After driving all day from Las vegas, we reached Cortez, which we used as a base for our forays around Southwestern Colorado.
We stopped at the Anasazi Heritage Center on our first day in Cortez. It is just north of town and provides a good overview of the Anasazi culture. THe exhibits take the monring to enjoy. They take you from the early basketmaker cultures through the rock shelter building phase. The site is built near an excavated site. We had brought along a picnic lunch, so we followed the road out to McPhee Reservoir and spent the rest of the afternoon there.
Over several days, we visited the shops in Cortez and restaurants in various towns around Cortez and Dolores. The Native American art stores in Cortez were just as nice as those in Durango, but often cheaper. We found many nice family restaurants in Cortez. They were more homey and less expensive than those in Durango. We also visited a very good Swiss restaurant in Dolores.
The next day was rainy, so we spent the day looking at the shops in Durango. There were may interesting shops there, particularly those featuring Native American art. Paintings, sculpture and jewelry were well represented. There were plenty of good restaurants as well. We had a nice warm lunch featuring soup and a sandwich on the cool day. We would return to Durango several times.
However, one of the main reasons for this trip was a ride on the Durango Silverton railroad. The train leaves early, about 8:00AM (that is early for a vacation day. You ride up the Animas River canyon, and spend the next few hours, including lunch, in Silverton. The accomodations are 19th century: The seats are old fashioned, poorly padded leather. You are treated to songs and stories by a local folk singer. Altogether, the ride is a lot of fun.
The canyon is steep and the river is colored by the pollutants from a century of mining. While this prevents any form of rafting on this portion of the river, it gives the river a milky, turquoise color. The pollutants have not seemingly affected the vegetation that grows along the side of the canyon. The steep views are beautiful. Sometimes the canyon's curves are sharp enough that you can see other portions of the train.
You are on your own for about 3 hours once the train arrives in Silverton, about 3,000 feet higher in elevation. The town sits in a broad valley, occupying about a third of it. The train depot is on the southeast edge of town and you walk a couple of blocks to the town center, where there are about 9 blocks of restaurants and shops. The main local shopping area occupies about 2 of these blocks; the rest is devoted to tourists. There are some shops that are filled primarily with tourist crap but there are more that have nicer artwork and crafts. The first thing that most people do, though, is find a suitable restaurant for lunch because there are more passengers and tourists who come to Silverton on the roads than there are restaurant seats in the town. We found a good place that did nice pasta, salads and sandwiches and settled in for lunch. Then we walked the streets, visiting the shops. It was a pleasant, relaxing stop. Then we reboarded the waiting tran and enjoyed the ride back down the canyon.
We had a ride into remote areas and high mountain passes, over dirt roads, scheduled the next day, so, of course, it rained. We still took the ride, although the rain changed our destination. I had hoped to go over Imogene Pass, the highest road in America. But the guide declared the road to dangerous for the conditions, possibly because it was impassible by snow by now. So we drove to Eureka and Animas Forks. These are mining ghost towns with the remaining buildings decaying over time. We rode in a retired Swiss Army APC. The ride was not aimed for comfort. We left relatively early in the morning.
We eventually got high enough to be above the clouds at around 9500 feet, but were not entireley clear of them at any time until we returned to Silverton, where they were clearly above us. Animas Forks had a number of buildings that have either withstood the ravages of time or been restored. This is surprising, since at the elevation of over 11,000 feet, one would expect plenty of storms and snow to damage the buildings. There was not much at Eureka except for the old mine and its tailings piles. The tailings were multicolored, but the colors were not particularly natural looking. We lunched at Animas Forks on sandwiches we had brought. The cocoa provided by the guide was very welcome in the cold surrioundings up there.
The second major reason we chose to vacation in southwestern Colorado was Mesa Verde National Park. I have always been interested in the culture and accomplishments of the prehistoric cultures of the southwest.We have seen the ruins in Chaco Canyon, Canyon de Chelly and other places, but they are not as extensive as the ruins here. They are very impressive. As usual for us, we started off at the main visitor center to see what tours and talks might be offered. When we found none that suited our time schedule, we started off alone. But not before seeing the park orientation film/slide show. They are always highly illuminating and contain much biological, cultural and geoligic information about the park and the surrounding are.
We started off heading for Long House and Step House. They were interesting, if somewhat isolated from the other ruins. You hike a paved path down into Step House. The location was occupied more than once, the original occupation being more of a pit house than a stone house. Long House is an extensive set of buildings. It is the second largest ruin in he park. It takes some time to see the total of it. There are many rooms built into the canyon walls. It is interesting to speculate on what each room was used for and whether it was used for that purpose continually or whether the usage adapted based on current needs.
