More Utah travels, September 2020 – Blanding, UT; Mesa Verde NP; Southwestern CO

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Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde NP

Blanding/Bluff, UT

The next day we are off to Devil’s Canyon, a National Forest campground, about 40 miles down the road.   After setting up we empty our cooler, the last of the food is still frozen, we will leave it slowly thaw in the camper refrigerator.  We head off to Blanding to do laundry then see The Edge of the Cedars Museum.  It is well worth the price of admission.  There are many indigenous people exhibits from archaic through the pueblo era.  A partially excavated pueblo stands behind the museum.

The Dinosaur Museum has far more dinosaurs identified than I remember from when I grew up.  There are many fossils and dinosaur tracks being found in the west all the time so keep your eyes open.

Outside Bluff, UT

We also stop at several trading posts looking for native American art, Navajo rugs in particular.  We see a few prospects but will keep looking. 

Bluff Fort is an open museum worth seeing.  The story it tells is about the first Mormon pioneers that came to this area in the late 1870's and subsequent people that have inhabited the area.

Mesa Verde National Park

Entrance to Mesa Verde

Mesa Verde NP is our next destination.  Another short drive, less than 100 miles.  Through the haze we see fall colors in the distant foothills.  One last stop at a the Village Market grocery store in Cortez fills our refrigerator with all the perishables we need for the rest of the trip.  20 minutes from Cortez we arrive at Mesa Verde.

We have to wait to enter the visitor center, a strict limit of 10.  We are successful in finding more Christmas list items.  The park museums are closed along with the ranger led hikes into the cliff dwellings.  We are able to view many of the dwellings from overlooks but that is as close as we will get.

Morefield campground

The road into the park is steep with no pullouts, a sign says no stopping for the next three miles.  The campground is partially open.  We find out later the campground closes for the year, Oct 1 only three days away.  Only a few loops of campsites are open with the corresponding restroom facilities.  There are several sites open even with the limited number of available sites.  The campground is in a bowl.  The only cell service is to drive a mile back towards the park entrance to the Mancos Valley Overlook.  There we have a commanding view of the valley and good cell service.  We complete our phone calls; I look to see if we are able to visit our friends in Albuquerque, no, the quarantine rules are still in effect; we sign off for the day.

View towards Cortez, CO

We hike the Point Overlook Trail starting at the edge of the campground.  25+ switchbacks later we arrive at the overlook.  We see back towards Cortez, the way we came.  The haze still hangs, the brilliant yellows of the aspen across the valley is barely discernable.  Returning, we decide to follow the road further into the park stopping at some of the overlooks along the way; saving the cliff dwellings for tomorrow.  Information signs at the overlooks mention that over 70% of the park has succumbed to wildfires since the park's inception.  We see shrubs and small trees all around the park, evidence of wildfire activity.

Fall color at Mesa Verde

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We start early, on the road by 8:00, only a few other people are touring this early.  En-route we come across several deer having breakfast, dining on the local greenery.  The wind is coming from a different direction, clearing out some of the haze at least for the moment.  We haven’t seen a clear sky for the past week.   

Cliff Palace

Our first stop is Cliff Palace.  This dwelling looks familiar to me, I’m pretty certain my mom, dad and sister did a ranger led tour here close to 50 years ago.  We continue on to other smaller sites; pit houses and minor cliff dwellings.  At Sun Point View we are able to see six different cliff dwellings.  We stay to photograph each; a challenge with the gusty winds buffeting us.  Moving on to Spruce Tree House we can see parts of it between the trees, but a tour is really needed to appreciate it.  

Spruce Tree House

Pit house

Spruce Tree House

Southwestern CO

On the road to Silverton

The weather in Durango is quite cool this morning prompting a stop at Durango Roasters for coffee, chai and a blueberry muffin.  We tour the downtown area a bit stopping in at one of the galleries to look at Navajo rugs.  We see a number of possibilities but will have to measure our area first.  The visitor center directs us to a couple national forest campgrounds for the night.  We had considered taking the Durango to Silverton train but the pandemic made us postpone that tour for another trip.  In speaking with the volunteer at the visitor center we find out the train is not going to Silverton; one of the bridges had washed out earlier this year.  She is not certain when the bridge will be replaced.   We will drive to Silverton instead.  Leaving Durango we start climbing in altitude, at the same time the aspen appear in full fall colors.  We crest two summits at 10,000’+.  Lines of cars form behind slow moving vehicles waiting for the opportunity to pass.  The air is cool, but pleasant, as we get out to stretch our legs at one of the summits.  Silverton is crowded with visitors, about two out of three are wearing masks.  We pass all the T-shirt shops stopping for some exotic jerky.  We choose kangaroo, elk and bison.  We have to pay at the jewelry shop next door.  I think this is a ploy for more jewelry sales; and it works, we find several pairs of earrings and pendants officially finishing our Christmas and birthday lists.

