Mesa Verde and Southwest Colorado

We left La Veta on Friday at 8:30 am, going over La Veta Pass, and stopping at Fort Garland.

Kit Carson was commandant for a couple of years, and worked to keep peace with the Indians. He spoke several indian languages. There were black Buffalo Soldiers posted at the camp for a few years. The displays gave us a view of what life was like on the frontier. The troops from Fort Garland participated in the battle of Glorieta Pass, in northern New Mexico, in which the Confederates trying to invade Colorado were repulsed. Fort Garland has an excellent bookstore.

We proceeded on to Alamosa, where we bought gas, tortillas, propane, and a replacement propane hose. Sandi commented on how dry the San Luis Valley is. We continued on through South Fork, and had a slow drive over the famous Wolf Creek Pass. We stopped to let the brakes cool; we could smell the brakes, even though I drove in first gear on the way down.

We drove through Pagosa Springs and Durango, finally turning off at Mesa Verde National Park. Richard was tired from mountain driving. Although we had a reservation, we found out that it was really first come first serve, not the best when you arrive at 5 PM. After cruising the large campground, we chose one of the very few sites that could fit our rig, and settled in. With our campsite in full sun, and 200 watts of solar panels, we should not need to worry about the battery. We heard a turkey during dinner, but could not see it.

Pottery Shards

On Saturday we got on the road early for a tour of Ute Tribal Park. We drove 20 miles south of Cortez to the park office, where we arrived early and watched the other guests arrive. Most of them were on the full day tour, which we passed on because of ladders The half day tour was led by Wolf, who impressed upon us that there are ruins all over the canyon. We stopped to look at pictographs, and admire the pottery shards which seemed to be everywhere. The other couple included a geologist; we all learned from him. It was a warm day. Wolf participates in the tribal rituals, such as the sun dance, which he has done 13 times. He talked about the spirits, and that if you take a piece of pottery, it will give you bad dreams. We saw wild horses. We very much enjoyed our tour.

We headed back to Cortez, where we had a good lunch at the Casita de Cortez, and enjoyed speaking to the owner, Rosie. The owner and Sandi share having only girl children. She told us about Sunday mass in Cortez.

We continued to the Canyon of the Ancients Visitor center, where we learned more about the ruins, the pottery, and the archeology. There was a large exhibit showing the ruins that were submerged by McPhee reservoir; there was extensive salvage archeology done before the reservoir was filled.

We headed back to our campground, where we enjoyed free campground showers.

Spruce House in the background

Check dams to retain soil and moisture

On Sunday, we headed for Spruce Tree house, the most accessible ruin. However, it was closed. We could see it from the trail. We then took that short hike on the farming terrace trail. They used check dams in gullies to retain water and soil. We continued on to visit a pit house, from an earlier time, and then to the overlook of square tower house, the tallest standing ruin in the park.

Then it was time to go to Cortez for church. The mass was mostly in Spanish, and featured the first communion of many children. We returned to the Casita de Cortez for a good lunch and more conversation with the owner. We finally got to the Mesa Verde Visitor Center while it was open. We learned that part of the reason that Mesa Verde was successful was that the mesa was tilted 7 degrees to the south, making it warmer than other places at the elevation of 8000 ft. The higher elevation meant that there was more precipitation. The elevation and the slope were conducive to agriculture.

Due to the wind, we hung out in our camper and read. About an hour before sunset, we went on a walk on the Knife Edge trail, which was the old road into the park. The dust in the air blocked what would normally have been a great view of the valley.

On Monday, we headed out to see ruins in the Canyon of the Ancients. Our first stop was Lowry Ruin, which has a great kiva. We continued to Painted Hand ruin, smaller than most; Richard slipped on the way back and bent his glasses. We had lunch in Hovenweep, which seemed nicer than the last time we were there, due to nicer weather. We may come back to Hovenweep just to hang out. We took a hike there to Tower Point, although we did not do the big loop hike. We proceeded on, driving back to Cortez through McElmo Canyon. The school buses were leaving one room Battlerock school. We did a little research on the internet, and found that it was a charter school. Most of the students seemed to come from Cortez.

We went to Jim and Karen's house for dinner. It was good to see them after several years. Their house is one of the earliest homes in Cortez.

