Good Bye Cortez

 This is a quick review of our last week in southwestern Colorado:

We made an afternoon drive to Mesa Verde National Park.  The main road through the Park travels high for great views of the mountain ranges in the distance.  We think one of these distant mountain ranges here is where the community of Dunton is located.

From the Mancos Valley Overlook in Mesa Verde National Park we saw

the town of Mancos and the La Plata Mountain Range.

  We have enjoyed a few other visits to Mesa Verde National Park in the past and it is always a special treat to revisit some of its highlights.  The Cliff Palace is the most prominent of the many cliff dwellings in the Park. Estimated to have been constructed by Ancestral Puebloans around 1200 AD, this cliff dwelling contains an amazing 150 rooms.

This is a small section of the Knife Edge Trail from the Montezuma Overlook.  A portion of this trail follows the old road bed first built in Mesa Verde National Park in 1914. 

While Ronnie and I were enjoying the views up here, three antique A-Model cars pulled up.  After visiting with the couples, they told Ronnie they were all driving their restored vehicles through Mesa Verde National Park, then onward home to Massachusetts.  Check out this Historical Photo of the old A-Models as they traveled the original road in Mesa Verde National Park HERE.

We also walked the 1.2 mile Soda Canyon Overlook path to get a view of the Balcony House Cliff Dwellings.  At first it was hard to locate the camouflaged cliff dwellings on the rock wall.

The National Park Service offers tours of this cliff dwelling however to access these ruins tourists have to be able to climb that 32 foot tall ladder and crawl through a narrow 12 foot tunnel.

This Public Space cliff side ruin can easily be seen from the main highway in Mesa Verde.  If you look closely you can see carved foot holds on the rock wall. 

The House Of Many Windows can also be seen from an overlook on the main Park highway.  Historians believe these openings here are not windows but really doors.

On each of our visits to Mesa Verde National Park, Ronnie and I have always discovered something new.

Ronnie and I had a memorable evening at the Cortez October Third Thursday Market and Music Gathering.  Because of the unusually strong cold front that passed through that day, the band had to play inside the First National Bank of Cortez.  We were completely wowed by this outstanding North Carolina contemporary bluegrass band, they were excellent. Songs From The Road Band, from Asheville, NC, played some outstanding, entertaining music and we especially loved their hit song "Waiting On A Ride".

West View RV Resort, found on Hwy 145 between Cortez and Dolores, was one of the most comfortable homebase campsites we have experienced.  The Sleeping Ute Mountain can be seen here on the horizon.

That month went by so fast! We loved our time in southwest Colorado, it is no wonder why it's called
"Colorful Colorado".
More Later as we Eas-on Down The Road
 to familiar
 Biloxi, Mississippi.