Having spent a couple of hours at the site, we took the long, winding road back the the largest concentration of ruins. We stopped at Spruce Tree House, a smaller but well built housing/storage area, which was impressive for the precision of the stone work. The work was of uniformly high quality most everywhere we looked. Then we continued to the museum. It was small but informative. While the exhibits were informative, you could purchase a more varied set of books at the Far View visitor center.
The final part of our tour of Mesa Verde took us to Cliff Palace and Balcony House These are two of the finest sets of buildings in the park. They are both quite esxtensive. You can wander around in them for a long time, stop in the kiva an imagine the ceremonies that might have gone on there, or just sit and contemplate the kind of life one might have had in the area. There was time for the arts, which means that food was plentiful (at least some of hte time) and people were generally at peace. While the people probably built new dewllings and storage areas over time, this occupation was probably not a continuous obsession but was done when necessary. And htey took advantage of the environment to provide heat on cold days and cooling on hit days.
Somewhere along the line we returned to the Far View Visitor Center for lunch during the day. It was standard National Park fare, but we didn't ask for more. That was not the purpose of the visit. We enjoyed seeing the ancient buildings while admiring their construction and longevity. We returned to Cortez and our motel after dark and had supper before collapsing. All in all, it was a satisfying day.
You can't get from Durango or Cortez straight to Telluride. The mountains are high and rugged enough that roads would be steep, twisty, and expensive to build and maintain. So we drove, like everyone else, around the mountains. Telluride is situated in a bowl shaped valley about 2 to 3 hours drive from Durango. We visited the historic buildings and the museum before looking into the shops. The museum is small but informative. It started its life as a hospital, then became a townn hall type building, and, finally a museum. We spent about an hour learning about the history of Telluride. Like many towns in the west, it started as a mining town. Unlike many towns, it has survived and even thrived on other industries (mainly tourism).
Before visiting the shops we took an aerial tram ride. The views of Telluride and the surrounding mountains were breathtaking. We then could put off looking at the shops no longer. Neither of us are great shoppers. There were the typical tourist trinket shops and a number of high end shops centering on art and crafts. We ended up making only one purchase: a kightswitch cover in the shape of a cat. This was a gift for a friend who has way too many cats. After the bout with the shops, we found a good upscale restaurant with a view and a good menu, where we had a relaxing dinner before hte drive back to Cortez.
The last part of our far southwestern Colorado trip was a drive up the San Juan Skyway. After that, we headed more towards central and western Colorado. We essentially took in over two days and in two parts. The first day we drove from Cirtez through Dolores up as far as Trout Lake. The drive is a steady climb, with the landscape changing from a desert like environment to a Rocky Mountain forest environment at the lake at a 9800 foot elevation. The road pretty much follows the Dolores River until you get to the passes near Trout Lake. We took a number of turnouts with access to the river as points to explore, We also stopped at a number of scenic overlooks. The town of Rico was small. It's heyday was during the mining periods, but now it is mostly a tourist and fishing supply stop. There were plenty of lodges to room in for your fishing trip. But the buildings were not particularly historic. The stops along the river were the nicest part of the trip. We ate our sandwiches along one stop. We were joined by chipmonks and squirrels looking for a handout. They and the river itself provided entertainment and relaxation. We continued on to Trout Lake. Your first view of the lake going eastward as we were was from the top of a pass. The sight was awesome. We continued down to the level of the lake and went alongside the lake on a dirt road until we found a nice place to stop. There we enjoyed the lake and the view of the mountains behind it. I would swear that when you looked at one point behind the lake, gauged the level of yellow in the aspens and then turned away, the level of yellow increased when you l;ooked back to that spot. The fall progressed mightily as we spent time in the San Juan Mountains. Then it seemed to start clouding up and getting colder over the lake. We went back to the car and started home before the storm really started. We outran it quickly enough and it dod not follow us intop the drier lands around Dolores and Cortez.
