Mesa Verde

We traveled only about 50 miles from Durango to Mesa Verde.  Hiawatha and I were on the parking crew so we had to depart Durango at 8:00 am.    We arrived at Mesa Verde and hurried up and got our rigs parked so that we could tell all the other units where to park.

Once everyone parked we boarded the tour buses for a trip to the Balcony House!  We were warned about the balcony house.  We had to go down 132 feet to access the ancient house under the cliff.  It was awesome to realize that people lived here from around 1200 AD.  Unfortunately, what goes down, must go back up.  If you are afraid of heights it is a nightmare.  We had to climb up 2 ladders that were over 30 feet; one which led to a rock face with 30 more feet of climbing on foot holds.  It was terrifying; and once you start on the tour you cannot turn back.  There are also tunnels to climb through. One tunnel was only 18 inches.  It was 12 feet long.  Needless to say, for someone like Hiawatha, who has claustrophobia it was a nightmare; but he made it.  We would not do this again

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Nightmares from Mesa Verde....the rest of the park was awesome.  There are lots of pueblos here, unfortunately Balcony house was the only one open while were there.  And, just our luck, the others are much easier to access.

And While in Durango.....

We went on an open air jeep ride up the La Plata Canyon.  It was a very bumpy ride that went up almost 12,000 feet in elevation.  It was fun.  The only problem we had was that there was no bathroom! But, we all know what bears do....

The jeep company was called Mild to Wild.

The next day we rode the steam engine for almost 50 miles from Durango to Silverton.  We chose the open air car and it was a great ride, although you do get lots of cinders on you in the open air cars.  The ride up took all morning and the scenery was wonderful and the weather was perfect.

Ridgway to Durango

The last day that we were in Ridgway they had a great arts and crafts fair. We spent the morning there then had lunch at True Grit    It was a really neat restaurant with a John Wayne theme. There is a lot about John Wayne in this area.

We opted for the long road to Durango since The Million Dollar Hwy is not recommended for trucks and towing. Still the highway that we had to take was no picnic either.  Elevations over 11,000 feet, no shoulder but it did have some guard rails

It was a beautiful ride!

We finally made it to Durango KOA

It is a very nice campground.  Extremely well-kept with a nice pool, mini golf, pancake breakfast everyday and ice cream social!

Today we went to the Durango Wildlife museum and Fish Hatchery. It was very nice

Seeet dreams from Durango! 

Colorado National Monument

23 miles of God's handiwork!