We managed to get going relatively early, by our standards, and after filling up with petrol headed west along the route 160. The road was another scenic route and after climbing for a while in a narrowing canyon, gradually dropped down into a wider plain. The view was huge and not too far ahead of us were a group of Mesa, or table-top mountains. The drive was slightly spoiled by lots of roadworks with one-way traffic.
Seven miles west of the town of Mancos, we turned left into the Mesa Verde National Park. After showing our pass and collecting a selection of maps and guides issued by the Park Rangers we headed into the Park. The Park is a UNESCO site and contains a large number of remains of Pueblo Indian villages,build into the sides of the canyons that surround and cut through the huge mesa. The settlers found overhanging cliffs with large ledges that they could safely build adobe brick dwellings on. Access up to the mesa top and the canyon floor was by wooden ladders and hand and foot-holds cut into the cliffs. The mesa top was quite fertile and was good for growing maize and corn on which was their staple food
The road into the park climbed steeply up the mesa and wound its way around cliffs and canyon with stunning views either side. We stopped at several overlooks and marvelled at the huge views. Some of the overlooks allowed us to look at the cliff dwellings, some of which were several storeys high. The opportunities for taking photos was immense and it took us some time to visit the park and even then we didn't see all of it by a long way. It is possible to visit the cliff villages in the company of a Park Ranger and some of the visits looked quite strenuous with many rock cut stairs to negotiate. It was very warm in the Park and rather late we stopped for lunch in a cafe. Three of us ate Navajo Tacos which consisted of Navajo fried bread heaped with salsa, beans and rice, finished with a hot sauce - delicious!. Overall, the visit was excellent and it would have easily possible to spend a couple of days visiting all the areas open to the public.
We finally managed to drag ourselves away from the photographic orgy and continued west on the route 184 towards the town of Dolores and beyond to join the route 666 (!) at Lewis. Thirty miles later we crossed the State line into Utah, one of the States that neither of us has ever visited. Route 666 continued for another 18 miles where it met the route 191 at a small town called Monticello.
We had pre-booked in at the Rodeway Inn on the northern edge of town. Although the hotel is nothing special to look at the rooms were clean, quiet and comfortable. Ity even has a small indoor swimming pool. After settling in, we headed out to find some dinner with rather mixed success. There appear to be only 4 places to eat in town and we chose M & D Ranch Cookhouse, a diner on the southern side of town. We instantly realised that it didn't serve alcohol and the menu was of the 'family-diner' variety. Whilst Lynn had a reasonable chili-burger (which wasn't spicy) and I had a buffalo-burger, the others were more adventurous and ended up with salmon and and tepid chips and the infamous chicken-fried steak smothered in white gravy masquerading as Country Steak! The less said about this the better.
Hotel - Rodeway Inn
Weather - Clear skies, sunny and warm to hot
No comments:
Post a Comment