Chapter 8 – Mountains, Mysteries, and Midways
Montrose, CO, to Cortez, CO.
We rose early. I think everyone was relatively well-rested from yesterday’s lazy day. I had pre-ordered our breakfast. Which was a requirement, as they had no dining area or kitchen. The menu had deceivingly familiar items to check off, like “breakfast sandwiches,” “fruit cups,” and “hot cereal,” which included microwave Jimmy Dean biscuits and dole fruit cocktails. We grabbed our sack breakfasts and hit the road in due haste. Not that we were in any particular hurry; I think it was more that today would be the beginning of a significant change in scenery. The great dusty red backdrops of Roadrunner cartoons would soon be coming into view. That, and we were all ready to distance ourselves from the now infamous motel.
The drive south out of Montrose was particularly spectacular. The expansive rolling valley surrounding us, the snow-covered Rockies lining the horizon like a mighty wall. From our perspective, it could have been Mt. Everest in the distance. The mountains loomed with that kind of powerful air. A one-lane construction zone at the valley’s edge had us wait over 20 minutes. But, beyond that, we made good time heading south. Our last crossing of the mighty San Juan mountains.
At Ridgeway, we left US-550 and headed west on the more rural CO-62. Here, the mountains rose into a Coors Light ad. The rugged blue-grey peaks were painted with the whitest of snow. Soon, we reached heights that offered amazing alpine views of meadows sweeping down from the rugged cliffs, laden with wildflowers in hues of purple and yellow. I tried to find a place to snap a photo, but the road would not cooperate. Finally, I saw a sign for Last Dollar Ranch, and a dirt road winding up into an aspen wood. So I turned to take a look.
Beside the road meandered a creek with fallen trees and several beaver dams dotted along the way. About a mile up the road, it opened into a significant turnaround with gates entering the ranch. Beyond the ranch boundary were wildflower-dusted lush grasslands and aspen woods, rising slowly to the mighty peaks. In the distance, hearty, deeply colored evergreens populated the mountainside where other trees dared not. It was a stunning scene.
Last Dollar Ranch
We parked the van and took some time to explore this little piece of heaven. There were signs for no trespassing beyond the fence and gate. We followed the request but took several pictures with the ranch as our backdrop. Everyone was a little spellbound by the scene. It was just a gorgeous and pure landscape. The grey clouds added to the mystique, with pockets of cobalt dashing in and out of the swiftly moving cumuli.
Crossing the San Juan Mountains one last time
From the ranch, we continued, turning southeast on CO-145 at Placerville. It was another beautiful drive across the San Juan Mountains to Telluride. We crossed again into the Uncompahgre National Forest and pulled off at Key Stone overlook to peer across the Box Canyon, home to the small ski town. The San Miguel River lazily flows through the scene, creating a beautiful Alpine setting. Here, in the shadow of Telluride Peak, CO-145 takes a 90-degree turn south before slithering its way out of the San Juan Mountains towards Dolores.
By early afternoon, we reached Cortez and turned east onto US-160 towards today’s main event. We passed Montezuma Fairgrounds on the way out of Cortez, complete with a kitschy carnival. We quietly drove past without anyone noticing. That was a close call, I thought to myself. We will be returning via this route later today. The carnival will be impossible to avoid, particularly if Maggie sees it.
Mesa Verde National Park
In the shadow of a questionable sky, we arrived at Mesa Verde National Park. National Park number 6 on our tour de force. A UNESCO World Heritage site in Montezuma County, Colorado, the park protects some of the most well-preserved ancient Puebloan sites in the U.S. Established during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt through an act of Congress in 1906, today the park is the most significant archeological preserve in the United States. With active digs and a well-curated museum and visitors center, the park preserves a history dating back to 7500 BC. With most sights some 20 slow-going miles from the park entrance, it’s an impressively expansive park.
One agrees to an unspoken contract when one enters Mesa Verde National Park in the far southwestern corner of Colorado. It’s a pact between the beholder and the beheld, the explorer, and that to be explored. A tacit understanding that this place is not merely a series of scenic overlooks or archeological sites, but a time capsule, capturing millennia of human endeavor beset among nature’s abundant splendor. An unsung hero of ancient civilizations, and our connection as Americans to that vibrant, ancient world from which we are often excluded.
