Colorado 2014; Mesa Verde, Telluride, Florence, Colorado Springs and Denver

This is the 2nd and final installment of the Colorado 2014 blog.

Thursday (August 28, 2014) we checked out of the Mountain Thunder Resort and headed for Mesa Verde. Our route took us back over the Hoosier Pass, but this time we couldn't see a thing as the cloud base had descended overnight and the pass was completely socked in! As we got to Fairplay we noticed a collection of old homes and a signpost to a museum, South Park City. Are we ever glad that we stopped as the museum has not only a fantastic collection of old homes but they are furnished with over 400,000 donated items and you can freely walk around the buildings.

South Park City

No caption required!

Added this to show the destruction to the natural environment of placer mining activity!

We spent a long time there before getting back on the road for the long drive to Mesa Verde. As we traveled south we could see the Sand Dunes that we had visited with Matthew and Patrick back in 1995, even though we were over 30 miles away they dominate the landscape. We arrived at Mesa Verde around 6pm and checked into our rooms at the Far View Lodge. We have a spectacular view from our room looking East, so the sun will wake us early! We enjoyed a nice meal at the restaurant and then settled down for the night. We have booked ourselves on a tour of the cliff dwellings tomorrow morning so an early start.

Friday, a change of plans! Both Jill & Lynne had an adverse reaction to something that they ate last night so we have had to reschedule our tour to tomorrow. We did manage to get some sightseeing in after they had recovered sufficiently. Our first stop was at the Far View village site, where we saw evidence of the earliest irrigation and drinking water management system in North America dating back to 900 AD. The Far View villages covered an area of about half a mile square and housed hundreds of people.

Far View Village Pueblo building

We then visited the Chapin Museum and learned more about the people that inhabited Mesa Verde, the Ancestral Pueblo People. They came to the Mesa Verde around 900 AD and lived here until about 1300 AD. Initially they lived in villages on the top of the Mesa, but later, and no one knows why they moved into dwellings built in the alcoves in the canyon cliffs that surround the Mesa. Then around 1300 AD they left and moved south. They appear to have integrated with the Pueblo and Hopi peoples of Arizona and New Mexico. The museum contains many historical items as the Ancestral Pueblo People migrated from basket making to pottery.

After lunch, Jill and Lynne now fully recovered, we set off for a photography session, stopping at all of the pull off areas between the Far View Lodge and the Moorfield campsite. We took photos of Knife Edge Point, and stood on part of the original road into the park that was used until the new tunnel was built. The old road can barely be made out as the Mesa has eroded and hidden it. In any event it must have been a scary road to drive on as it traveled around the cliff face!

Knife Edge Point

From there we moved onto Park Point, the highest point in the park at 8500' above sea level, that gave us views in every direction, into both New Mexico, Utah and Arizona! Our final stop was Geologic Point where some interesting geological features, e.g. seep wells were in evidence.

Knife Edge Point from Park Point, you can still see evidence of the old Park road!

Saturday morning we took a drive along Wetherill Mesa and had many photo stops along the way before returning to the lodge for lunch and our rescheduled 700 Year Tour.

View from Wetherill Mesa across the Montezuma Valley

Ship Rock

Mule Deer

The tour took us to a Pithouse, the first structures that the Ancestral Pueblo People built at Mesa Verde, then onto Site 16 that has evidence of three types of structure built one upon another. Then onto the Sun Temple before visiting Cliff Palace, the highlight of the tour. It's a descent of about a 100' to the structure down a very steep staircase and path. They believe that Cliff Palace was used largely as a ceremonial structure and that the families that lived there were like the caretakers. The structure was only in use for about 100 years before the Ancestral Pueblo People migrated south. The Cliff Palace was rediscovered in late 1888 by two cattle ranchers searching for lost cattle! The climb out of Cliff Palace was a little daunting, basically straight up the cliff face via a steep, narrow path and ladders, not for the faint of heart!

Cliff Palace from across the canyon

Cliff Palace, up close and personal, we had to climb up that cliff!!!

We had an early dinner when we finished the tour and went back to our rooms where we saw as the sun was setting a cow mule deer and two fawns grazing outside of our rooms, an amazing sight!

Sunday we left Mesa Verde and had a short drive to Telluride. The route took us along part of the San Juan Scenic Highway, parallel to the Dolores River and up to Lizard Head Pass. The scenery was magnificent and is very reminiscent of Switzerland and Austria.

Lizard Head Pass

Telluride is set in a box canyon, surrounded by mountains on three sides and is awesome! We enjoyed a short walk around the town before checking into our hotel, The Peaks Resort & Spa which is fantastic!

Monday we took the free Gondola down into Telluride and had a little look at the town before Phil & I returned to the hotel for a round of golf at the Telluride Golf Club. We had a great time and I want to play golf at 9500' every time! The ball goes soooooo far! While we played golf Jill and Lynne stayed in Telluride and did a walking tour of the town which ended at Popcorn Alley, the brothel district, so named because the closing doors of the bedrooms sounded like corn popping! That evening we had our anniversary dinner, our 41^st and Phil & Lynne's 35^th at Allreds at the top of the gondola at 10,500'. We had a great meal and enjoyed our first anniversary together.

Telluride from the Gondola

Our hotel in background with the 16th hole in the foreground

Tuesday we left Telluride and drove to Florence, but before we left we met up with Jenn, one of Patrick's best friends, for brunch in Telluride. After brunch, Jenn took us to see her wonderful house, and as a parting gift gave us some Sweetwater and Telluride Brewery beer!

