valley to hide them. It was perfect.
June 10th, 1931
Denver, Colorado
Dear Folks,
There is nothing much to tell today . Denver is just like any other large city except that we seem to get lost more often. Our hotel, The Argonaut, is across the street from the state capitol and if we didn't have its shiney dome to lead us back we'd never find our way home. Don't know what we'll do in a town that hasn't any domes!
June 11th, 1931
Boulder, Colorado
Dear Folks,
We started out from Denver this morning to go to Rocky Mountain National Park. It's 140 mile drive and it has been beautiful. We've been up in the snowbelt and down in the canyons like Big Thompson Canyon. We've driven miles beside roaring mountain streams and more miles on narrow ledges in the mountain side. Those mountains! They're enormous! And so beautiful. Every turn in the road showed a new view. I hope you enjoy the postcard booklet I am sending you!
June 14th, 1931
Tomichi Camp
We crossed the Continential Divide through Monarch Pass-that was really something. It was plenty cold but then it was all downhill driving for about 10 miles. That was great!
Tonight we met some cowboys with 42 horses and 4 colts (Tud counted them). We stopped to let them pass. It was certainly a thrilling sight.
June 13th, 1931
Canon City, Colorado
Dear Folks,
Well we were on Pike's Peak today. I don't know how to describe it. We left our car at the Glen Cove Inn and hired a sightseeing car (a mere Lincoln) to take us up. The driver was dandy and explained everything. As we wound round and round through Ute Pass it got colder and colder til we were shivering under three blankets. We had lunch at the Summit House, drank coffee and sat around a roaring fire but even our lips were purple. The trip down was even better as the mountains that had seemed enourmous from below flattened out and clouds floated around out in space beside us.
Not The End
June 17th, 1931
Mesa Verde, Colorado
Dear Folks,
This afternoon we went through two cliff dwellings-"Balcony House" and "Cliff Palace". They're certainly remarkable. We climbed up the ancient foot paths and went through all the rooms. It was most interesting to see how those people lived, in tiny rooms all crowded together, no light, little bits of doorway, store rooms for grain and towers for lookouts. They lived there to protect themselves from the warlike plains Indians; the cliff dwellers were very passive and hated fighting. But they must have thoroughly enjoyed climbing!
Mesa Verde
Million Dollar Highway Today
Million Dollar Highway
1931
June 16th, 1931
Durango, Colorado
Dear Family,
Yesterday wasn't a very exicting day. It was just getting across country to some place else to see. The raods were much better. Between Ouray and Durango is the Million Dollar Highway. Its not nearly so good as our road to Jeffersonville but when you consider that it's a little shelf chisled out of soild rock twisting and turning for a hundred miles over mountains then you can understand that it must have cost plenty-and you can understand why I was too tired to write.