We may not have the majesty of the pyramids of Egypt, the mystique of Chichen Itza, or the elegant grandeur of Athens and Rome, but we do have Mesa Verde. Meaning simply “Green Table,” the area encompassing the park hides glimpses of a lost civilization. Long before Columbus set foot on the New World, the Pueblo people had built a culture that was advanced, complex, and—most impressively—well concealed. Clinging to the cliffs, their houses of stone and mortar were sheltered from the elements, and hidden from prying eyes. One imagines a time of relative isolation, where neighboring tribes might commune periodically, like those of Chimney Rock, to trade goods, and maybe find partners for single inhabitants of their communities.
Participating in the universal act of humanity, these ruins are not just dusty, abandoned outposts of a once-thriving community. They are declarations in architecture and human ingenuity, as complex as the Egyptian pyramids or Roman aqueducts. We took some time to explore the museum, and I picked up a few stickers for the collection. The museum was complete with an expansive lab, and climate-controlled mini warehouse, all framed in glass. Providing a sweeping, unobstructed view of the research area and storage shelves of the impressive collection of artifacts.
As I walked the museum and took in the artifacts, I realized how culturally significant the civilization had been. The cities provided enough leisure time for the inhabitants to develop a high level of art. The cornerstone of any great society. Their pottery and jewelry were incredibly impressive and could rival the detail, and skill of any in the world at the time. Bowls so artfully painted as to rival the Corinthians, intricately detailed figurines to rival the Olmecs. Growing up in the US, it struck me as unfortunate that not more was taught about our great American civilizations in school.
The drive from the entrance to the top of the Mesa was thrilling. A theme that was becoming more common with each day. The drive began with a winding and often steep climb toward the mountain that jutted into the sky above. By now, the clouds had become whispy and light, the sky mostly filled with the deep cerulean of an unpolluted sky. As the lower evergreen forests gave way to the rocky red and brown Mesa top, the landscape filled with Pinyon pines, and Utah Juniper. Creating a stark contrast with the cobalt above. A grazing deer in the distance, a prowling raptor screeching overhead.
It was a land that was both savagely and sublimely beautiful. A jagged sculpture in the great continuum carved by the elements of inconceivable expanses of time. Sedimentary rock formations reach skyward, and deep canyons slash through the Mesa as fissures in an ancient manuscript. It was a place where human history was written in the stones, and the wind whispered secrets of a lost civilization.
We came to a parking area near the famous Cliff Palace and stepped out into a world transformed from the alpine environment’s often snow-capped peaks and verdant meadows. Here, the ground had a harsh appearance. A rust-colored rocky blanket dotted with the heartiest of plants. Yucca, cacti, and sagebrush pocked across the unyielding landscape. The gnarled and sparse Pinyon Pines, Utah Juniper, and Chokecherry provided the only shade.
The heat was more significant than it had been in some days, but it wasn’t unbearably hot. We walked the paved path towards the edge of the canyon. Here, a large viewing platform was constructed off of the Canyon wall. From the platform, we could see across the expanse of the Mesa. The Canyon cutting into the earth below. As we looked across the canyon, my eyes quickly moved to the canyon wall and fell upon the palace.
The Cliff Palace is the most recognizable of sites at Mesa Verde. The brick-and-mortar village was built under an overhang in the canyon wall. It’s a sight that seems both fabricated and natural. It blends in with the environment seamlessly, creating a strange view. Much of the structure is lost to time, but much is left to help establish a picture of what once was. The round and square towers, rising above the pits constructed into the ground below. It was an incredibly inspiring scene.
After enjoying the views, we climbed back in the van to continue through the park. Further down Cliff Palace Loop road, we came to an overlook for Hemenway House. Here was another overlook on the edge of the canyon. Across the Canyon, tucked into another cliff overhang, sat another series of structures. The Hemenway House was less impressive than Cliff Palace, as less survived to today.
The more spectacular thing was the San Juan mountains we had crossed the past few days. Beyond the canyon, the land was flat and endless. All the geological excitement was below our elevation. It created a perfect viewing spot for the entirety of the San Juan Mountains, some 100 miles away. We sat for a while, enjoying the view of the harsh and arid environment with the snow-capped mountains in the distance.
