Chapter 4 begins in Cortez, Colorado. We had stayed in Aztec, NM, and then drove west on Hwy 64 to Shiprock, where we turned north on Hwy 491 to Cortez.
Day 22: Friday, April 27, Cortez, CO
Mesa Verde National Park was the agenda for today and it was truly impressive in every way. Unfortunately we have no pictures to share. You KNOW there’s a story coming! First of all, a bit of geography. A mesa is like a table, flat on top and steep sides/cliffs on the sides. Over the eons, water has carved deep canyons into the edges of the “table-top” and it’s in these canyons that the cliff dwellings are found. The weather today was mixed, partly cloudy and up on the mesa (above 8,500 feet) when the sun was out it was instantly hot, when the clouds covered the sun it was instantly cold and windy. Thus, as we worked our way around the mesa the sweatshirt was constantly going on and coming off as we got in and out of the Lunch Box. Therein lays the problem. I had a polo shirt under the sweatshirt so when I pulled the sweatshirt over my head the polo shirt went with it, exposing my upper body to the views of the public. Now, you all know, my days of “six-pack abs” graduated to a “keg” a loooong time ago, so I tried to minimize the time that I was flashing the public, learning how to switch the shirt off and on VERY quickly. We took great pictures throughout the park until the last stop, when the wind was howling and time was of the essence. Apparently in my desire to let the world miss seeing my mature male physique, I unknowingly DROPPED the camera! This, of course, was not discovered until later that evening after dinner when we tore the Lunch Box apart looking for the camera, which was undoubtedly happily basking in the sun 35 miles away on top of Mesa Verde. Thus, no pictures and more importantly, NO camera for the remainder of the trip! This poses more of a problem than you know. This is actually the FIRST camera that I have ever owned, and it took a while to figure out how to use it and then how to transfer the pictures to the computer. This also means that I have no pictures of Mesa Verde to share. I did steal some pictures off the web so you have some idea of what we experienced. Here are pictures of three impressive sites: Spruce Tree House, Square Tower House, and the Cliff Palace. Square Tower House (on the right) is five stories tall at its highest, remember it’s near the top of the canyon so everything (food, water, building supplies, etc.) had to hauled up on foot and on ladders! Spruce Tree House (on the right) is seen from from across the canyon, it’s also five stories tall at its highest.
Note that these dwellings (really large apartment complexes connected) are built out of stone blocks and set into large open caves that occur naturally on the canyon walls. These are deep canyons, with no easy means of access, and the cliff dwellings are near the top of the canyon. Everything was hauled up (or down) on ladders and steep paths. The perspective on size can be seen in the picture of the Cliff Palace below, where, under the direction and supervision of a ranger, you can actually hike down a half mile into the canyon and walk in front of the dwellings on designated paths. The walking down part is relatively easy, with stairs made out of metal grates on the steepest part. It’s the coming back up that’s the challenge. In the far right of the Cliff Palace picture you can see the tour group climbing up around a rock. From the opposite side of the canyon (where we were) we could see that there is a narrow crack in the cliff that these people had to climb up, using a combination of steps and wooden ladders, just as the natives did. Needless to say, we did not go down into the canyon (reference my physical information contained in the previous story re: losing the camera!).
It truly was an amazing experience.
Day 23: Saturday, April 28, Cortez, CO to Silverton, CO and back to Cortez, CO
The day started with the logistical issue of needing to break down and buy another camera. The only place in Cortez to buy a camera is the Wal-Mart and they don’t carry the model that I was using, but they did have the next one “up”, both in technology and cost! I buy it and we head out to Silverton via Durango. heading east on Hwy 160 to Durango and then north on Hwy 550 to Silverton before turning around and retracing our path back to Cortez. Silverton is an old small mining town high up in the Rockies, Durango is on the way. We were really impressed with Durango. It’s a bustling town, with NO empty store fronts on Main Street, nestled in a canyon below towering peaks. We head north out of Durango and the adventure begins. It turns out that we had to cross TWO passes that were higher than 10,000 feet in the 50 miles between Durango and Silverton! Really amazing scenery! It also confirmed the decision to skip this part of the trip when leaving Aztec earlier in the week because at that time it was raining/snowing on this road. Not a place I would have wanted to be in the Lunch Box, given that the highway is really a paved goat path with NO guard rails at the highest points. (Montanans, makes the Beartooth Highway look like the interstate!). It was in Silverton that I also realized that in order to get the new camera to work, I needed to also buy a memory card. You would have thought they would have told me when I bought it! Oh well, again no pictures of today…., though we did stop at the Wal-Mart in Durango on the way back to Cortez and got the memory card. Now all we have to do is learn how to use it! The day did end on a happy moment. Saturday dinner was at Jack and Janelle’s Country Kitchen in Cortez! Who knew you could have great food with everything on the menu except the prime rib less than $10! A great little family diner in Cortez.
