Mountainous terrain combines with unbelievably hot sunshine to create spectacular skies. Crystal clear blue morning skies fill with puffy white clouds as the day warms.  By mid afternoon dark splotches develop, sometimes all around us.  Any given cloud might burst forth with just a few sprinkles or a soaking rain.  Or, they all just swirl around and blow past.  Some days we hear thunder much of the afternoon but nothing comes of it.  It makes it difficult to plan activities….folks just go out and do whatever and deal with the rain if it catches them.  We got caught out on the lake once so far but just rain, no thunder and lightning, so we just threw up the umbrellas and waited it out.

Soothing? Probably. Relaxing?  I assume so.  Stinky?  For sure. Hot springs bubble up everywhere in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.   These are the smelly kind.  Odiferous tendrils steam from a colorful, sort of slimy looking mound in the middle of the downtown riverside parking lot.  Resorts line the opposite shore with dozens of soaking tubs where you can find your temperature.  The “Hippie Spring” is a less refined pool where a spring bubbles up along the shore and folks have arranged rock rings to create soaking pools.  It is quite the thing for visitors and locals.  We haven’t tried it out yet but we are here a couple more days; who knows.

Lunch at Kips: Baja Tacos. I tried sirloin with roasted hatch peppers and Kent had the special, pulled pork.  Both were delicious.

We wandered through lots of fun specialty shops that line the main street.

Next stop, Navajo Lake State Park

The mighty steam engine, Engine 482, built 1925 rests on the tracks in downtown Durango as smoke and puffs of steam rise into the morning sky.  We make our way to the depot window and pickup our tickets ready for our day on the rails.

As we take our seats in a beautifully restored passenger car we are greeted by Victoria Day, a lady of the 19^th Century and our narrator for the trip to Silverton.   We rock and bump our way through beautiful countryside along the Animas River and Vic tells tales from the heyday of mining and railroads in this valley.

Before long we are disembarking in Silverton. It is a much quieter town than that of the tales we heard on the train.  Gone are the many brothels and saloons and the population is closer to 500 than the thousands during the mining boom.  There are shops and restaurants and a couple beautifully restored grand hotels. We stroll the streets window shopping and check out a couple restaurants.  First, funnel cakes.  I couldn’t stick with just the powdered sugar I had to go with cinnamon roll toppings, cream cheese icing, carmel, and cinnamon sugar! Kent didn’t show any more restraint, he had cream cheese carmel pecan.  What a sugar rush.  We had to offset it with some real food.  Pasties count don’t they?  Anyway, we had an absolutely delicious beef pastie.  The crust was flaky-amazing.  Sweet potato fritters with a honey mustard sauce rounded out the meal.  Oh yeah, fudge came highly recommended so I couldn’t pass it up but we will enjoy it later after the funnel cake wears off.

All aboard, we head back to Durango.  This leg we are joined by Cora Mears Pitcher who continues with tales of the times.

Another great American Railroad experience.

Here in Southern Colorado and northern New Mexico the mesas and valleys are dotted with ancient dwellings dating from 800 to 1300 years ago.  In Mesa Verde National Park we hiked well maintained trails to view and visit a number of thoroughly excavated and continually tended structures sometimes with a guide always with lots of interpretive signage.  In Canyon of the Ancients National Monument we wove our way back impassable roads (can you say hike the last mile because of a mud bog in the clay roadbed) and marginally marked trails to find structures in their natural state of decay and collapse.  I am not sure which is more meaningful to see.  Both are amazing.

Mesa Verde

The drive on Wetherill Mesa took us to Step House; an early cliff dwelling containing early pit houses. The Badger House Community actually spans several generations of mesa top construction and provides insight into the changing social structure that seems to be reflected in these changing structures.  The archeologists and anthropologists read a lot into the remnants up here.  They have painted a pretty detailed picture of an entire vibrant society based on these objects plus, these days, the oral history of the current Pueblo Peoples (about a dozen Native American tribes of this area).

