Cortez, CO to Holbrook, AZ

It seems that all roads in this area are good picks for scenic views. We decided to go south through New Mexico on US 419 (formerly US 666), because we had been told at the Santa Fe Visitor Center that it was newly paved. Well, the attendant was half right. It will be very nice when finished, but for now has construction continuing along much of the stretch southward to Gallup, where we turned west. Nevertheless, the scenery was striking.

This souvenir selling establishment at the Arizona Welcome Center on I-40 is reminiscent of old Route 66, which ran through here.

Mesa Verde National Park

From the entrance of the park to the Visitor Center is over 15 miles, but it takes quite a while to drive it, because you keep stopping to admire the magnificent views and to snap pictures (lots of pictures).












The largest and most often photographed site in the park is the Cliff Palace, which can be experienced up close by taking one of the ranger-guided tours. This is looking down upon the Cliff Palace from the overlook at the start of the tour. Tours are conducted every half hour. The 60 spaces on each tour usually fill quickly.



The ancient dwellers in this area moved here around 700 a.d, and remained until 1200-1300 a.d., when they migrated to other areas of Arizona and New Mexico. No one knows why they left Mesa Verde, although a severe drought during that time probably contributed to their hunting a new homeland. Many of the present day pueblo residents are descendant from these ancient tribes.

Our tour was one of the first of the morning. It began by descending a narrow trail along the edge of the cliff.















From the trail, we could look across at another ruin.




This is a zoomed view of that ruin.
















Round, below ground rooms, in the dwellings are known as kivas.

Kiva is a Hopi word meaning ceremonial room. It is believed the ancient dwellers used their kivas both as a place of worship, and as a "family room" of sorts, a cozy place to keep warm in the winter, or cool in the summer. A single family dwelling usually contains 1 kiva.

There are many kivas in the Cliff Palace, leading experts to speculate that perhaps it was not a dwelling, but a meeting place for the families in the area. The palace consists of many rooms.

The trail from the ruin to the top is very narrow between the rock walls, and terminates with a wooden ladder, similar to those the natives would have used between structure levels.

We also hiked to the Spruce Tree House, the best preserved ruin in the park. It contained 129 rooms, and probably was home to 60-90 people. A ranger is stationed there to answer questions. At this site, we were allowed to descend into a kiva. For photos from our day at Mesa Verde, click below. As you look at scenes of the cliffs, see how many cliff dwellings you can spot. There are 600 of them in the park, and a total of 4500 archaeological sites - simply amazing. It seems you can pick them out in every crevice between the rocks. Only the sheltering rock ledges have allowed them to be preserved so well throughout the centuries.

Anasazi Heritage Center

We arrived in Cortez, CO before noon, and decided to drive 10 miles north to the Anasazi Heritage Center near Delores. The Center consists of a museum and a short trail to surface ruins. The museum was very well laid out, with several hands-on activites, as well as hundreds of artifacts. It was an afternoon well spent, and gave us insight into the lifestyle of the early pueblo residents that occupied this area.

Santa Fe, NM to Cortez, CO

On the back of a motor home recently, we saw the slogan "The trip is the destination". I won't go so far as to agree that's always the case, but there is a lot to be said about roadside scenery. We were amazed at the sights as we traveled north from Santa Fe through Chama, NM and then on to Cortez, CO. We'd like to share a few of those sights with you:

U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs

As we traveled south on I-25, we saw the sign for the U.S. Air Force Academy, and decided to stop. We are so glad we did. The grounds are impressive, and include a large Visitor's Center. We learned that we were just in time for a guided tour of the Chapel, the most visited building on the campus.

The chaplain gave a very interesting tour. The chapel, built in the 50's is a beautiful work of art, both inside and out. So many features of the building and it's furnishings contain symbols relating to the Air Force, even down to the shape of the pew backs (that of a plane's wing).

The government funded the construction of the building, but the inside has been furnished solely by contributions and gifts.

I was impressed to find religious worship playing such a large part in a military establishment. You don't expect that in an age of separation and state. In doing a little research later, I found this quote:

In the 1950s, while the United States engaged in the Cold War, American civil religion stood in contrast with “godless Communism.” Historian Sydney Ahlstrom remarked of the decade, “There seemed to be a consensus that personal religious faith was an essential element in proper patriotic commitment.” President Dwight Eisenhower summarized the non-sectarian attitude, stating, “Our government makes no sense unless it is founded on a deeply felt religious faith--and I don’t care what it is.” The Academy carefully embraced three major beliefs with distinct worship spaces in the chapel for Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, expanding in recent years to include Muslim, Buddhist and other faiths.

The chaplain did tell us that cadets are no longer required to attend the services as they were when the chapel was first built.

For a slideshow of more photos, including some from the interior of the chapel, click anywhere on this sentence.

Rocky Mountain National Park

As we entered Colorado, the way became more scenic the farther we went. We enjoyed the roadside displays of wildflowers in bloom.

We camped in Loveland, CO, about 30 miles from the Rocky Mountain National Park entrance.











As we drove to the park the next morning, we were glad we had chosen Loveland to stay in, versus Estes Park, the nearest community to the park. The drive from Loveland up wound through the Big Thompson River Canyon, and was breathtaking.





We spent two days in the Rockie's. Our only complaint would have to be the cool weather. The first night got down to 40 degrees, and there was quite a bit of cold wind in the mountains.
The first day we drove "Trail Ridge Road" the highest paved continuous road in the U.S.
We actually saw snowflakes swirling in the air on the higher elevations. (A ranger told us two weeks before we were there, a 2 foot snowfall closed the road for a few days. The poles you see on each side of the highway are there for road crews as indicators of the road edge when they are obscured by snow.)
The second day, we returned to the park to hike. The weather warmed up as the day went on. We only hiked a little over 2 miles, but due to the altitude, found the hike more strenous than we had anticipated.
For more pictures of our visit to the park, view our slideshow: