Day 14

We went to Mesa Verde today.  After breakfast we ran the dog so that she'd be tired while languishing in the trailer.  Then we left for the park, which is only 9 miles from Cortez.

It started raining while we were in the visitor's center.  The road climbs 1500 to 2000 feet from there to the mesa.  By the time we got to the top it was 39 degrees, very windy, and raining hard.  Visibility was about 300 yards.  We kept going anyway.

Luckily the ruins were on the other side of the mesa from the rainstorm.  They're also a 20 mile, 40+ minute drive from the visitor center.  By the time we got to the first ruin the rain had stopped and it was just cloudy.  For the rest of the day the weather gradually cleared and it warmed up some.  The wind never stopped though, so it was never really comfortable.

We spent probably 6 hours driving through the park looking at ruins.  Unfortunately only one was open to walk through.  The others had been closed for the season.  They were all spectacular.  I have no idea how the indians accessed the sites, much less got stone blocks, soil, and water up there to build them.  Each stone was squared off, using stone tools.  Amazing.

We brought the binoculars with us.  They were great.  Because much of the viewing is at a distance they made looking at the ruins a lot more informative and entertaining.  In a lot of cases we were able to see details in ruins that we could barely see with our bare eyes.

On the way back the weather had cleared.  We got to see all of the views that were fogged in when we drove in.  They are spectacular.  All in all I took almost 100 pictures of views and ruins.

We were hungry when we left - no lunch.  So as soon as we got home we let the dog out to pee and then went to dinner.  We went to the Chinese place in town.  It was pretty good food, and a lot of it.  Unfortunately they forgot that Hunan food is supposed to be spicy.  It tasted like Cantonese.

The evening was surfing and TV.  We getting up early tomorrow and driving to Santa Fe.  There's snow in the mountains, but I think we'll be OK.