April 17th-21st
We woke up terribly early (5a) after a fitful sleep because we were excited to start our journey, but the reason for leaving so early was an effort to beat predicted high winds. It never fails that when we travel it will always be very windy. 😅 We left our home around 6a, truck in tow, and pointed NW.
Fort Sumner, NM to Cortez, CO proved challenging with the wind. The combination of wind angle and driving caused our driver side slide awning to slightly unfurl and activate the safety stopper. Each time it would happen, which was often, a loud “POP” would sound. Had my nerves on edge! I was sure it was just going to rip off, lol. Luckily it didn’t and we finally got to our destination near Dolores, CO.
We got the motorhome settled and the rest of the day we all took it easy.
There was predicted precipitation chances overnight, but we were surprised to see some light snow dusting the next morning. Despite the wintry mix and continued chance of weather, we decided to explore and ended up at Mesa Verde National Park. At first, we weren’t able to see the vast views of the mesas and mountains around us and once the snow clouds let up we were astounded at the vast views. We hiked a few trails and explored, and ended the day warming ourselves back up with a great homemade meal and hot chocolate!
The next day we decided it would be best to go to Telluride and see what it looks like in the snow because we had both been multiple times during the summer where various Off-road trails would end near the beautiful mountain town and we were curious to see the difference. The roads to get there were surprisingly clear despite many inches of accumulated snow visible on the sides. We finally found a place open during the off season for lunch at Uno Dos Tres (taco joint). After lunch, our goal in Telluride was to hike to Bridal Veil Falls, which unfortunately we weren’t equipped with the proper gear to trek through so much snow, but made it far enough to at least see the frozen falls in the distance. During the entire hike you could hear ice breaking and a few small avalanches in the area. We headed back to the truck and back to the motorhome in Dolores and I made us some homemade pozole with chicken and cornbread. That night proved to be the coldest with a low of 21°.
Sean had researched some areas to hike in Canyon of the Ancients National Monument and we found ourselves hiking with the dogs through Sand Canyon on our next day. We logged about 8 miles distance and viewed many more cliff dwelling and pueblos. Sean found a cliff dwelling across the canyon and claimed it as his very own discovery! The pups definitely enjoyed themselves and we had so much fun checking out the dwellings and speculating how the structures were used. We were feeling our long walk when we finally got back to the truck. We still had one more stop to make, but we all relished the short break as Sean drove us to Lowery Pueblo. We were able to walk through many of the rooms of the huge dwelling. Soon, we were on our way back to the motorhome and we were starving! Since it was a pleasant day, we decided to cook fajitas for dinner and it was one of the best meals we’ve ever cooked!
Our last day was spent exploring more areas in Canyon of the Ancients and we found out how sophisticated these Native Americans were with their dwellings. How do you build something on top of a boulder? They figured it out! It’s amazing how they accomplished what they did with no modern equipment or technology. Once we finally figured out the roads (we didn’t have a good map because visitor center were closed for Easter weekend) we were able to see this amazing architecture. The third photo below shows petroglyphs that align to illuminate on summer solstice. If you look closely, you can see there are spirals in the boulder. On one of the roads we tested, Sean got to test out our truck’s off-roading capabilities and we soon found out the limits, lol. After having a picnic lunch and a hiking a few trails, we headed back to Cortez to complete a few errands, Sean wanting to wash the truck and I needing to get a few groceries. After all the grunt work was done, we headed back to relax.
On our travel day April 22nd, we decided to visit the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument Visitors Center and it did not disappoint! Very informative, lots of artifacts, and beautiful on site pueblos. Unfortunately, no gift shop for a magnet…
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