Colorado

A beautiful last night at Navajo Lake. Golden hour lighting!

I’ve been really lazy about writing the blog this week. Sorry, but been out having fun.

Thanks Bill and Char for a great week!

We left Navajo Lake and our friends on Tuesday. On the Sunday before we left, we all took a ride around southern Colorado. Checking out Bayfield and Durango. It was a beautiful drive and in the process we decided to make our next move to Durango and a park called Alpen Rose. It is more expensive than we usually do but it is a nice park and near the things we wanted to check out.

Starter Hotel, a real gem.

We have really enjoyed Durango, it has a wonderful downtown area. On Sunday we had drinks at the Strater Hotel with Bill and Char and fell in love with this town. I have been in Durango previously when I was young and my family came to Purgatory to ski. Purgatory is now Durango Resort. This also is the home to the Durango to Silverton narrow gage railroad. We went back and forth on whether or not to take a ride. Right now it only goes to Cascade Canyon. Well, the budget won out and we decided to keep that ride for another time when we can go all the way to Silverton.

So instead we wandered downtown and checked out  craft brewery. On Wednesday it was Carver Brewery. We did like the brews and lunch but our server was not very well educated on the brews which was evident when he delivered our beer and thought John’s stout was the brown ale I ordered. If you’ve ever seen the head on a stout you’ll know why I knew right away and traded John. John wasn’t feeling very good so we headed home early and relaxed the rest of the night.

Ska Brewery, Durango CO

Thursday we decided to find the Ska brewery that got excellent reviews online and as a bonus found it was close to Home Depot which we needed to visit. This is a brewery only so we each tried one and they were excellent. John also found a t-shirt he liked and since his birthday is next week we bought it as his birthday gift. The waitress here recommended a place downtown for dinner so after Home Depot we headed back downtown. Lady Falconburg’s Barley Exchange we enjoyed a wonderful lunch/dinner and if you are in town I’d check it out. You can tell a lot of locals eat here.

Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde NP

Balcony House

Now after 2 days of eating and checking out craft brews it was time to be more active. One of the things high on my list was going to Mesa Verde National Park. So today we drove the 36 miles to the park and we are so glad we did. This is a beautiful and fascinating place. The cliff dwellings are impressive and if you are able I would highly recommend the Cliff Palace Ranger tour. It only cost $3 each and was worth it to learn the history of this area. We also did a couple short hikes and wanted to go on one of the longer hikes but by the time we checked out the Spruce Tree House, Sun Temple and the museum we simply ran out of time. The weather was perfect and it was a wonderful day.

Tomorrow we are going to take off and head to Lathrop State Park near I-25. Our friend Bill says it is a wonderful little park and for awhile yet it is all non- reservable. This will put us a little closer to Colorado Springs. The drive tomorrow will take us over Wolf Creek Pass which I hear is 4 lane now but will be the highest pass we have towed on but I think we are ready and it should be fun. :)

Happy Trails.......................