Yesterday, we got up with the sun and trekked through Arches National Park. The views were not only breathtaking, but made me feel immensely small amidst the endless mesas. WE headed out, had a picnic lunch in the Canyonlands and headed toward one cousin's bucket list item: Four Corners.
For all of 1.5 minutes, my butt was literally sitting in four different states. The site itself wasn't overly impressive, but I did get caught up in the touristy hype; it was pretty neat to "visit" four states at once.
After we got our "welcome to [insert one of four states here]" signs, we journeyed to Cortez, CO. Since there was no local beer (excluding Coors Light) at the lovely little Mexican restaurant at which we dined, I grabbed a new brew over at the liquor store next to the hotel. I barely downed the blonde before I again passed out before 10:30 pm.
This morning (September 1! Day 1!) led us to Mesa Verde, filled with its over 600 fascinating cliff dwellings and more. It is also the largest archeological preserve in the United States.
Above is the Cliff Palace, the largest dwelling in the park. It has around 150 rooms, plus 75 open area. A mere 25 rooms have residential features, and at least 21 of the rooms are kivas. It is thought that the large dwelling was more for social and ceremonial gatherings, and perhaps served as an administrative site. Unfortunately, this picture doesn't do the palace justice; the place needs to be seen in person.
After driving and stopping and viewing and driving and stopping and viewing, we departed in the direction of Durango. A small, college town with a cool vibe, we did some window shopping and scarfed down a fabulous lunch.
Back to the car! We hit drove through mountain after beautiful mountain, and I truly began to understand "purple mountain majesties."And red and green and gold. The colors throughout these mountains cannot even be explained with such simple words. But I digress...
Silverton, a small mining town was next and led us to our current locale: Ouray. After throwing our personal effects into the adorably quaint hotel room, we marched up to the Box Canyon Falls. The sights were just added to my ever-growing list of spectacular views, including the below.
On our way down, we came across a lost oldman dog named Cody who nearly broke my heart. Although he had a collar on, he was struggling with his steps and looked mildly emaciated. Luckily, we found a helpful resident who took him in, fed him and attempted to locate his owner. (after we left him several voicemails). We would have done the same, but had nothing but granola bars and pretzels in our pet-free hotel room.
The walk was quickly followed by an exceptional dinner (and another local beer!) and a stop at a nearby sweets shop.
And so for the third night in a row, I'm again fighting to keep my eyelids open, but I did just realize something: I know I'll be leaving a piece of my heart in this little town.
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