Durango - Day 2

We are here for three nights but know that we have to move sites today between 11am & 1pm.  The farmers market is on this morning so we head into town to check this out and pick up some fresh veges etc.    Nice markets with good produce and we run into Jan & Henry who we met in Williams and got talking to, met again last night down town Durango and now here - we talk for about an hour before heading back to camp.

Shifting sites turned out to be rather painful with staff telling us we couldn't park the way we intended to and had been told by the lady in the office we could, who is the wife of the owner.  We had to wait around to 1.30 to get an answer from the owner and pay for the new site as that is how this camp works.......  To top this off it was more than obvious the couple had had a domestic and were in a foul mood!

Once we were all set up how we wanted, we went into town for the afternoon that was left and wandered down the river walk. 

Rafting is also a huge part of the tourist industry here in Durango and there are constantly rafts floating down the river full of happy thrill seekers.

 We look for deer as signs are out saying they are about and people have just seen them, but they have all hidden when we cross over the bridge to find them.  Probably laughing at us in the bushes.

Lovely afternoon strolling along the river and people watching.  We like Durango and Colorado - it is green like home with beautiful scenery.

Cortez to Durango

Today we move about an hour inland to Durango, which turns out to be a lot bigger than Cortez and is a good sized town that is not only a quaint tourist town but a working town which has everything in a lovely area.  It has taken till the last minute to get a booking for a camp as the place is booked out.

Our new camp site is great but unfortunately the camp is moving us tomorrow to another site, which was the only way we could get in apparently.  We have grass!!

We are not sure what these are but they called around in the morning to check us out, along with the many hummingbirds that hang out here - they are really cool.

Our afternoon is spent down town to check out Durango and we end up talking to the bar manager at one of the local establishments for a couple of hours who was from Chicago originally.

Mesa Verde National Park

Today we go to see what Mesa Verde National Park is all about.  Turns out to be one of the biggest tourist attractions around and we get there in the morning before 10am to find all the tours are booked out until 4pm that day.  Thankful that we are early, we book a 4pm tour followed by a 5.30pm tour and if want anymore we will come back tomorrow.  It is about 10 miles from camp so we decide to go back into town to do the grocery shopping, set up for tonight etc. as we will be late home.

The National Park was set up in 1906 to preserve the Ancestral Pueblo people's dwellings from around AD550.  Our first stop is an overlook with views for miles and miles.

We are quite high up and the air is a little thin up here.......

Above are some of the first cliff dwellings we sight while driving around - the pic of the left gives you an idea of just how far down the cliff they are and how high up the canyon!  Even with the wide angle lens, I could not get the top and the bottom of the canyon in the shot.....

We join our first tour at 4pm with Ranger Katie who was a very good guide and kept it interesting.  After a few warnings about small spaces and ladders etc, we walk down some steel steps onto a canyon ledge where we met our first ladder to climb up into the dwellings. 

Up we all go, two at a time like Noah's Ark!  I'm last following Daryl who has found a Scottish couple to strike up a conversation with and swap tour ideas.




Our first stop in the dwellings is an outside cabin for want of a better word.

Ranger Katie on our tour.

Next we climb up a short ladder and squeeze through the hole below on our hands and knees to get into the main body of the Balcony House dwelling.  Glad I am small!

The hole we all squeezed through.

The main Balcony House dwelling - its a long drop down!  The remains are quite interesting and life would have been very different - the Pueblo people were dry farmers and grew their crops on the top of the Mesa but lived down on the cliff faces.

Through into another room and then we all face a walk up steps carved into the stone cliffs with a rail but also a share drop down the cliff front, followed by another tall ladder to the exit.  Not for the faint hearted!

In between tours we rush around to another loop of the park as time is running out with only half an hour to spare before the next tour at 5.30pm.  We spot this fellow as we go around.

Cliff Palace

Our next tour is the Cliff Palace dwelling - the above pictures taken from the overlook which is as close as you can get if you do not take a guided tour. 

We head off through locked gates and down narrow gaps the rocks to a ledge where Ranger Paula takes this tour.

Unfortunately this Ranger is not as good as the previous and we are happy to end the tour around 7pm and leave.  We both have seen enough and do not feel the need to come back tomorrow.

There are obvious large cracks in the overhanging ceiling in this dwelling and the Ranger says it is likely to crash down on top of the dwelling and slide into the canyon - this appears a likely scenario given the cracks and freezing tempetures in winter in this area.  Sad to think it will be lost to the world in the near future.

A great place to visit and tours are well worth the $4 each!    It is getting late and we head back to camp to cook dinner and make plans for tomorrow - we have been having great difficulty getting camp sites due to the 4th July and Summer Break - apparently these are the two busiest weeks for camping in America!

Williams, Arizona to Cortez, Colorado

We are heading for Colorado as we missed the lower part of this State last time and we have heard it is worth seeing.

The route between Flagstaff and Colorado goes up through Tuba City and looks very bland on the map....

this proves to be the case most of the way and it is about 4 to 5 hours to Cortez.

We have passed through some of this territory previously but are just crossing over tracks mostly and re-covering only small portions of a previous trip in 2013.

We have seen this Silo before though and it takes us a few miles to realise we turned onto this route from Page when we headed for Monument Valley.

The landscape around Tuba City.....

We finally reach the four corners, being Utah, Arizona, New Mexico & Colorado.


We pass into this and stop at the Navajo National Monument to see what it is all about. 

They charge $5 entry and there are stalls from native artists of each State set out in a square with their wares and jewellery.  There is a long line of people waiting for their turn to take pictures standing on the monument below, which shows the four States.  It is very hot and we do not wait the 30 or so minutes it takes to reach the front of the line!  I sneak a quick shot between people changing over their turn.

Leaving the Monument, about 200m down the road we enter into Colorado - thank goodness but it looks just the same as Arizona in this corner!

The trees finally start appearing another 18 miles or so into the countryside and we make it into Cortez around 2.30pm and find our camp at the Sundance RV Park.

The first site they give us is in the blazing sun so I go back and ask if there is anything else available in the shade  - still hot around the 90's so shade is good!  They rearrange & we end up with a great spot under the trees to relax in for the next couple of nights.