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Oct 26
We left early for our trip to Monument Valley which straddles the Arizona/Utah border. The entire park is on native land. Our admission fee included a drive through the monuments and we also gained access to the restricted back area of the park for an additional fee. There is no hiking in the park. Many movies have been filmed here. Mostly westerns but also Back to the Future, Forest Gump and Thelma and Louise.
The Navajo native reservation is 96,000 acres and houses 350,000 people. Their homes are scattered around the area and most of the properties are not well maintained and have numerous vehicles on site. We had an opportunity to learn a bit about their culture on our restricted tour.We started down this hilly, unpaved road and were met with a sign that read "impassable when wet". Through a constant set of twists, turns and undulations we were able to pass very closely to some of the monuments. Although the road was a bit longer in duration than Karen wanted it to be, repeatedly testing the clearance of our pick-up truck, it really was a lot of fun.
Oct 27
We took our time leaving today as the drive to Cortez, our home for the next 7 days, was only an hour and a half long. The road we chose took us through the Navajo reservation and we were happy to arrive in Cortez as it seemed to be much more of a bustling town than we had seen recently.
The visitor's centre provided lots of good information and we chose to drive to the Anasazi Heritage Center. We saw the ruins of a Pueblo settlement and learned about the history and agriculture of the region.
Oct 28
We headed out this morning with the temperature at +2 C driving into the mountains heading for Telluride. Within an hour it was down to -4 C but the roads were dry and it was sunny. The town of Telluride was very charming with lots of neat little shops. Many were closed though as we are somewhat early for ski season. We drove on to Ouray, which is described as Little Switzerland. Ouray was another neat old town similar to Telluride but smaller.
The drive from Cortez to Telluride and Ouray was mostly in the bottom of the canyon, following the Dolores River but as we left Ouray for Durango, we had to cross over the Red Mountain Pass. This was an adventure. Sections of the road had drop-offs of 1,000 ft, no shoulder and no guardrail. As we have seen on so many of our mountain passes, there were countless switchbacks and reduced speed. Another complication - there was snow on the pass but fortunately, not on the road.
Oct 29
Our plan for today was to visit the Canyons of the Ancients. Our first stop was at the Lowry Pueblo which was constructed around 1060 AD atop abandoned pithouses from an earlier period of occupation. It was occupied by 40 to 100 people at a time for 165 years. The structure was built up to about 40 rooms and featured multiple kivas.
Our second stop was at Hovenweep in the Little Ruin Canyon. Hovenweep means "deserted valley". The area was once home to more than 2,500 people in 900 A.D. The ancient Pueblo ruins include towers, castles, cliff dwellings, pueblos and houses. It was amazing to see the construction of the houses which were built right on the cliffs. Some mortar/mud was used and smaller stones were placed in the mortar/mud for stability. One of the homes built on a boulder which has since moved has not even cracked its foundation.
Last we went to the Four Corners. Kevin's opportunity to stand in 4 states at once….Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.
Oct 30
We had rain overnight so our planned mountain bike ride was postponed as the trail would be too muddy. We used the day to do some errands and try out our new tarp.
We received a call from Ian and Mo who had made it to Durango. Their hosts, Rick and Sherry, very graciously invited us to dinner. We had a very pleasant evening in their beautiful home overlooking wilderness. Sherry said that they routinely see deer and a couple of bucks.
Oct 31
We met our friends again this morning at Mesa Verde. Karen found out that the last tour for the year of Balcony House was today at 4 pm. In the meantime, the group decided that we would go for a mountain bike trail ride at Phil's World, which everyone in the area seems to rave about. They weren't wrong. Karen went on a separate ride with Sherry leading Mo, Janis, Linda and Tom. They did the Trust Loop which was very similar but perhaps not quite as technical. Kevin, Ian and Doug, led by Rick did the slightly more challenging Rib Cage route. Rick described it as "the most fun you can have on a mountain bike". The riding was fantastic single track riding over hilly but smooth terrain with a number of rib cages where you basically went down a 10 Ft steep drop and came right back up the other side. We only had to get off our bike a couple of times.
When our friends headed off to Moab, we raced back to Mesa Verde to catch the Balcony House Tour at 4 pm. This is a cave dwelling that was built in the late 700's and is still relatively intact. We had to climb up a steep 32 Ft ladder to get to the ruins, then make our way through a very tight tunnel and climb back out via a 20 Ft ladder, a climb up the steep rock holding on to a chain, followed by another 10 Ft ladder. The ancients managed to scale the rocks below the caves by carving hand holds and foot holds into the rock.
Nov 1
We set out for Mesa Verde as we wanted to see a few more ruins and do a hike to the petroglyphs. Much of the park was closed as this is now their winter season. Spruce House which was one of the most populous cave dwellings is also closed to do rock slides. We were able to view it from across the canyon, then headed for a 2 mi hike to the petroglyphs. It was a great hike, the last 150 metres was straight downhill on narrow steps, around boulders. We stopped at Far View which was a community of ruins where the Pueblo lived before moving to the cave dwellings.
We went back to Phil's World to take Karen on Rib Cage. Unfortunately we got a pinch flat about 2 km into the ride so we had to walk out.
We spent the rest of the day organizing the trailer for our departure tomorrow morning.
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