Not literally, just enjoying the south western roads of Colorado and everything in between – from the Mesa Verde National Park, and ancient Pueblos Indian cliff dwellings, dating back to 600AD, to the town of Durango, established in 1881, to service further expansion of the Rio Grande Railway system and service the San Juan mining district…
A sleep in…breakfast at 8am, and then up to the Mesa Verde National Park…..which turned out to be a drive around lookout tour, as being not the summer season until May….tours into the cliff Dwellings were unavailable and some areas still closed off from the winter months.
First lookout stop on the mountain road, having climbed 2000 feet.
First view of the spruce tree house built into the rock faces…
The air was cool and it was a winter woollies day…
A small climb, but smooth path out…we have become selective on our trails over the last week!!
The Cliff Palace – the largest cliff dwellings in North America.
In the Summer months one can take a tour down through the cliffs to get up close and personal with these original remaining structures.
Not sure how people would get down there right now, but apparently they do!
Balcony house lookout – natural shelter from the overhanging balcony…
Next stop the Square Tower Dwelling…
Bearing in mind these dwellings haven’t been inhabited for eight Centuries – many signs and messages around the place informing us “they did not disappear” …. Their souls and footprints remain! Although we did not see any!
We then visited a number of remains of the above cliff pit house dwellings …
Great construction techniques back then, with original foundations all intact!
And closer to the cliff dwellings …
Cliff palace…
After a shower of rain out came the sun (and smiles) again…
And finally the Sun Temple…
All sealed and our experience of this was walking around a sort of circular stone wall….George (6’7”) may have been able to see over! However Tona did get closer to the dwellings with the (free) telescope!
Having spent five hours, of driving and jumping in and out of the car…our self drive tour was now over and the team consensus was to head North to the town of Durango for lunch/dinner…
A mall with a great little Mexican cafe…huge meals and a drink…around 3pm.
To walk off our full tummies, we took a small hike along the Aminas riverside Trail…
A little mid stream island, nesting place for a very large duck (about the size of a goose)
A book exchange library…now a must have around the world for us book lovers!
The white rabbit garden – encouraged by the town council to make a garden from any trash folks pick up..
And white(brown) water rafting activities down the river…
Final view from the bridge on way back to car…and Cortez for our final night…but we are not talking about that!
All who wander are not Lost girls 