The second day we drove from Cortez through Durango up through Silverton to Ouray. We would spend a couple of days looking around Ouray before heading farther north. Passing through Durango, we headed north, up to the level of the Purgatory Ski area and up to Molas Pass, which is just short of 11,000 feet. You can look down on Molas Lake from there, which we did. After about 15 minutes of looking we continued on. Beyond the pass, just before and, especially after Silverton you start to see entire sides of mountains that are discolored into yellow, orange and brown colors. They are not quite eartly (or earthly) tones. The colors come from the mine tailings deposited there. Most of these mountainsides are bare of any vegetation even though the tailings piles have been there for over 100 years. I don't know whether to say that the coloration was pretty or was ghastly. Probably, it was both. We passed by Silverton because we had already spent time there on both our train ride and our 4WD trip. We continued on over Red Mountain pass (about the same elevation as Molas Pass) and on to Ouray. The environment became much more one of mountains covered with pine, spruce and fir. This part of the trip would have been very relaxing, and was, until we came to the hairpin curves and other sharp turns leading down to Ouray. We located our motel and rested for the night after a quick supper.
Ouray is a quaint old town in the mountains, with a distinctly Swiss feel. Like other towns around here, it started as a mining camp. Unlike many other mining camps, this town found ways to survive the mining out of the ores. The hot springs in Ouray started the tourist industry, but the town has also retained some of its old style mountain charm and many of the old historic buildings remain. It has also become a center for outdorr adventures of various types. We did a lot of hiking there, but also found interesting restaurants for our night time enjoyment.
The hike into Box Canyon is so interesting that it is always crowded on the trail. So much so that the park trail charges admission for going out to the falls. The charge is nominal and is wotrth it. The trail is easy and short and the falls is roaring After the easy hike you can sit almost under the falls or climb around to a higher vantage point. We watched the falls for a while and then returned, going through the gift shop (as you must to exit). It was filled with the typical stuff. We did not linger. We did, though, linger over a dinner in the beer gardens at a Swiss restaurant!. We walked back to our motel well after dark and had a god night's sleep.
Then next day we took the Cascade Falls trail. The trail was more of a real hike than the Box canyon hoke. First off, it was a trail, not a path. And there were not hundreds of people along the trail. But we were not alone, either. And finally, it involved a real climb of several hundred feet along the 2 mile trail to get to thte base of the falls. It was a much more enjoyable hike than the one the day before, and the destination was much wilder. We enjoyed the falls for a while and then retraced our steps to the car. We went from there to the hot springs park, where we rejoined the hundreds of people we had successfully avoided for the morning.
The next day we drove to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.It was just a couple of hours from Ouray. We spent the day looking over the park, at least the part on the west side of the canyon. It is much like the Grand canyon in hat respect: getting from one side to the other is a major undertaking. The major difference between it and the Grand Canyon is that there are fewer colors/geologic layers. The canyon is mostly of basaltic rock. And the canyon is steeper, more sheer. We stopped at a number pf viewpoints along the park drive. The first was Tomichi Point, which, as all of the overlooks did, provided a great view into the canyon. The canyon is difficult to photograph because of the monochromatic color and because opf the sheer vastness of the drop. It is difficult to get good perspective. And the shadows are difficult to deal with. You could see the river at nome points but not at others. Tomichi Point was the first impressive overlook, but, at least for a while, each viewpoint seem to get more impressive.
Gunnison Point is one of the prime viewpoints along the drive. The dropoff is most impressive and the view of the river is great--although it is a tiny thread of silver far below. Again, it was a very impressive view from the top. The visitors center is also at this overlook, making it one of the most crowded points in the park. And it was not very crowded. We continued on to Pulpit Rock after viewing the park slide show and browsing the exhibits. This is another overlook with a dramatic view down to the river. You also get little perspective as to the distance down.
The canyon is wider at the Rock Point overlook, yielding a view more similar to the ones you see at the Grand Canyon. But instead of layers of strata, you see twisted volcanic rock. The colors ar moe uniform. the olny variation you see is between the rock and the vegetation. And the cliffs on the east side have a more gradual slope. The next viewpoint is one of the major viewpoints in the park: Chasm View. Here thr rocks are more jagged and rugged. You also get a good view of the river, with less hars shadows for picture taking. But the west side cliffs are still very steep. At Painted Wall, striations of while run through the canyon walls. They are probably quartz intrusions or something similar. This is the ares of the park that was the easiest to photograph, but shadows can also be tricky here. We took the Cedar Point nature trail for its half mile to learn about the local flora, to stretch our legs, and to get another good view of the Painted Wall.