Returning, our next stop is Haviland Lake, one of the National Forest campgrounds.  All along the way the aspen glow yellow in the sun.  We are expecting to arrive at a nice lake surrounded by aspen for the quintessential fall photograph.  We are sadly disappointed to see a dry, sandy lake bed instead of a blue shimmering lake.  Less than 10% of the lake has water.  The campground looks nice but…  we decide to find the other NF campground.  Junction Creek’s turnoff is within the Durango city limits.  We’re not expecting much being so close to the city.  Getting closer, a ‘closed’ sign is erected over the campground sign, further dashing our hopes at getting in.  I keep going, it’s only another mile.  Arriving we see hosts talking with several people, the campground is still open.  Picking up a permit we hunt for a campsite.  The campground is in a pine forest; today it is less than half full of campers.  The sites are spacious and far enough apart that we don’t see our neighbors.  After setting up we hike around the campground finding the 487 mile Colorado Trail.  We hike only a quarter mile of it; down to Junction Creek.  We make a few selfies, listen to the babble of the creek, and breathe in the pine scented air.  Back at the camper we hear the wind whispering through the pines as we prepare for the night.

The return trip

Our drive through Durango is slow, I never expected such congestion in a city this size.  The roads immediately empty once we pass the main exit for Hwy 550.  We are heading east towards Taos and beyond.  NM is essentially closed to out of state visitors so we have to bypass Albuquerque again.  The road through southern CO and northern NM is on the verge of fall color, with more at higher elevations.  Approaching Las Vegas, NM the mountains all but turn into the flat plains of eastern NM.  We find a KOA campground outside of Las Vegas for the night.

We drive through rolling hills between Las Vegas and Santa Rosa.  I have driven through eastern NM many times, always on the interstate, but I never have seen such green, rolling terrain from the interstate.  Once we hit Santa Rosa the trip becomes all too familiar.  It is the same route we have taken to Houston and central TX several times.  Thankfully the rest of the trip is routine.

In all we were gone 28 days; visiting six national parks, one national monument, national forests, and several state parks.  We put on just over 4100 miles; only 176 of them on the interstate.  Since we have retired our goal has been to do a loop route, to always be exposed to something new; and stick with small roads; they are far more interesting.  I shot 1,500+ images, Nicida even more.  Now we get to work on those.  You have been looking at images I shot during this trip.

We declared the dry ice experiment a success.  Dry ice is more expensive than regular ice but our food stayed frozen the entire time.  I supplemented the dry ice with regular ice when I could not find it.  This worked well because the dry ice refroze the regular ice keeping the food frozen for a longer period of time.

Finally, I want to thank Dave Hansford from the Utah Office of Tourism.  I contacted the office through a chat window in mid March.  I had many questions; a very long list of what we wanted to see and do.  After a few minutes I received a note suggesting I call; I did.  Dave mentioned that the call under these circumstances worked better because I was asking for specific information.  We talked for quite some time.  We discussed our to-do list and what we had seen on our trip the previous year.  He was very impressed with what we had already seen but he came up with more suggestions.  A few weeks later I received a large package of maps, brochures from several national forest areas, along with city and county information on the areas we discussed.  The Utah map was filled with many suggestions and comments showing his enthusiasm for areas I was was not familiar with.  His help guided us to areas we had not considered.  He added so much that we will have to make another trip to this area of Utah so we can take in even more of the beauty of southern Utah.  Thank you Dave!

We had a most enjoyable trip during this time of a pandemic.  At all times we worked to keep to ourselves safe, easy at some locations, an effort at others.  We took our time thinking through what we needed to do to stay safe, most of the time we adhered to that plan but sometimes we forgot.  All the steps for us to stay safe are still not an automatic process.

I hope the latest posts provided some ideas for you to get out and enjoy some of the natural beauty of our country.

As I am working on this blog I am planning our next trip.

Stay safe, we wish you well.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark