[Note: we're a day late with this, since we didn't have internet service in Mesa Verde National Park. Your forgiveness will be kindly accepted.]
Naughty old Patti...
No travel schedule ever quite lives up to what your mapping program or GPS tells you it will. Our mapping program is Google, and our Garmin GPS is Patti Tripp, whom we mentioned in an earlier episode. Both of them think you will travel at or above the speed limit the whole way, with never a stop for lunch or gas or potty. Neither of them takes into consideration that you may see a sign that says, “Tonka Truck Museum” or “Birthplace of Arnold Zenker” and decide to make a short detour, although Patti at least does adjust, albeit with what I detect is a touch of attitude. And both of them think their routes are flawless, which is definitely not true. Today we intended the relatively short 250 mile journey from Taos, New Mexico, to Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, with just a minor hiatus from highways to ride through Apache Territory alongside the fabled Narrow Gauge Railroad, which doesn't exist anymore but is still called that. Patti couldn't seem to get us into the right road, but worse, she couldn't get us out of the wrong one. We managed to drive deeper and deeper along a poorly paved, then unpaved, then muddy and rutted road into a canyon without end. Eventually we found a place to turn around and work our way back out to civilization of sorts, but even then Patti was trying to send us the wrong way and had no apologies for it. Unlike me, Patti will never admit she's wrong. I will, occasionally.
Photo of the Rio Grand way upstream, from the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge
It cost us about four hours of travel time to make that detour to no place. About the same amount as we lost yesterday having new brakes installed. By the way, my bride wanted me to mention how great the service was at Amarillo's Mazda Dealership, and how great the food was at the Country Barn while we waited So there. Anyway, frankly, I think if our Apache friends want to create a tourist attraction of the Narrow Gauge Railroad, a sign or two would be in order.
Our friends in New Mexico take it really personal if you hit one of their cows. We saw a thousand of these.
Magnificent byways...
The geologic landscape in North Central New Mexico and Southwestern Colorado is magnificent, with a new surprise over every pass. Buttes and mesas, cordilleras and canyons and forests. Routes 518 and 64 in New Mexico and Route 84 to the Chalk Mountains and Route 160 across southern Colorado are wonderful roads to travel—just be sure you have a full tank of gas when you start. This is especially true of 107-mile-long Route 104 from San Jon to Tucumcari. Route 160 has a couple of pretty toney small cities, Pagosa Springs and Durango. From Durango, it's only about an hour south toward the Four Corners to today's destination: Mesa Verde National Park.
Top of the mountain in the Mesa Verde
Driving Miss Crazy...
Did I happen to mention recently that I'm not particularly comfortable at great heights? Yet, they seem to go out of their way to find me, such as early this morning, at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, pictured somewhere above. Yet I took that picture, holding my breath on a shaky bridge millions of feet above sharp rocks and cascading water. Well, maybe not millions. But, if anything is a dream come true to acrophobiacs, it is driving on a narrow road thousands of feet above the valley, without even a guard rail most of the time. It required 17 miles of this to reach our home tonight, The Far View Inn. At least once a mile my bride commented, “Gee, I'm glad we got those new brakes.”
View from the Far View Lodge Restaurant, west from the summit at Mesa Verde National Park
The Mesa Verde...
It is beautiful. Magnificent views. And, of course, what Mesa Verde is famous for, the cliffside civilization of the ancient Pueblo people. A lot of work accomplished by a very few industrious people 600 years ago.
Mary Frances at Spruce Tree House, Mesa Verde National Park
Of lungs and fears and glory...
The walk down to Spruce Tree House is only about a half mile down and a half mile back from the top of the mountain, but at 7000 feet the coming back part was a bit much for this old asthmatic's lungs. [Yes, I can hear the gentle readers now saying, “What kind of weanie is this guy? First he's claustrophic in Mammoth Caves, then he's scared of heights from his car no less, and now he poops out climbing a little mountain path? To which I reply, Yep. But you're reading this on a computer, and I'm here, baby. Do something that frightens you every day; that's the key to a life you can look back on with joy.]
Spruce Tree House, Mesa Verde National Park
To end a splendid day, we dined in the Far View Restaurant, with a view as far as New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. Our dinners appeared to have been stolen from eagles:
Mary Frances with the Chef's special - the grassy looking stuff is grilled chives
End of a great day...
Finally, up the cold and windy hill to our cozy room at the Far View Lodge, to relish this great day and dream of tomorrow and Monument Valley and starting the day by driving 17 miles on that skinny precipice back down the mountain. Mary Frances is asleep, so I'll say it. “Sure glad we've got new brakes.”
Happy Autumn.
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