| Four Corners
Leaving Monument Valley, Utah we drove south on highway 163 into Arizona and picked up highway 160 east to Four Corners Monument. In a matter of minutes we drove in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado and that is why the Monument is named Four Corners. It is the only point in the nation where four states meet. The Monument is operated by the Navajo Nation and they charge a small fee to enter and park. Navajo and Ute artisans sell jewelry and souvenirs and food is available. Of course, Linda had to buy some Navajo jewelry. We made some pictures and ate Ute FryBread, similar to elephant ears with powered sugar. We continued on highway 160 through Cortez, Colorado and
to Durango. Along that short route the desert turned to green mountains
and meadows as we reached the western edge of the Rocky Mountains. The
skies darkened and then it happened - something we had been dreading -
it started to rain and I had to turn on the motorhome's windshield wipers.
We were happy to find the wipers still worked. During the last eight months
we had experienced only four rains and they totaled less than one inch.
But we had not driven the motorhome in rain the last 11 months and 3 days
and during that time we drove 8,898 miles in 66 days of driving. Fulltiming
is a great lifestyle, but every now and then a little rain must fall. (The
rain lasted just long enough to get the motorhome and Honda CR-V dirty
and then it stopped.)
Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad The Durango & Silverton scenic train ride is the granddaddy of all train rides and we highly recommend it. Depending on dates and schedules there may be up to five old steam locomotives running daily and advance reservations are a requirement. The railroad was constructed in 1881-1882 and has been in continuous operation since then. It was built to serve the mining towns to the north and carried an estimated $300 million worth of silver and gold ore to Durango and towns further south. Today the railroad carries tourist from Durango to Silverton, a distance of 46 miles, and parallels the Animas River, goes over bridges and through passes, through canyons, on the sides of mountains and through the remote wilderness of the two-million acre San Juan National Forest. The ride to Silverton rises 2,793 feet in elevation. The locomotives used to pull today's trains remain 100% coal-fired and steam operated and are 1923-1925 vintage and are maintained in original condition. For a $62 fare passengers can chose between either closed coach cars or open air gondolas. We chose an open car on the end of the train for a panoramic view while those in closed cars could only see through windows. One hazard of the open gondola was soot and cinders peppered us much of the trip requiring a scrub-down shower once we got home, but the views were worth getting dirty. Our train took 3.5 hours to reach Silverton, including
a stop to take on water, and we spent 2 hours and 15 minutes in Silverton
before heading back down the track to Durango. While in Silverton we walked
around the old mining town, did some shopping and ate lunch at one of the
many unique restaurants. It was a beautiful and scenic ride and we highly
recommend taking the train ride back in history. Words can not describe
the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, but these pictures speak
better than words.
Mesa Verde National Park Using Durango as a base camp we drove west on highway 160 to Mesa Verde National Park. About 1,400 years ago, long before any European exploration of North America, a group of people living in the Four Corners region chose Mesa Verde for their home. For more than 700 years their descendants lived and flourished there, eventually building elaborate stone communities in the sheltered alcoves of the canyon walls. Then in the late 1200's, within a span of one or two generations, they left their homes and moved away. Mesa Verde National Park occupies 52,000-acres of a large plateau rising high above the Montezuma and Mancos Valleys. Ever since cowboys first saw the cliff dwellings over a century ago, archeologists have been trying to understand the life of these people. But despite decades of excavation, analysis, classification and comparison, our knowledge is only sketchy. We will never know the whole story of their existence for they left no written records, but Mesa Verde is truly America's premier archaeological wonder. We arrived on the day of the 100th anniversary of the
formation of the park and were treated to traditional native Hopi Indian
dances. It was a 100 degree day so we kept the hikes and climbs short,
but we did visit the Spruce Tree House, The Square House and the Cliff
Palace. This was our second trip to Mesa Verde and it is another place
we recommend visiting.
San Juan Skyway The San Juan National Scenic Byway is a 236 mile loop from Durango to Silverton, Ouray, Ridgeway, Placerville, Telluride, Rico, Dolores, Cortez, Mancos and back to Durango. But no, that was not long enough for us, so we added another hundred plus miles by driving to Hovenweep and Canyons of the Ancients National Monuments. What a day, 350 miles of wonderland with several hikes and we arrived at home 14 hours later exhausted. Out of Durango we took highway US 550 on a gentle slope and then we hit mountains at San Juan National Forest with a 62 mile drive to Ouray on the "Million Dollar Highway." The best way to describe the drive is it is similar to driving a car on a roll-a-coaster, but there are no rails to keep you from falling off. We drove over mountain passes with elevations to 11,000 feet and then dropped into valleys. The road was mostly narrow with no guard rails and the side pavement ended only one or two feet from drops of a thousand or more feet. Take your eye off the road for a split-second and you're history. There were many sharp curves and switch-backs with speeds as low as 10 mph, side rocks jettisoning into the roadway, and always straight up or down mountains. A few days later we drove the motorhome over that same highway. (More on that in our next article.) The rest of the San Juan Scenic Byway was breathtakingly beautiful, but not near as nerve-racking to drive. I was able to take my eyes off the road every now and then to take in the beauty. During our drive we crossed Coal Bank Pass (10,640 ft), Molas Pass (10,970 ft), Red Mountain Pass (11,018 ft) and Lizard Head Pass (10,222 ft). We stopped to view El Diente Peak (14,159 ft), Mount Wilson (14,246 ft), Wilson Peak (14,017 ft), Palmyra Peak (13,320 ft) and Lizard Head Peak (13,113 ft.) Along the way we stopped in Silverton, an old mining town
that now caters to tourist and skiers since these mountain ranges receive
260 inches of snow in an average winter. Some of the steepest slopes in
the world are found at Silverton and tackling the slopes requires avalanche
gear, training and a guide. Silverton is also the terminus of the Durango
& Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. The town sits at an elevation of
9,305 feet and has a population of 547.