From the Hemenway overlook, we continued through the park to a spot marked on the map as simply, pithouse and pueblo. We pulled off the road in a small lane and descended a well-maintained paved trail. Here, two modern open-air structures were housing several substantial dig sites. The first we encountered had a sign explaining what we were looking at. The remnants of a two-room pit house, a house where part of the structure is below ground level, that was destroyed by fire sometime around 675 CE. This is evidenced by a baked clay floor, remnants of charred posts, and artifacts indicating the fire. The far chamber was turned into a single-room pithouse a few years after the fire.
Further, we came to a shallow, long structure that appeared to be separated into sections by walls. A sign here explained this as the edge of the village plaza, the open central area serving the village’s communal needs, like markets, and village meeting spaces. My interpretation of the structure on the edge of the Plaza was to be an apartment block. It was clear to anyone who had come here to observe the ancient ruins that something far more substantial had occurred centuries ago. Not just nomadic tribes roaming the region, a well-developed civilization once thrived in the arid Southwestern United States.
After the dig sights sheltered under the warehouse-like structures, we continued to an area further up the road marked as the Sun Temple. Here, all the sites we had viewed culminated into impressive brick-and-mortar structures. Constructed towards the end of the cliff-dwelling civilizations run, from approximately 550 CE to 1300 CE, these remarkable structures are little understood. One of the few sites to be constructed in the open, the smooth sloping wall tops give the design a possible water storage function. But with few artifacts from the structures, and no evidence of doors or roof construction, the facilities at Sun Temple continue to puzzle archaeologists today. Given the open orientation of these buildings and the height of the plateau they sit upon, this village is referred to as the Far View Community.
As I peered through the ancient structures on the Mesa, I found it impossible not to wonder about the hands that shaped these stones, the minds that engineered these structures, and the voices that once echoed through these now-empty rooms. The religious underground chambers known as Kivas still echo with an almost holy silence. It was awe-inspiring even to consider the Puebloans’ daring decision to sculpt their destiny into such rugged heights, an ultimate testament to the adaptability and ingenuity of the human spirit.
Here, the ancient Puebloans built the impossible on the dusty flats of this well-secured mountaintop. For 800 years, they built and rebuilt their cities into impressive settlements. Starting with simple pithouses, their architecture would evolve into the stacked and complex brick-and-mortar buildings exampled by the wonderous sight of Cliff Palace, and Sun Temple. Often tucked into crevices or under cliff walls. It was an impressive glimpse into an otherwise lost civilization.
Today, the park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the original twelve designated by the UN in 1978. UNESCO cited the Park’s “outstanding universal value from the historical, ethnological, anthropological, or purely aesthetic points of view.” and draws over half a million visitors yearly. Modern amenities like visitor centers and guided tours coexist with the ancient ruins, helping to make the park accessible while safeguarding its delicate structures. It had been an incredible day exploring the ruins, but the afternoon was fading fast, so we made our way out of the park. The entrance had been under heavy construction, and on our way in, the sign was obscured. On the way out, the crews had already called off for the day, so I snapped a picture of the park sign in the shadow of the famous peak. Complete with an excavator.
A break for a little fun
From there, everyone was still excited, and the carnival we had quietly slipped by early, was now caught in everyone’s sight. I knew it would be a fruitless denial, so I pulled into the parking lot with little resistance. In the silvery gold light of the late afternoon sun, we had a blast eating cotton candy and taking in carnival rides. For hours, we screamed, laughed, and had an excellent time.
Around eight, we crawled out of the carnival and headed to our hotel in Cortez. I prepared some parking lot stir-fry, while Diem received fantastic news from her parents in Vietnam. They had just had their tourist visas approved at the American Consulate in Saigon. They would be arriving days after we were to return home in three weeks. A wonderful surprise. It would be their first time leaving Vietnam, proving to be another grand adventure. Today had been a wonderful day of education, history, and fantastic news. But we were all exhausted.
Tomorrow was set to be another incredible day. We will cross into Arizona and encounter some of the Southwest’s most striking landscapes. The world gets a little smaller with each day, and our knowledge of it grows a little larger. We continue to discover unique places across the vast expanses of America, all explored beneath the beautiful backdrop of an endless sky.
To explore some of the Parks and Monuments we’ve explored and more, click here for the National Park Services.
