Lost Canyon Lake Lodge Mancos

... of the evening. We tried to get pictures of him with the sign but it was so dark the camera flashes just bounced off the reflective sign. We parked out in the middle of nowhere in this state park, just near the water so we'd have a good view to wake up with (a happily ongoing theme). From outside Lola, looking up into the sky was unlike anything I think I've ever seen. There were SO MANY STARS. Had the moon not been full while driving down ET highway, it may have compared but ...

Mesa Verde was where southwestern Indian tribes lived around 1200 AD. They moved somewhere around 1275 AD leaving the Mesa Verde area.

We had to climb a 30 foot ladder to get to the Balcony House, built and lived in on the edge of ...

... there was no sign to tell us to turn off at a campground area to find it, we drove about 18 miles from town before turning around. The drive was through fure treed areas with meadows here and there. No real traffic but did find it was a cattle grazing area with cows and baby calves in various places. Had to stop at one point for a calf standing in the middle of the road.

Came back along the road and turned down toward the ...

... this place for thousands of years.  Of all the parks we have been to, Mesa Verde has the most well-preserved ruins that you can actually walk into & it gives you a window in time to imagine what life was like around 500 - 1200 A.D. throughout the dessert Southwest.  The park is really worth visiting if you are ever in this neck of the woods.  The guides ...

... niet opnieuw kan opwarmen en het koud niet lekker is, bedank ik haar. Ze kijkt alsof ik haar beledigd heb en ik verzeker haar dat ik het echt wel lekker vond. De doggy bag traditie is hier nog altijd heel gewoon. Als je niet alles opgegeten hebt, kan je zonder schroom een doggy bag of dinner box vragen om de overschot mee naar huis te nemen. Dit kan in alle klasses van restaurants. Meestal moet je zelf wel vragen om de overschot mee naar huis te nemen. Hier is het de eerste keer ...

... sunset viewed from our site here at Echo Basin Ranch, west of Durango, near Mancos, Colorado. Our site is right next to the corral, so we even had a half dozen or so horses as neighbors last evening! Pictures are still on my camera, so I'll upload them later.

... sitting in the back seat of the packed car for the majority of the trip. pigface has been keeping me feeling comfortable and entertained. the terrain changes so rapidly when you cover hundreds of miles each day. the mountains were by far the most incredible thing i've seen in a long time. but i'm really liking the desert/mountain area that we've entered. we were 2 miles above sea level today ...

... idea. Scary. We kept passing these bikers that are on a 1000 mile in 24 hours butt buster ride to earn a patch. No we were going the other way and didn't speed in any way. You couldn't. We passed through little towns that were amazing like Switzerland in America. Driving through you'd swear you were going through Switzerland. All the houses had Swiss style designs. Really cool Joe said that it was just like being in another country. We feel crowded ...

... Kivas, littered in the front of the buildings. These were in ground they used to have adobe roofs with a whole in the middle with a ladder so one might exit. These were mostly ceremonial chambers. If you are looking at the ruins, from left to right you can see the improvements in the masonry. A majority of the building took place over 20 years. The ancient Puebloans lived in ...

... to see it, let alone walk through it. Archaeologists are not sure what Cliff Palace was used for, though they are pretty sure it wasn't a ancient housing estate like some of the other nearby structures. They think it may have been a community meeting place where folks came to talk & trade. To get to Cliff Palace you have to go down a series of metal steps and then steep, uneven steps hacked into the sandstone - still a better deal than the tiny hand & toe holds that ...