Sunset View yields another view into a wider part of the canyon. The best time to take pictures here is either at sunset (surprise) or at midday. Otherwise, the natural haze affects the view. We were there at about 2:00PM and the light was just beginning the worsen, with shadows increasing across the river. The final viewpoint we stopped at was Warner Point. This is the deepest point in the gorge. The canyon walls here are also very rugged and picturesque. For this canyon, the width is about at its average and the east walls are not as sheer as they are at some other points. As with the other overlooks, we enjoyed the view for a while and then continued on. But this was the last viewpoint, at the end f the road. So we were finished for the day. What remained was to drive north to I70, out of Rocky Mountainous country and into the desert at Grand Junction.
We spent the last several days of our western Colorado trip in Grand and around Grand Junction. We visited a dinosaur museum in Fruita, went wine tasting in and around Palisades, a botanical garden 8in Grand Junction and went to a number of location in the Colorado Monument and in other more mountainous locations (these mountains were distinctly desert mountains). The dinosaur museum, Dinousaur Journey, was a large, boxy building from the outside. But inside it was well laid out. You could find a logical path to go through the exhibits. There were both encased and hands on exhibits. The museum was delightful. We spent a whole morning there. We spent a couple of hours in the botanocal garden. Many of hte plants we saw were exotics but they came from localities around the world that had a climate similar to Grand Junction. The butterflies that were supported by the garden (local varieties) were particularly pretty.
We spent much of a day wandering around tasting western Colorado wines. Most of the wineriesd are pretty young. We went to Two Rivers, Colorado Cellars and Graystone first. All had quality wines, particularly whites. Rieslings were particularly good. After that, we headed farther out, towards Palisades. Debeque Canyon and Plum Creek came next. One of them, in the town of Palisades, made very good fruit wines. Carlson was the most interesting producer. We talked for a while with the winemaker and came away with a lot of knowledge of winemaking in the area. Several of the winemakers had stareted with fruit wines and progressed on to vinifera grapes. Carlson maintained the best of both traditions, making good vinifera wines. However, my favorite wine was a cherry wine that went very well with chocolate.
The next day we travelled the Rim Rock Drive in the Colorado National Monument. The first part of the road winds a lot as it climbs from the valley floor. The first stop is Distant View. You overlook the valley Grand Junction sits in.Balanced Rock, which, as the name says, is a large rock balanced upon a narrow spire of sandstone, is next. One wonders when it will tumble down. The next viewpoint is Book Cliffs View, but it is on a spur road off from the visitor center. We went to the viewpoint first. It is similar to Distant View. The visitor center, like most other National Park/Monument visitor centers, was informative and the slide show was interesting and comprehensive of the area. Independence Monument, Grand View and Monument Canyon overlooks all overlook impressive spires and then down into the valley although Munument Canyon is more of a traditional narrow canyon with somewhat more stricted views. Some of the restrictions in the view are caused by the more wooded nature of this canyon. It must get more water than some of the other canyons in the area. We are getting nearer to the high point of the drive by this time. The rock formations at the Coke Ovens viewpoint look like the stone coke ovens built by miners to make charcoal to be used for smelting metal from ore. We have seen actual coke ovens in Nevada and eastern California. Artists Point is a sheer cliff that can be climbed, painted, or otherwise admired. It is about the steepest cliff in the park and is very pretty. Upper Ute Canyon overlook looks down into one of the narrower and the longest canyon in the monument. Again, it is fairly wooded and is very scenic. The overlook is just past the highest point on the Rim Rock Road. Red Canyon is another broad, shorter canyon with views into the valley and to Grand Junction. Cold shivers Point is another narrow, twisty canyon near the end of the drive. The dropoff to the bottom is very steep. The last viewpoint is the Devil's Kitchen. The view is into another narrow, twisty canyon. There is a trail into the canyon, whick we took. It was a mile and a half walk down into the desert, where we spotted a lizard who was willing to pose for us and some vigorous yucca plants.
On the other day of our trip to the Grand Junction area we drove the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway (State Route 65). The drive, about 65 miles long, gets you up[ into the aspens and pines. There are lakes at that elevation as well. Aside from sto;pping at Island Lake for a look around, the only place we stopped was at the Grand Mesa visitor center. Like the other visitor centers we visited, this one was informative. In particular, its exhibits about bark beetles and other dangers to the forest were interesting. We took the drive as a pleasant, relaxing day, not intending to rush through the drive.
Our return to Las Vegas was pretty uneventful except for the stalled semi trailer in the fast lane around a rather blind curve. It was good that that perticular stretch of highway hed little traffic on it at that early an hour. Good for us, but probably not for the truck driver, since he probably had no cell phone coverage out there.
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