Start Location: Alamosa, CO
Ending Location: Cortez, CO
Miles Today: 260
Trip Miles: 2849
States Visited: 7
Provinces Visited: 0
Low Temp: 40.5° F
High Temp: 87.8° F
Min Elevation: 6143'
Max Elevation: 10873'
Route Map:
National Parks 2010 - Day09
Another incredible day on the road! We left Alamosa this
morning
to clear skies, bright sunshine, and chilly temeratures.
Shortly
after leaving, we entered the Rio Grande National Forest and the San
Juan Mountains where we climbed to the top of Wolf Creek pass at an
elevation of 10873 feet and crossed the Continental Divide.
From
there we dropped into the San Juan National Forest where we spent most
of the rest of the day. The scenery and views were amazing
but
you'll have to believe us because it was a little too cold for pictures
this morning. Linda was wearing her mittens and it's pretty
difficult to take pictures with this tiny camera with mittens on.
Early
this afternoon we arrived at Mesa Verde National Park, home of more
than 4000 archeological sites and the world famous cliff dwellings.
Around 1200 AD the Pueblan people who were living and farming
on
the top of what is today called Mesa Verde began building the cliff
dwellings and moving from the top of the plateau to the cliffs
ostensibly for better protection from the cold winters and hot summers.
They lived and thrived there for 75 years and then suddenly
left.
A 23 year stretch of severe droughts started around that time
and
it is believed that they were forced to leave and find better climates
for raising their crops. These amazing dwellings remained
unknown
until 1888 when a couple of ranchers discovered the first ones while
out rounding up stray cattle. That began significant
archeological studies that continue today. There are numerous
sites where you can approach various dwellings as well as many
educational opportunities throughout the park. There is also
a
museum with artifacts and a film which explains the history of Mesa
Verde. We were not able to spend a great amount of time here
but
we do have a few pictures and there are a lot more picures here from our
trip here in 2006 - I'm sure the dwellings haven't changed too much
since then.
Upon
leaving the park we headed for Cortez to find a place to stay for the
night and a church to attend mass since it's Saturday again.
Like
many areas these days, there just aren't enough priests so it appears
that one priest serves 5 small parishes in the vicinity. He
apparently says one mass per weekend in each church. We went
to
the 4:30 mass at Our Lady Of
Victory church
in Dolores, CO. The church is about 10 miles north of Cortez.
It was built in 1903 and currently serves 80 families in this
small farming community. Being such a small parish, I'm sure
everyone knows everyone else and we were afraid we might sit in
someones seats. It was a nice mass and the people seemed very
friendly.
Tomorrow we enter Utah and start doing repeats of
parks we have done in the past. We're not sure of our route
yet
but will work on it tonight.
On another note, I'm updating the Trip
to Date map
each night when I post the map for the day. This is just a
Google
map showing the whole route from the time we left to where we currently
are. The link is at the bottom of the main National Parks
Trip
page just below the links for each page.
