American Road Trip Part 2

Hi Everyone,

We had a pretty cold night in Cortez and the morning started off the same way. We headed of for a day trip to Mesa Verde National Park. It is about 20 Minutes drive from Cortez. We could see all the snow on the mountains around us

As we turned off the road into the National Park and start heading upwards we were getting closer and closer to the snow!

We couldn't believe it we have never been this close to all this snow. Of course we pulled up the first chance we could to have look.

Yes we are freezing! But isn't it beautiful?

We got back into the car and drove up to the Rangers station. We had heard about this Park from several people as a must see, as it has Ancient Cliff Dwellings. We booked into a tour of Cliff Palace, which was an hour long tour that involved a 400m walk down to the Palace and then a vertical climb back up of about 30m via 5 ladders between 2 - 3 metres each. This may not sound that bad but in that hour we had rain and snow followed by some sunshine. It was very cold but totally worth it.

Cliff Palace

Built by Ancient Pueblo People




Start of the climb up





One of the Ladders heading out of the canyon.

When we got back to the car to head out of the park it starting snowing again.



Dave thought it was great driving in the snow.

Heading back into Cortez we could see that the weather was going to get worse



Storm coming!



We got back to the motel and I checked on the internet for the weather - A big front was coming through and the roads that we had planned on taking to Denver - Through Silverton and Montrose were covered in snow so we changed our plans to head towards Pueblo instead, I cancelled the motel in Montrose and booked one in Pueblo. Later that night we heard there was a tornado forming in Colorado Springs - just out of Denver ! But luckily it didn't form and moved on.

So today we headed off about 8.30am towards Pueblo, we could see alot of snow around us again and we actually drove through roads that were surround by lots of snow, it was absolutely beautiful.



Dave got out to have a look



I stayed in the warm car :)

The scenery changed many times on hour 5 hour drive today, it is an amazing part of the country.

When we got to Pueblo the weather had warmed up a fair bit - about 20 degrees - it was so nice not to be cold. Apparently it is very rare to have snow this time of year! Well atleast we got to see it.

Tomorrow we will drive to Denver to visit our friends for a few weeks, so the next post maybe a while as I am sure we will be busy :) And the big news is that they have some Bundy for us - YEH!!!!!!!!!!!!

So cheers to everyone,
Dave & Shell