After a long and sometimes hairy drive over Monarch Mountain we arrived in Florence at our home for the next two nights, The Florence Rose B&B, with Barb and Bob as our hosts. The B&B is a restored Victorian house that is 128 years old and furnished with period pieces, a very nice stop for our trip. The dining choices in Florence are somewhat limited so we set off to nearby Canon City for dinner.

The view from Monarch Pass

Wednesday we had a booked trip on the Royal Gorge Railway at 12:30pm so we had some time in the morning to look around Florence. It had clearly been at one time a very prosperous town as the downtown buildings were all substantial and the roads were wide and beautifully tree lined. In fact Florence had been an oil boom town in the late 19^th and early 20^th century, but once the oil ran out that was all she wrote. The biggest industry in the area now appears to be prisons! In fact Florence is the location of the Colorado Supermax where the most violent American criminals are incarcerated.

After our walk around Florence it was off to Canon City to join our train ride through the Royal Gorge. Today was the hottest day of our trip with temperatures reaching almost 100F so we were pleased that we were in an air conditioned carriage on the train! The train runs through the Gorge which was created by the Arkansas River and the scenery is quite spectacular. The train runs as far as Parkdale, about 10 miles up river, and then returns to Canon City. Parkdale is the point where rafting outfits put into the river and we enjoyed watching the rafters from the train as they negotiated the rapids along the river. The Royal Gorge Bridge spans the Gorge and was until recently the highest bridge in the world, bridge deck to ground below. We did not get to cross the bridge as it had only recently been restored from a fire in the surrounding park and had not officially reopened.

The Royal Gorge suspension bridge

Pulling a fallen comrade back into the raft!

Was it ever hot when we returned to Canon City so we decided to visit Cripple Creek and gain some altitude and find cool air. Cripple Creek was advertized as a mining town, but it has recreated itself as predominantly a gambling town. The local mines are still in use, there's still gold in them thare hills!

Moon rising over mine

Thursday, and off to Colorado Springs for a two night stay before getting back to Denver. What was supposed to be an uneventful short drive to Colorado Springs turned into something much more exciting as we passed by a State mowing operator. We thought that we had just had some gravel thrown at us, but then Lynne noticed that the rear window off the van was shattered and glass was all over our luggage! We stopped quickly and I got on the phone with Budget to get a replacement vehicle while Phil spoke to the mower operator and got details on how we could claim any damage expense from the State. We then drove to Colorado Springs airport to exchange the van, which I must say went very smoothly, and then we made our way to Manitou Springs to see whether we could get the train up to the top of Pike's Peak. We were able to book onto the last train of the day and while we waited had lunch and the station cafe. All aboard at 2:30pm and off we set! The journey up the cog railway was quite boring, certainly not as exciting as when we drove to the top of Pike's Peak in 1995 with Matthew and Patrick! At the top, 14,100', we enjoyed the spectacular views as well as the yeast free donuts that they make at the summit. We just had 30 minutes to wander around in the cold thin air before descending back to Manitou Springs.

The Cog Railway train at the top of Pike's Peak

View from the summit

Bighorn Sheep at a salt lick

Then off to our Holiday Inn Express and a nice meal at a Nepalese restaurant in Colorado Springs. Downtown Colorado Springs seems very nice and is full of restaurants and that evening one of the main streets closed off for a free concert.

Friday was probably the worst day of the trip, weather wise, it was cold and raining so we decided to take a chance and visit the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument about 30 miles west of Colorado Springs. Imagine our surprise when we got over the front range and were greeted with blue skies and sunshine and much warmer temperatures. The fossil beds were created when a nearby volcano covered the area and created an environment that mineralized the redwood trees that grew there and then created a lake that was frequently ash covered that allowed small animal and flora to be fossilized. The Florissant valley comprises the National Monument, but many of the fossils were taken away before the park was established. However, there are many excellent examples still in the park.

We also visited a homestead of a widow and her four children in the valley.

Lunch then at an Irish pub in Divide, CO, Fish & Chips with Guinness and then onto the Garden of the Gods for a quick trip around the amazing rock formations. En route back to Colorado Springs we saw an interesting weather phenomenon, clouds trapped in a valley.

Just a pretty view....

When we got to the Garden of the Gods I realised I had forgotten my sweater at the pub, so a quick phone call to see if it had been found, yes, and then a return trip to Divide to pick it up!

Kissing Camels

Balance Rock

Saturday, off to Denver we go, but first a drive around the Broadmoor Hotel and grounds and then Old Colorado City. In Denver we had wanted to show Phil and Lynne Red Rocks Amphitheater, but because there was a concert that evening it was closed! Then off to Golden for a Coors Brewery Tour only to see an enormous queue that we were told was at least an hour long, so abortive visit #2!

Saturday evening we had made arrangements to meet up with Jon & Leslie, two more of Patrick's best friends, for dinner. We went to Mizuna and had a wonderful meal, what a great way to finish our vacation in style. We also discovered Uber as an alternative to getting a taxi!

Sunday morning Jill and I left Phil & Lynne at the hotel, their flight was not until that evening, returned the van and traveled back to Raleigh via Dallas. Matt collected us at the airport and we spent the night with Matt & Kelly before driving back to the beach on Monday afternoon.