I like history, but I don’t love all history. Dinosaurs are cool, but I enjoy human history, even the ancient stuff. Our travel, over the last five years, has been inspired by the books we’re reading. When I write “reading,” it means listening because Ryan and I are addicted to Audible.
Ryan devours books because he listens while he builds furniture. I tend to listen to books and the occasional podcast, two of my favorites being The Globalist by Monocle Radio and Growing Small Towns with Rebecca Undem. I will be a guest on the latter later this spring.
The books that have dominated our travels have been about human history: the Dust Bowl, gun slingers and cattle drives, and now ancient American culture, like that found at Choco Culture National Historic Park in New Mexico.
The Where & The Why of Our Travel in 2025
Part of why these topics are so interesting to us is that we can road trip to the places mentioned in the books. Ocassinally, we’ve already been to the place, making the subject matter that much more relatable. Ryan was thrilled to discover that part of the Dust Bowl occurred in Colorado. That inspired our Dust Bowl Road Trip to Southern Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico.
Next was Doc Holliday and the other famous men of the West. Ryan’s reading of Lonesome Dove started him down this road, a road littered in cow poop. Yes, he became fascinated by cattle trail routes, most of which ran right through Colorado and areas of Western Nebraska. So last year, we went on the I’m Your Huckleberry: A Cattle Drive Road Trip. By the way, Lonesome Dove on Audible is extremely entertaining.
After that trip last May, we read “Blood & Thunder.” This non-fiction, written by Hampton Sides, is all about Christopher Houston Carson (Kit Carson). I had an amazing burger in the town named after him in eastern Colorado. However, while it follows the life of Carson, a lot of other history that I didn’t know is covered. I highly recommend listening, or reading this book to learn a lot of American history that you didn’t hear in high school social studies.
Kit Carson spent a lot of time in Northern New Mexico. In “Blood & Thunder,” we learned of places like Acoma Pueblo and Choco Canyon. We immediately realized that we could visit these places with relative ease. It’s about an eight-hour drive from Loveland, Colorado, to Choco, New Mexico.
It’s odd because our road trips are taking us further and further back in history. The early 1900s, the late 1800s, and this year, ancient times, more than 800 years ago.
Early this year, I read “The Animal Dialogues” by Craig Childs, who hails from Ridgway, Colorado. It is now one of my favorite books of all time, and of course, I made Ryan listen to it. And then, staying with Childs, we listened to “House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest.” We already wanted to go to Choco, and this sealed the deal. The book follows years of Child’s exploration on foot, from the ruins in Choco Canyon, New Mexico, to Paquimé, Mexico.
We are now reading his other books, “Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archeology Plunder & Obsession,” and Ryan’s on to “Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America.”
If you love history, nature, and prose you wish you’d written, give Craig Childs’ books a try.
So, as you’ve probably guessed, we are headed to the Southwest for our anniversary road trip this year. The plan, which is unfolding, is to rent an Airbnb in Farmington, New Mexico, for two nights. That will be our headquarters for exploring Choco Culture National Park. Then, we plan to go to Aztec, New Mexico, for one night. Aztec Ruins National Monument is supposed to be outstanding, so we’re going to explore.
We usually spend three nights on these road trips; however, we’re contemplating a fourth night. The great thing about these trips is that they aren’t super expensive. We go in April or May when hotel and Airbnb rates haven’t gone up for the summer. Plus, we aren’t going to the most popular places. Dumas, Texas? Clayton, New Mexico? McCook, Nebraska? Being from Colorado, we feel like we’re getting deals on hotels and restaurants in these places. The Colorado markup is real, and inflation here appears worse here than in other parts of the country.
Yes, we have to pay for gas, and that’s an expense, but generally, the dog goes so we don’t even have boarding expenses (which is not small thing in Colorado). Unfortunately, we will board her on our trip in May. Dogs aren’t allowed in the ruins, and we don’t want to leave her all day at an Airbnb, and it will be too hot to leave her in the truck. So, for the first time on one of these road trips, she won’t be with us. I am still mourning this.
I highly recommend taking a literary-inspired road trip, and you’d be surprised at how easy that is, especially in the region of the Rocky Mountains. We are so lucky to have this incredible history on our doorstep.
We can walk in the footprints, so to speak, and for Ryan and me, that’s pretty cool.
Can’t wait to share this road trip with you!