Day 24: Sunday, April 29, Cortez, CO
Today is a domestic day: cleaning the Lunch Box and doing laundry. I got off to a GREAT start on cleaning the Lunch Box when I managed to dump the dog food all over the living area. At least Augie was happy! Even laundry didn’t go smoothly. Peggy did her’s first, then me. But, that meant that I didn’t go put my laundry in until 11:30am, and the laundry room/rest rooms close from 12-2 for cleaning. I (feeling important) thought that if my clothes got in the dryer before 12:00pm they would let me sit there until they were done. Au contraire, I was nicely thrown out at 12:05 and couldn’t get back in until 1:30pm. Nap time! Peggy sat outside all afternoon, turning from time to time to get evenly burnt on all sides as it was a beautiful sunny day here in Cortez. Several people have asked questions about the Lunch Box so here’s a bit more information. It’s a Class C motorhome made by Lazy Daze out of Montclair, California, is 24’ long and about 9’ wide. It does not have the traditional couch on one side and dinette on the other; instead we have a full bath across the back and a “lounge” in the front. There is a fold out table between the two chairs. After several trips we decided to remove one of the chairs and replace it with a small square bench (nick-named the “throne” since that’s where the queen sits, it even has rhinestone crowns on both sides!). The couch changes into a bed and there is a cab-over bed as well. The kitchen is fully equipped with stove, microwave, and oven and there is a good size refrigerator/freezer. It has worked out perfectly for the two of us and Augie! Here are some pictures:
This is the “Lunch Box” in all of her glory. The small window on the left is the bed in the cab-over, the large window in the middle is the lounge, and the small window on the right is over the sink/stove. We consistently get about 9 miles per gallon.
Standing in the bathroom looking towards the front (that’s Augie’s stool between the two chairs. He rides up there and is our lookout!
Standing in the front looking towards the back. That’s the door to the bathroom, the toilet is to the right and the shower is to the left.
Day 25: Monday April 30, Cortez, CO
The plan is to take a trip to Telluride up in the mountains, cruise downtown Cortez in the afternoon, and do grocery shopping for the next week. The weather is perfect today so we hit the road around 10am (we don’t get going at the crack of dawn anymore, we’re PERS retirees!), heading northeast on Hwy 145. Telluride is an old mining town (now golf/ski resort) about 70 miles north of Cortez. The road parallels the Dolores River for most of the way before crossing Lizard Pass at around 10,000 feet. Here’s the view from a pull-off just before the pass:
Telluride is in a side canyon with no outlet so we drove through downtown, up to the old mine, and turned around to come back. It was really amazing in that the entire town is restored Victoriana or Imitation Victoriana. Cutesy up the wazoo!!!!! This view is looking east up the canyon towards the old mine. I ran across the street to take the picture. Note even the small houses (and ALL of the houses in town were small) are restored.
This is more of a close-up of part of downtown. This view is looking west away from the mountain and towards the mouth of the canyon. The town is only two blocks wide and the ski resort (and it’s a BIG ski resort) is on the south side of the canyon up the mountain. Again the economy in these clearly upper middle class resort towns is booming, we didn’t see a single empty storefront (though gas was $4.39 at the only gas station).
Next we are heading into the hinterlands of central Utah (Capitol Reef NP, Bruce Canyon NP, and Zion NP) and don’t know whether we’ll have internet or not. We’re in sunshine all week long!
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