Bluff, Utah Part 2

Friday, July 24^th was another car trip day.  We started with a drive through Valley of the Gods.  It is a 16 mile dirt road that wanders between the rock formations.  They have named some of the formations.  Some were easy to tell how they got their names and others well, it took more imagination.

Sitting Hen

Lady in a Bathtub

We had our picnic lunch at Goosenecks State Park.    The goosenecks are a very winding part of the San Juan River.  It is so bendy that it takes six miles of bends to cover 2 miles on land.  The canyon is 1,200 feet from the top down down to the canyon bottom. They are very impressive but hard to capture on film. See the pictures from Bluff, Utah Part 1 for a view of them from Muley Point.

View of one of the goose necks from the top - it is 1200 feet to the bottom

If you blow up this picture our Jeep is on the hill !!  

We drove by Monument Valley, there is a large entry fee and then you have to take a tour so we decided not to go in.  You can see many of the monuments from the highway.

You should recognize this from Forest Gump...he ran down this road in the movie

We did stop at the Goulding’s Museum and learned about their positive impact on the area.  You can learn more about the Goulding’s here.  On our way back to Bluff we stopped at Sand Island Campground to look at the Petroglyphs there.  We enjoyed this large collection of petroglyphs.

Here is one of our favorites

Saturday, July 25^th we drove over to Hovenweep National Monument.  Hovenweep means deserted valley.  It is a community of Anasazi ruins that surrounds a valley.  They were good architects.  We enjoyed the visitors center and then hiked the trail around the valley.  During our hike we saw our first Collared Lizard.  He just stood there and posed for us.

Above and below samples of the ruins at Hovenweep

Collared Lizzard

Bluff, Utah Part 1

Wednesday, July 22 we left Cortez after a stop at Walmart and drove to Bluff, Utah, population 320.  After setting up at Cadillac Ranch and having lunch we explored Bluff.   Bluff was settled in 1880 by a Mormon mission team.  The 250 settlers established Bluff Fort.  The actual fort burned down.  A replica has been rebuilt and turned into a museum with many artifacts and some of the original wagons are on display.  They have a done a great job creating a video presentation to tell the story.  You can read more about it here.  There are still a few descendants of the original settlers that live in town.  We explored town…it didn’t take long.

One of the original wagons...they sure were small

View behind our campgound

Thursday we drove over to Natural Bridges National Monument.  There are 3 large natural bridges in the park with hikes to each.  We hiked to two of them and saw the 3^rd from the overlook.  We learned that the difference between a natural bridge and an arch.  A natural bridge is formed by rushing water.  An arch is formed by winds and ice. 

First Natural Bridge was a tough hike but worth it

Me climbing up one of the ladders after viewing the bridge from below

Third bridge was an easier hike

In the guide books Wayne had read about the Moki Dugway and decided we needed to drive it.  Not for the faint of heart and an interesting ride. It is a three mile unpaved section of road that drops 1200 feet in elevation.  You can learn more about it here.    The hostess at the at the campground suggested we ride out to Muley Point.  We had never heard of it, but we are sure glad she told us about it. WOW the views from Muley Point were amazing.  You drive 5 miles out on a dirt road to the point on the mesa and overlook the valley below which includes Valley of the Gods and Goosenecks State Park which we went to see up close on Friday.  A couple from Germany was out on Muley Point when we were and the guy just kept saying “breathtaking” and he was right.

Along the Moki  Dugway

Wayne at Muley Point beautiful views in every direction

Those big ditches you see are the Goosenecks

Cortez Part 2

Tuesday, July 21st we started the day at Notah Dinah Trading Post in Cortez.  It is owned by the step brothers of a boating friend.  What a fun place !  There is a small museum in the basement that has the largest Navajo rug ever made.  It is beautiful ! There are also paintings and local memorabilia.  On the main level is crafts, jewelry, pottery, blankets, jewelry making supplies and all kinds of other things.  We had fun shopping.  If you are in town you should check it out.

The owner of our RV park said we should not miss a visit in Telluride, so we went to Telluride.  As we drove along we saw a noticeable difference in the landscape.  It was turning greener and hillier.  Telluride is famous for its skiing.

