Durango Pix

This was a long day. We covered a loop that took us to Mesa Verde National Park, Cortez, Telluride, Ouray, Silverton and back to Durango. The route covered more than 200 miles and crossed the San Juan Mountains on five passes that exceeded 10,000 feet (two were over 11,000).

We spent the morning in Mesa Verde. The weather could not have been better with the temperature peaking in the mid 80s and only a few puffy clouds. Mesa Verde was our prime objective for the day. We got back to the campground a bit later than we had planned so I am limiting the commentary and pictures to Mesa Verde. The pictures below are just a few of the highlights of the morning. If I get the time during the trip, I will add more content to this page.

Mesa Verde is a series of interconnected mesas and canyons that were the home for the Anasazi, a pre-Puebloan people. It is probably one of the more fascinating places we visited or probably will visit on this trip. There is a lot of information available on the Internet on Mesa Verde, so I won't try to duplicate it. If you want more information on Mesa Verde, a good place to start is the Mesa Verde National Park Web site.

We left Mesa Verde and drove to Telluride, about 60 miles north of Mesa Verde. We wanted to walk around the town, visit the shops and take some pictures of a really picturesque town. As we were approaching the top of the 10,000 foot pass that leads to Telluride, we were hit by a thundershower with some heavy rain. When we got into Telluride, it was still raining hard and the temperature dropped to 50 degrees F, a 30+ degree drop from Mesa Verde. Since it was wet, cold and the light not conducive to good photographs, we opted to continue on the loop. The rain continued on and off until we got into Silverton. As we were coming down over the pass leading to Ouray, I saw what I thought was a quarry of white stone. When we got closer, we saw that it was ice... remnants of a hail storm that we had just missed.

This was a long day. We covered a loop that took us to Mesa Verde National Park, Cortez, Telluride, Ouray, Silverton and back to Durango. The route covered more than 200 miles and crossed the San Juan Mountains on five passes that exceeded 10,000 feet (two were over 11,000). We spent the morning in Mesa Verde. The weather could not have been better with the temperature peaking in the mid 80s and only a few puffy clouds. Mesa Verde was our prime objective for the day. We got back to the campground a bit later than we had planned so I am limiting the commentary and pictures to Mesa Verde. The pictures below are just a few of the highlights of the morning. If I get the time during the trip, I will add more content to this page. Mesa Verde is a series of interconnected mesas and canyons that were the home for the Anasazi, a pre-Puebloan people. It is probably one of the more fascinating places we visited or probably will visit on this trip. There is a lot of information available on the Internet on Mesa Verde, so I won't try to duplicate it. If you want more information on Mesa Verde, a good place to start is the Mesa Verde National Park Web site. We left Mesa Verde and drove to Telluride, about 60 miles north of Mesa Verde. We wanted to walk around the town, visit the shops and take some pictures of a really picturesque town. As we were approaching the top of the 10,000 foot pass that leads to Telluride, we were hit by a thundershower with some heavy rain. When we got into Telluride, it was still raining hard and the temperature dropped to 50 degrees F, a 30+ degree drop from Mesa Verde. Since it was wet, cold and the light not conducive to good photographs, we opted to continue on the loop. The rain continued on and off until we got into Silverton. As we were coming down over the pass leading to Ouray, I saw what I thought was a quarry of white stone. When we got closer, we saw that it was ice... remnants of a hail storm that we had just missed.

	Mesa above the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park		Susie with the Montezuma Valley in the background

	Spruce Tree House		Spruce Tree House detail. The circular structures in the forground are Kivas which are entered through the square openings.

	Kiva at Spruce Tree House with top removed		Stones used for grinding grains at the Spruce Tree House

	A pit house, one of the earliest fixed homes in the Mesa Verde area. It was partially below ground with wooden sides and roof that were covered in mud. This one and most of the others found had burned down.		Sun Temple

	The Cliff Palace is the most famous of all of the Mesa Verde dwellings. Detail at right.

	Fire Temple		Square Tower

	Sun Point		Sam at Sun Point Overlook

		Susie shot this through the window as we came off one of the high passes between Ouray and Durango. We had just passed through another shower and the sky was clearing.