Day 44 – 47: COLORADO

Day 44 – 47: COLORADO

For the next four nights our base in Colorado will be the Mesa Verde area.  While here we will be visiting three places; MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK (of course), a side trip to SILVERTON and then onto Navajo and Ute land to visit the FOUR CORNERS MONUMENT where we can stand in 4 states at one time.

April 16 – 19^th:  We are staying at Mesa Verde RV Resort in Mancos, Colorado.  This is a nice, comfortable, and quiet RV park.  We are out in the desert and there are views of cliffs and buttes all around us.  Our site was spacious and we had a strong WiFi signal.  No cable TV, but we got all the local stations on the antenna.

 It was very cold, so we put away the fans and brought out the table top electric heaters (we have about 4 of them) and put them in all the corners of the trailer.  The first night we had to leave one of the faucets dripping because it was going to be below freezing that night.  Then next night we forgot so we had no water in the morning.  The third night it snowed.  That was totally unexpected.  We woke up to a beautiful scene of snow covered cliffs and buttes.

 

By the time we returned to the trailer after our side trip to Silverton, the snow had melted and was gone.

There is not much in Mancos so we will be spending more time in nearby Cortez for dining and grocery shopping, etc.  Cortez is a nice town with lots of good places to eat.

Pepperhead –had a nice Southwestern dinner here.

Once Upon a Sandwich – delicious lunch

MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK, Colorado

Mesa Verde National Park is one of the nation’s major archaeological preserves.  The park consists of nearly 5,000 archaeological sites, which include 600 cliff dwellings.  Mesa Verde is Spanish for “green table”, named so because its level top is forested with juniper and pinyon trees.  Mesa Verde is a fascinating place.  It would be a great place to bring kids.  So much to learn.  This was Dave’s favorite place as a child.  He said he thought the area was mysterious and magical.

See the face on the cliff to the right??

Spruce Tree House

      h  Hiking down to Spruce Tree House        i Utah Serviceberry

Spruce Tree House is the only cliff dwelling that you can do a self guided tour.  All others require a guide and a fee.

Cliff Palace

hHouse of Many Windows

hSquare Tower House

hFire Temple (top of cliff)  New Fire House (under)

hOak Tree House

Navajo Canyon view -looking down on the town of Mancos.

SILVERTON, Colorado

Silverton was a mining town in the late 1800’s early 1900’s.  When we visited Silverton 20 years ago, it was by a coal burning train.  We took the Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad from Durango.  This time we took the scenic Highway 550 over the San Juan Mountains, paralleling the railway tracks.  Silverton depends on the tourist traffic from this train.  The train does not start to run until May 1^st so the town was nearly a ghost town when we visited.  The town's internal dirt roads were empty and all the shops were closed except for 2 gift shops and a small café.  

Looking down onto Silverton as we were coming off the mountain.

It started to snow as we checked out the gift shops.  We took the time to have a nice lunch (I had breakfast) at the café.  Then we headed ‘home’.   

Mattie & Maud’s Cafe

Both Mattie & Maud were busy working the café and they were very friendly and chatty.  They greeted any locals that came in by name.

Highway 550 is also called “The Million Dollar Highway” (probably because that’s how much it cost to build it). As we reached the summit of Molas Pass (10,910 feet) the snow was coming down pretty heavy.  Because we were on the other side of the road hugging the cliff wall this time, we noticed the many water falls cascading down these cliffs.  Only they were frozen.  It was quite beautiful.

FOUR CORNERS MONUMENT

Nearby Mesa Verde is where the four states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet.  The location of the Four Corners is on Navajo and Ute land.  There is a fee to go onto this Indian Reservation and visit the exact location where you can stand on four states at the same time.  Surrounding this area are covered tables where the Navajo crafts people can display and sell there wares.  There is a lot of silver jewelry as well as artwork, storytellers and other crafts that are handmade by these artists.

Our next destination is Utah where we will visit several more National Parks and Monuments that is in the Grand Circle.