Above and below are pretty views along the way

View as you come into Telluride.  That is Bridal Veil Falls in the distance

We arrived in Telluride just in time for lunch, so we were searching for a picnic table.  We ended up eating in the car at the far end of town in the parking lot for Bridal Veil Falls which you can see from all over town.  You could also see 3 other falls from the parking lot.  There was a trail that was longer than we had time to hike, but there was also a dirt road that they suggested you have four wheel drive.  We decided to try the four wheel drive !  The Jeep did well.  We are new to this so we were pleased with our effort.  We did not go all the way to the top because there were so many people.  It was fun and we got better pictures of town by going up the hill.

Little falls

Jeep on the 4 wheel drive road

Falls

View looking back on Telluride 

Bridal Veil Falls from the bottom of the mountain

 We drove back over to town to check it out. It is a very nice ski village with quaint shops and trendy places to eat.  The fun part is that the gondola ride over to the town of Mountain View is free !  We rode to Mountain View and walked around.  Mountain View looks like I would assume a Swiss Ski Village looks like.  Very nice.  The guy we rode up with in the gondola suggested that we get off at the top and take pictures.  We got off at the top on the way back and the view was wonderful !!!!  They allow the mountain bikers to ride on the ski runs in the summer.  They too got a free ride up in the gondola.  We took so many beautiful pictures that it was very difficult to decide which ones to share with you.

Fun day, we were glad we took the ride over to enjoy the beauty that surrounds Telluride.  Next time we need to take our bikes...not to ride down the mountain but to try out the bike trail in and around town.

Cortez, Colorado Part 1

On Sunday July 19th it was time to leave Durango; next stop was Cortez, Colorado.  We must admit we are enjoying our short travel days. Even stopping to get fuel on our way out of town, it only took us 2 hours to drive to Cortez.

We stayed at La Mesa RV Park.  A great park and we will stay there again when in town.  The lady that owns the park was a wealth of information and super friendly.  The WiFi was amazing.  They also take most discounts, which always helps.

The nice thing about short travel days is that it allows us to check out the area when we get to our destination.  We drove over to the Anasazi Heritage Center Museum,  They had a nice museum and a trail that led up to a Anasazi Ruin at the top of the hill overlooking Dolores Lake.  Dolores is a man made lake.  Before they dammed up the lake they sent in 500 archaeologists working for 7 1/2 years to recover all artifacts that would be covered by the lake.  Their findings are what you see in the museum.

View from the top of the walk at the museum

Ruins at the top of the hill 

We then drove over to the town of Dolores to see the Galloping Goose (actually there were two made) the other is in Telluride.  They were used during the depression so they did not have to run the full train.  They are still used on occasion for historical events.

Monday we spent the day at Mesa Verde National Park. Link to Mesa Verde National Park   WOW !  We will be making another trip to Mesa Verde because we saw less than half the park.  We started in the Visitor Center.  Because we only had one day we decided to concentrate on Chapin Mesa.  We saw the Chapin Mesa Archaeological Museum.  For safety and to preserve the ruins, three of the ruins are now done by tour only.  We took the tour of Balcony House and Cliff Palace.   We also took the Mesa Top Loop Tour.  Stopping at the overlooks and a picnic lunch and our day was full.

Balcony House required climbing two long ladders and crawling through a tunnel to see it.  It is the only Cliff dwelling that faces the East.  Most face the south to take advantage of the sun.

Cliff Palace as seen from an overlook.  It is the largest of the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde.

Cliff Palace from the tour

Square Tower House as seen from the overlook, we will see it up close on our next visit.  They were doing some preservation work so it was closed to tours.

Spruce Tree House as seen from the overlook.  It was getting late and about to rain.  Wayne quickly did the hike and saw some of it.  I will see it when we go back.

After dinner we went to the Cortez Cultural Center where they had members of the Ute and Dine' Indian Tribes who performed dances, played the flute and told stories.  Fun and informative.

Her dress was called a Jingle Dress - the silver ornaments made a jingling sound as she danced.  Her mother hand sewed the dress.

Charlie explained all pertinent details of his costume.  It was also made by his mother.

He had made all of his flutes.  He had played a flute at the opening of the 2002 Olympics. The songs were good but we enjoyed the animal and bird noises he could make with them.