Day-10 Jul-17-09

Today was a pretty long day. We covered about 341 miles in 11.5 hours, including stops and sightseeing. We did not get back to the hotel until just about dark.

With today's mileage, we are just over 3100 miles so far on the trip, and things are going well. The weather has been really hot, we hit just over 100 today.

Today we rode south on the Million Dollar Highway, which took us through the towns of Ouray, Silverton, and Durango. As with other high elevation passes, the folks at the Colorado Department of Transportation don't seem to think they need any guardrails :)

Below is another example of the strange and continuous switchbacks you see on these mountain passes.

This tunnel was kind of unique. I guess the design helps to keep any falling rocks on their way down the mountain, without interrupting us travelers :)

It is really difficult to get any real perspective of some of the mountain roads with photos. But, perhaps this one might give you some idea of the grades involved.

Silverton was a really neat little town. It is a Victorian style mining town nestled into the mountains. As you climb up from the canyon floor, and the town center, you can see that it is completely boxed in with large mountain peeks on all four sides. There is a narrow gauge railroad that goes from Silverton down to Durango. We could see the tracks, but were not able to spot any of the steam locomotive driven trains.

East of Durango is the Mesa Verde National Park. It houses some really neat examples of old Indian cliff dwellings. Below is a shot of one of cliff dwellings known as the "Palace". You can see how it is cut into the mountain side, under the protection of a large overhang. The area is extremely hot, as the sun bakes the rock surface all day long.

You can take a tour, which takes you down into the dwelling. The tour is unique, in that it is very physical. The ranger actually has the group perform various stretching exercises before heading down into the canyon. He also gives a lecture regarding what the onset of a heart attack feels like. They also seemed to require that you bring drinking water with you on the tour. During the tour, you have to climb up and down a large number of makeshift wooden ladders hanging on the mountain side, to reach the dwellings. Below, you can see one of the ladders, which is how you climb up and out of the dwelling. There are some additional ladders behind the large rock, which get you up to the ladder shown in the photo.

While at Mesa Verde, in the information center, Lennie had a "brush with a celebrity" moment. We were looking around at the displays of various artifacts found in the area, and noticed a familiar looking man. Turns out he is Henry Ian Cusick, or as you might know him, Desmond from the TV show LOST. He was in the info center with his wife and children. I told Lennie to walk up to him and say "excuse me sir, are you "lost" :) She didn't think that was a good idea, however, she did ask him if he was Desmond from the show. He said yes, in a very quite tone, and immediately walked away. He seemed a little put off, but I am sure he was just trying to enjoy some time away with his family without being hounded by fans of the show.

After Mesa Verde, we headed back north on the San Juan Skyway, which is another one of the official scenic byways in this area of Colorado. It seems oddly named, since it really does not cross any mountains at any sort of elevation, which the word Skyway might imply, but instead, it meanders through the canyon floor between the peaks.

We ended up traveling through Ridgeway, which is where the John Wayne movie True Grit was filmed. We had dinner at the True Grit Cafe. In the movie, the first scene where you see John Wayne, he is standing in front of a brick wall with a sign for a grocery store. That brick wall used to be an outside building wall in the town, but later the cafe was built next to the original building. So, that wall is now an interior wall in the True Grit cafe. The wall still retains the grocery store ad painting. This area of town still has wooden sidewalks/boardwalks, and the roads are gravel. Across from the cafe is a town park, where the hanging scene in the movie was shot.

Tomorrow we are heading across the border to Moab Utah. We are planning on visiting Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. The weather forecast is calling for a high of 106 in Moab!!

Have a great weekend.