The view from the streets of
Telluride

On Tuesday, we headed for Telluride. Richard had not been there in many years. He was disappointed that it felt more like a place for rich people and less like a mining or ski town. We had lunch at the Butcher and the Baker, where the signs urged people to rent long term to locals. Like many resort communities, the workers cannot afford to live there.

We drove to CampV, an old mining camp. It is decorated with art and artifacts, with RV spaces, Airstream trailers, and old cabins. It looked very cute. However, Sandi had some unscheduled critical work to do, and Verizon had only one bar. They suggested wifi calling, but admitted our campsite did not have great wifi. We decided to move on to Grand Junction; a beautiful drive, a canyon that looked like Utah, but not easy driving. We got into RV Ranch after 6 PM, and Richard was tired. We were somewhat disappointed by the campground, which we had stayed in before.

We drove home on Wednesday,  a day earlier than expected, because we drove further on Tuesday than we had planned. The drive home was relatively uneventful, but with two long backups, where we were effectively stopped for 20 minutes or more. We got home about 5 PM.

La Veta and the Highway of Legends

On Tuesday, we drove south on I-25 to Pueblo, where we saw some interesting art at the Sangre de Christo Arts and Conference Center. We particularly liked Liz McCombs, whose art was whimsy and woodsy, almost with a druid look. We also visited El Pueblo History museum. Unfortunately, their new exhibit was not open yet. Pueblo looked run down, a rust belt town. Walsenburg looked very poor.

We continued to La Veta, where we settled in to the Circle the Wagons RV park, well kept, next to the Cuchara River.

The Spanish Peaks are the dominant peak in the area.

La Veta is a very cute artsy community. We were here before the tourist season starts, later in May. We found the restaurants closed, but we we went to the grocery on Main street, where the deli made us sandwiches, and we met Debbie, the owner. The town is on a railway line. There was a tourist train to Alamosa until 2019.

On Wednesday, Sandi had a business Zoom call, and Richard went fishing at the nearby Wahatoya lake. After her meeting, we drove up to Cuchara. We saw many geologic formations, dikes/walls formed by lava making its way through cracks. In downtown Cuchara, which is about one block long, we spoke to the owner of the Dog Bar, who was getting ready to open for the season on Thursday. We visited the Dakota Dukes gift shop, a small shop packed all kinds of stuff, from bows and arrows to clothing, to decorations. We bought ice cream and a soda.

When we got back to La Veta, we started walking down Main Street. We met Emily in the Mercantile, where Richard played ball with her border collie, Woody, who is running for Mayor. Her business is an unusual mixture of gift shop, bar, and a music venue. We are going to miss the music performance Saturday night. She also owns the wine bar across the street. We learned that real estate prices are going up. We met Peggy the librarian, and admired the library. We met the couple who ran the bakery; they are taking the year off; Erica has gone back to teaching math and science. The town has a new school, for 220 students. We met Johnathon, the well known batik artist, and were invited to come back Thursday and visit the gallery. It seems like we have met half of the prominent people in town...... We saw a couple of art centers which were closed that day. Ricky Tims is a famous art quilter, who has a quilt retreat center in town. There is a lot to do in this small town. Perhaps the biggest event is the Celtic music festival in September. The day was cloudy; the rain started around 5 PM.

On Thursday, we drove past Cuchara on the Highway of Legends, using the excellent Travelstory app and audio tour, and drove over 10,000 ft Cuchara pass. We passed a couple of large lakes. We stopped in Stonewall, which has a massive natural sandstone wall. The Stonewall Shopping Bag was recommended, and we had lunch there. The owner, Ellen, was very helpful, and showed us a book of local history. She gave us the business card for Dave Harris, who runs the Cokedale historical museum. We called, and he met us at the museum, and gave us a detailed tour of the museum, which is about the coal industry. 

 Cokedale was a company town. The mines were owned by the Guggenheim family. The coal was brought to Cokedale, where it was baked to remove volatiles such as benzine. The smoke and pollution were horrendous. He showed us the list of names and nationalities of victims of mine disasters; people came there from all over the world, mostly eastern Europe. We continued to Trinidad, where we visited the History Colorado museum, and also the A.R.Mitchell art museum, where they were setting up a new show of contemporary western art. 

 We continued on our tour, visiting the Ludlow massacre site, a UMWA union monument. Someone had left a “Starbucks Workers United” button there, reminding us that unions are still fighting. We then finished driving back to La Veta. This was a good tour of the area.

Friday we drive to Mesa Verde National Park.