Day 15- Cortez, CO to Ouray, CO

Our next national park to visit was Mesa Verde. This is significantly different from the other parks we'd visited because it primarily exists to preserve the archaeological remains of an anciet people as opposed to protecting wildlife or delicate rock structures. These ancient peoples, once known as the Anasazi, but now referred to as Ancestral Puebloans, are famous for the dwelling sites they built into cliffs.


And there you go.



Wait...what? That's what the ruins are supposed to look like? Well, what kind of moron would live in such a dilapidated structure?

Anyhow, the largest such structure in North America is the Cliff Palace and we took a ranger guided tour of it.

Sadly, Ranger Joshua, who prided himself on telling the "prosperity" story of the Mesa area as opposed to harping on the sad conditions of drought and overpopulation which eventually lead the cliff settlers to leave the area like some of the other rangers did, only managed to make his talk preachy and boring. Still, he did point out some interesting features, like this decoration painted inside one of the houses.

After our tour, we wandered around the park looking at some of the other dwelling areas. There's actually quite a few of them at Mesa Verde, several of which you can go right up to.

Balcony House

Spruce House

We ended up spending a lot more time at Mesa Verde than we originally planned because it was just so neat. We had lunch at one of the lodges there (continuing our tradition), then headed on our way.

We had no firm plans in the morning of where we would end up in the evening. The handlers had decided that, depending on how they felt after Mesa Verde, they'd either cross back into Utah and head to the Moab area, or star slowly winding their way back towards Michigan.

In the end, the decided to take a quick jaunt up the Million Dollar Highway and start heading (generally) back east. Handler 1 wanted to stay in Ouray, CO, because it had hot springs and she'd heard good things about it. Handler 2 wasn't sure about Ouray, because he had heard of a woman there who fed bears in her backyard and eventually got eaten herself. However, the choice was basically taken out of their hands by the bad weather.

As we were driving through downtown Durango, we were hit by a freak hail storm. It quieted down fairly quickly into a simple rain, but this got harder as the evening wore on, and it ended up that Handler 2 really did not want to drive any longer, in the mountains, at night, in the rain. And so, it was decided that we would stop in Ouray.

Shortly before the mess in Durango, and just after passing a trading post marked by giant, 20 foot long arrows stuck in the ground all around it, Handler 1 caught sight of this bald eagle perched in a tree off the road.

She really wished she still had Sweetness.

Upon arriving in Ouray, we had some difficulty finding a room. All the quaint little Swiss themed lodges were full for the night. The Best Western only had a two bedroom suite open. Finally, we found a...rustic...hotel with a vacancy. The proprietor explained that it was Jeep Jamboree weekend and that rooms might be difficult to find. Apparently, as well as billing itself as America's Switzerland, Ouray is also the jeep capitol of America. Whatever.

The room was interesting in that it had obviously been converted from some other purpose that it formerly held. This resulted in what was either a disproportionately small bedroom...or a disproportionatley large bathroom. In fact, the bathroom was larger than have the size of the main room, and appeared to have, at one time, been a laundry room.

The hotel manager suggested that restaurants in town would all close at 9, but that the local Irish pub would be open late and served good food. As we're all fond of pubs (Irish and otherwise), we headed that way. The local beers on tap were good, but the food was better. Irish pubs are not normally known for the quality of their edible fare, but this place was top notch. Although really not all that hungry upon entering, both the handlers cleaned their plates.

Well fed, and needing rest before starting the long trek home on the morrow, we collapsed into bed.