Longhouse – Mesa Verdes second largest structure

We twist our way through a skeleton forest of fire killed juniper.   Some grass and low brush have begun to return but no one knows if the juniper/pinion pine forest will ever return to this mesa.  It was a “natural” lightening ignited fire but still sad to see.  We reach the crest of the mesa and switchbacks lead to steps and more switchbacks to bring us to the alcove 200 feet below.  Here is Longhouse.  Why the ancient people left the mesa top farming sites to live in the cramped, perilous cliff alcoves is still unclear.  They did so for only a generation or two of the 700+ years they were in this area yet the cliff dwellings are the ones we seem most fascinated by.  They are impressive and relatively well preserved compared to the structures that have been fully exposed on the mesa tops.

We end the visit to this site with a coordinated “aah” into the valley to experience the awesomeness of the terrain as the sound echoed all around us. Then, a moment of silence to consider the lives of those who had been here long before.  You can almost feel them there around you.  No wonder the decedents consider this a sacred place.

Chapin Mesa gave us views of Cliff Palace, the largest most well preserved and grandest of the Mesa Verde sites as well as Spruce Tree House.  Spruce Tree House is closed to the public for probably 3 years as they figure out how to stabilize the cliff it is built within.  Nature is winning; there is repeated rock fall despite work to prevent it.

Along the drive are more examples of evolution of the structures in this area. It is a lot of in and out of the car but well worth the trip around the loop.  Take at least one Ranger Guided tour while you are here.  Even if you are a sign reader like I am, a chance to hear current interpretation and ask questions is well worth the $4.

Canyon of the Ancients

Our day started in the Anasazi Heritage Center; it is the repository of a great number of Ancient Puebloean artifacts recovered in this area and the visitor center for the Canyon of the Ancients National Monument.  They have an amazing basket exhibit some ancient remnants (7000 years old) and some current work of Ute and Navajo peoples.  Beautiful.

Our main goal is to see actual ruins so we pick up a map and get advice from the docent at the desk which includes numerous cautions about the road conditions out in the Monument. We head out.  Lowry Pueblo is pretty easy to get to.  It is excavated and there is some signage.  Painted Hand Pueblo was a bit more challenging, the docent had warned us.  Just around the first bend of the access road we found a huge mudhole completely impassable in the car. Kent backed to a wide spot; we parked and hiked in the last mile of the road then back a mesa edge trail.  At the end we found the more typical ruin, a partial tower, some crumbling walls in alcoves and the namesake painted handprints on one alcove.  It is certainly not as splendid as the structures we have seen other places but it is still filled with the spirit of those early inhabitants.  Maybe even more so than those that have been more disturbed by modern man.  It was worth the walk.

It is a totally unexcavated un-signed un-marked archeological site. When I asked about it at Mesa Verde the Ranger said “with a strong archeology background and a good imagination you might see something out there besides vegetation covered mounds and depressions”.  I didn’t feel qualified, we skipped this one.

US550 is the most direct route to get us to Mesa Verde. Never mind all those warning signs telling truckers to select an alternate route!  Ignore the icky weather; it intermittently pours and as we find out later, that translates into sleet at the elevations we are heading for.  Here we go.

The climb to and passage through three high passes makes for beautiful views: Red Mountain at 11,075ft, Molas at 10,910 and Coal Bank at 10,640.  The real adrenaline rush comes from the fact that the road surface runs right up to the edge of the earth.  Really, just outside my window it went straight down hundreds of feet (seemed like thousands to me).   Every now and then the pavement has a bit of a dip and the edge seems even closer.  Once again, thank you to my highly talented driver.  It was a great ride. We are safely settled into Mancos State Park and ready to explore Mesa Verde National Park.

Golden Eagles

Storms brewing on the horizon drove us in off the lake early today but not before we spied a little wildlife from our waterside perch.

Clear blue sky, crisp cool morning air, and brilliant sunshine beckoned us. We headed out onto the lake again.  Today we put in 15 miles or so to the east to explore a little different area.  They fish for kokanee salmon and lake trout here and the fishermen were out in big numbers on that end of the lake.  It was a busy place but still a relaxing day.  We didn’t fish, just floated and raced about.