Colorado

We left Chama and headed for Durango, Colorado on Friday April 30th.  There were snow storms all around us.  It was very scenic and we noticed how when you leave New Mexico and enter Colorado it is more colorful and not so dry looking.  They even had a sign that said "Welcome to Colorful Colorado".    We went through Pagosa Springs, CO, a place that Bill would talk about when I met him in 2001.  Although he had never been there, he said real estate was cheap.  Probably should have bought some property because it looked like a very prosperous town now.  

     

We continued our drive west and came across Chimney Rock.  Alot of the Parks were still closed for the winter. 

   

We got to Durango and decided to stay at a campground about 8 miles from town called Lightner Creek Campground.  Their official opening day was May 1st but they were very cordial and had no problem letting us stay the night before since we were wanting to stay for three nights.   This place is very popular in the summer as it had a pool, playground, tether ball court, dog park, lots of cabins, full hookups and tent sites.  The sites without any hookups alone were $29.00.  They did give us a break being the first guests of the season.    

It snowed on and off Friday night and the temps did go down to the teens but we knew the RV would be okay since we had experienced the low temps the night before in Chama.   On Saturday, we went to Mesa Verde, about 45 mins away to the main gate.  Once we got in it was another 20 miles to the visitor center where we purchased our tickets to see the Cliff dwelling and the Balcony dwelling.  Our tour began at 1:00 pm so we headed towards that site.  The tour was a little over an hour and we went down steps and ladders to get to the Cliff Dwelling.  What an amazing sight this was and very interesting hearing how for 700 years the Ancesteral Puebloans lived in this land and when and why they left. 

When we left we had to climb up through a very narrow opening in the cliff and there were markings were the Puebloans had climbed in and out of the dwelling all those years..amazing.....

We then drove through more of the park and viewed some other dwellings on top of the mesa until our next tour at 3:30.  This one was as they called it "more adventurous", as we had to climb 32 feet up the side of the canyon and then another umpteen feet to get to the Balcony Dwelling.  Once we were there and the ranger told the story, we had to crawl out of a small hole in the rock of the dwelling and climb another ladder to get to the parking area.  The views were breathtaking and the whole experience was great.

We then went to the last cliff dwelling called Spruce Tree House.  This was a self guided tour and we had to walk down aways to get to it.  We were able to go down in one of the covered Kiva's to see what it was like to be in one of them.  It was nice and warm even without a fire going. 

We then hiked back up (my legs were sore the next day!) and left the park to head back to the campground.  

On Sunday May 2nd (today)we woke up to a light snow on the ground.  Around noon, we went to downtown Durango and went to a brewery and had lunch and a beer, walked at a park with the dogs and of course walked in downtown historic Durango. In the winter it is a big Ski area and in the summer rafting the river is big, as well as mountain biking and the Train ride is a big attraction as well.   Although the weather was supposed to be 50 percent chance of snow, we got lucky and somehow did not get caught in any and the weather even warmed up a bit. 

Tomorrow we plan to leave early and head to Grand Canyon with a stop at Four Corners Monument.   We won't have any internet, phone, or any hookups at Grand Canyon so you probably won't see anything on the blog again until next Thursday or Friday....