Mesa Verde

After 8 straight nights of camping and 7 consecutive days in the desert, we chose a change of pace. After finishing the second half of the loneliest highway, we continued eastbound into southwest Colorado. Cortez was closer to Mesa Verde, and the friendly guy at the Colorado Welcome Center encouraged us to stay there, but Cortez looked like a wind swept plain, so we continued east and set up shop in Durango.

We suspected Durango would be like Bend, Oregon. We were right, just add a few more mountains and you have it. I am the designated negotiator for hotels, and I was able to secure a decent rate at a nice Best Western in downtown. First order of business . . .showers to cleanse the sand from the previous night’s storm. There was literally a pool of orange water in the shower after each of us washed our hair. There are several brew pubs in Durgano, and with MLB and NFL on tv, we checked out the local culture.

Mesa Verde National Park was our reason for venturing into this part of the Four Corners Area, and it didn’t disappoint. These ruins were built about 750 years ago and were only inhabited for less than a century.

We had a pretty funny guide for the tour of the Cliff Palace. He was like a drill sergeant, arriving at the lookout, pacing around with his hands folded, waiting until the group settled down before speaking. We don’t normally sign up for guided tours, but in this case we had to, if we wanted access to the Cliff Palace. It felt like I was back in Anthropology/Archeology class, but it was quite interesting to learn how the Pueblos lived and built these dwellings. I kept comparing it with Macchu Picchu in my mind. They are roughly from the same time. However, the Pueblo had a much smaller population, and harsher environment.

It was amazing how many structures had been built in the canyons of Mesa Verde. Cliff Palace gets all the pub, but every where you looked there were smaller villages and random buildings in several nooks and crannies.

For some reason, we both enjoyed the sunny 50 degree weather at 7000 feet. I think it had something the due with the fact we weren't going to be sleeping outdoors when the temps dropped below freezing.

The weather was beginning to haunt us again, albeit from the safety of a hotel room. The forecast showed two important things . . . snow followed by cold temps. We accepted the fact that 2-3 more nights of hotel were in our future. Where to next? Telluride was dismissed due to heavy snow, Canyons de Chelly was a no go due to the weather, ditto for Sante Fe and Taos. We chose to return to old stomping grounds and cross a few more items off the list. Moab was only 2.5 hours back up the road, and the forecast was calling for a manageable amount of snow.