Ouray is a beautifully restored mining town and tourist
village with great shopping and restaurants. Much of the limestone cliffs
surrounding Ouray are made entirely of chrinoid fossils that were once
the bottom of a sea. Ouray sits at an elevation of 7,811 feet and has a
population of 814. The town of Ridgeway has recently exploded to a population
of 743 and was the location of several John Wayne (True Grit) and other
western movies.
Telluride, another old mining town, is a ski resort and
tourist village. It sits at nearly 9,000 feet in elevation and has a population
of about 2,000 inhabitants when combined with neighboring Mountain Village.
Mountain peaks rise to 13,000 feet making skiing a challenge with beautiful
Bridal Veil Falls dropping out of the mountains. Remote Telluride has a
couple of interesting facts - Butch Cassidy robbed his first bank here
and the town had the world's first municipal AC/DC street lights.
At nearby Ophir the world's first commercial AC power
generating plant was constructed for the Gold King Mine. Until that time
there
was a debate as to whether DC (direct current) or AC (alternating current)
electric power was the best. Thomas Edison promoted his DC power for safety
and Nikola Testa promoted his AC power that could be transferred for miles
on copper wires without losing any of its power. The Ames hydroelectric
power plant built in 1891 on the San Miguel River set the stage for electric
power as we know it today. It was interesting to find this world changing
event took place in remote mountains in western Colorado. Linda and I sure
are getting an education out on the back roads of America.
Hovenweep National Monument At the town of Dolores we detoured from the San Juan Scenic Byway to visit Hovenweep National Monument that sits in both Colorado and Utah. Hovenweep is a place most tourist skip because it is way off the beaten path. From Dolores we took roads numbered 184, 666, CC, 10 and finally 1, and I must admit we got lost a couple of times even though we used three maps and our Garmin GPS. Dolores was in the greenery of the Rocky Mountains, but the roads westward were pure desert. Some of the roads were paved, some were gravel, some were dirt and signs warned us the roads were impassable in winter and during heavy rains. But we persevered and found Hovenweep National Monument and took a hike around the park. There was one other couple there and they were riding a large motorcycle. They told us they found the place, but had no idea how to get back to civilization and were afraid they would roam around the desert all night. The Ancestral Puebloan society built villages on the tops
of cliffs and the still standing rock houses were constructed about 700
A.D. and inhibited until about 1100-1220 when the inhabitants left for
some unknown reason. We took a two mile hike around the canyon studying
the round, square and D-shaped towers, the multiple family houses and single
dwellings.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument As the sun was setting we tried desperately to find Canyon
of the Ancients National Monument, a very large area with no entrance roads.
Again, we had multiple maps and our trusty Garmin GPS, but no matter where
we drove we could not get into the park and we also had So why is that national monument so secretive and inaccessible and why has it caused such an outrage amount the Native Americans? Why are there no roads into the park? I did some research and this is what I found. In 2000, President George W. Bush signed a law designating Canyon of the Ancients a National Monument to be administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and not by the National Park Service. The monument contains 164,000 acres of disjointed land. On and between the monument sections are on Indian Reservations, farms and ranches, cattle grazing, oil drilling and mining operations. Nearby Mesa Verde National Park and Hovenweep National Monument pale in comparison to Canyons of the Ancients. While Mesa Verde has larger restored ancient Indian dwellings, Canyons of the Ancients has many more. More than 6,000 dwellings of ancient native cultures have been recorded and it is estimated there are between 20,000 and 30,000 total. Some of the areas have more than 100 dwelling per square mile. Had you rather go to Mesa Verde and see a dozen ancient dwellings or to Canyon of the Ancients and see thousands? Why haven't we heard about this marvelous and historical place? The Native Americans who live on the land believe it is sacred and won't permit trespassers, but now most of it is Federal land and so far a compromise has not been reached. While planning committees are trying to work out agreements the land has been closed to the public and detailed information will not be published listing what the monument contains. It is a shame our latest national monument is off-limits to the public and I hope some day I can either drive or walk to the thousands of ancient dwelling that very few people have seen. |
