Wednesday, September 22, 2021 - We drove for five hours from Helper, Utah to the Outback RV Park near Cortez, Colorado. The park is actually in Mancos, Colorado, but Mancos is 17 miles from where we were. We were actually closer to Cortez. We arrived at the RV park and began to set up when Bob and Charlotte Capp arrived from Murphy (near Dallas0, Texas. They are staying with us for fourteen days and will spend one week here in the Cortez area before moving to Moab, Utah for another week. We have emptied out the "garage" and placed the kayaks and bicycles under the RV or on the outside under lock and key. This is a very safe area and we do not have to lock up the bikes and kayaks (but we did!).

This campground is quite unique. The facilities are somewhat limited, but what they have is 'top-notch'. For us, it is perfect. They don't have showers or restrooms, but we just use our trailer's facilities. They don't have WiFi; major deficiency for me. So many photos to upload and not capability at the park. We have used up our "hot-spot" capability, so we are in a situation where we have to travel into town to get some WiFi. This site only has places for eight RVs. They are well separated with lots of room for extra vehicles. The owner is super-nice and we can actually wash the RV at this location.

Thursday, September 23, 2021 - We drove to Durango, Colorado (40 miles) to ride the Durango to Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. We had an 8:00 departure, so we left camp at 6:15 for the one-hour drive to Durango. This would put us there 30 minutes before departure. The temperature was in the mid-forties, so we had dressed with layers of clothing. It did warm up pretty quickly after we left the station. The day was perfect with comfortable temperatures and clear skies. The views were magnificent and the aspens were in full yellow foliage. We traveled along the Animas River and the Animas River Canyon up to Silverton. The overall climb is about 3,000 feet and the views were super. The train hugs the cliff in a couple of areas making us a little nervous, but the line has been in operation for 140 years, so they know what they are doing. Once we arrived in Silverton, we took a walk up and down the business covered streets. We did to a little shopping, but not much. We then decided on a hamburger lunch at a very nice outdoor restaurant. The temps and weather were perfect. Silverton is a great little town (this time of year) with majestic mountains completely surrounding it. It is also just 14 miles from Ouray which is another 2,000 feet higher along the "Million Dollar Highway."

The conductors on the train informed us that the road to Ouray was under construction and closed for most of the day. We checked into this online and found that the road would be closed on the next working day which was Friday. We changed our plans to take the drive to Silverton and then on to Ouray on Saturday rather than Friday. Most state workers don't work on Saturdays and the job was supposed to be complete by Friday. This worked out perfectly well for us. After arriving back at the train station in Durango, we drove back to the RV to prep for the next day's activities.

Friday, September 24, 2021 - This was a short day with a trip to the Four Corners Monument. This was a lot of fun, but the stay did not take us very long. The condition of the Four Corners Monument was a little disappointing. The restrooms were closed; porta-pottys available. The food vendors were closed and their wooden buildings were quite dilapidated. The main monument had flags and paving, so they were a little nicer. The monument itself (where you can stand in four states at one time) was very nice. It did allow for photos and people there were nice. The monument is on Navajo land and the tribe charges $5 per person to visit the monument. We decided to hike around the monument and make a short visit to each of the four states before leaving. Charlotte used her body to make the shapes of the Capital letters of each of the states where we stood at the time. That was a lot of fun. I will be posting photos of our visit to the Four Corners Monument; be sure to check them out.

On Friday evening, we drove to a ranch just north of Durango, called the "Bar D Ranch" where we had a "chuckwagon" dinner and a stage show with old-style cowboy singing. This type of activity is done at several locations around the west. Lisa and I have gone to the one in Jackson Hole too which puts on a great show. We were informed that the Jackson Hole Chuckwagon Show at the Bar J is closing down. The singers are getting older and the crowds are getting older. Many cannot attend anymore, so interest in old cowboy music is dwindling. This is really a shame.

Saturday, September 25, 2021 - We started the day by driving to Durango to have breakfast at "Oliver's," a highly recommended breakfast location. It was quite quaint with a small railroad train moving along the ceiling throughout the restaurant. The food was pretty good and it did give us a good beginning to the day.

Sunday, September, 26, 2021 - This was our day to visit the ruins of Mesa Verde National Park. After breakfast, we drove to the park. we stopped at the Visitor Center to get a map of the park and as much information as we could. The map helped up plan our moves in the park. Our first stop was at the Montezuma Valley Overlook. The views here were awesome of the Cortez area and the Sleeping Ute Mountain Range. Bob Capp also help some motorcyclists with pictures of their group. The next stop was the Park Point Overlook which is the highest point in the park at a height of 8,572 feet above sea level. The views from the summit of this peak were spectacular. We hiked the short distance to two view points on the summit. We then decided to stop at the Far View Sites on the road to Chapin Mesa area. The Far View Site is a group of ruins that are scattered about on a hilltop and affords us a view of several styles of pueblo homes and ceremonial buildings. We hiked the trails in this area and explored the buildings. After leaving this site, it was off to the Spruce Tree House area. This is a location with huge pueblo buildings built under the ledge of a canyon wall. The trail all the way to the ruins was closed, so we had to take photos from the opposite side of the canyon. I had my 200-500mm lens, so I was able to still get some great photos. Be sure to see the photo gallery for more visuals on Mesa Verde. Since the Cliff Palace Loop was closed to car traffic, we were forced to travel the Mesa Top Loop to the Sun Temple to get photos of the Cliff Palace. We were also able to get some photos of the Balcony House on this loop. The photos were great and we had a great time. We then headed back to the Far View Area take the long road over the Wetherill Mesa to the Step House and the Long House. From the short trails, we were able to take many great photos of the ruins at these two areas. After exploring these areas, we headed back to the entrance to the park and then on to the RV near Cortez.

Monday, September 27, 2021 - More ruins, but this time at the Canyon of the Ancients Monument Park. We started this day with a stop at the Anasazi Heritage Center near McPhee Reservoir and the town of Dolores, Colorado. The Visitor Center was closed, but we were able to hike to the top of the ridge to examine the pueblo located there. After exploring this pueblo, we drove on to what is called the Lowry Pueblo west of Pleasant View. The Lowry Pueblo is a large pueblo ruin with lots of places to explore. You can also go inside this Pueblo and see what it was like to live inside the building. These natives were very small people, so it would be hard for us to navigate the passageways in the structure. The route of our visit to the Canyon of the Ancients is a large loop. It is a distance of about 50 miles to make the entire loop. After the Lowry Pueblo, we drove southeast to the Hovenweep National Monumant. This is a hike of about 1.8 miles with views of numerous ruins positioned on top of and inside the walls of a small canyon. Bob and Charlotte hiked to the north end of the trail and then Lisa and I continued to complete the loop. We took lots of photos and videos, so check out the gallery. After Hovenweep, we continued the loop back to the town of Cortez and then back to the RV. It was a great trip with lots of opportunities to examine ruins of the Pueblan era.

Tuesday, September 28, 2021 - We had maintenance scheduled on the Ford F-350 today a 0800 hours. Seems that the "seatbelt and airbag" warning light has come on steady, so we want to find out what the problem is. We left the truck at the Ford dealer in Cortez and went over to the laundry-mat to wash our clothes. They have WiFi at the laundry, so I am using this time to write out this blog post while Lisa and Bob and Charlotte are doing all of our respective laundry. We then returned to the RV for some down time.

Wednesday, September 29, 2021 - We leave at about 9:30 to drive to Moab, Utah for another full week of visiting with Bob and Charlotte Capp.