in the state of Colorado.
Mesa Verde, Black Canyon of the Gunnison,
and Great San Dunes National Parks.
September 10 - September 17, 2016
(The 46th, 47th & 48th National Park that we have visited)
Durango(1) - Mesa Verde(2) - Black Canyon(4) -
Great Sand Dunes(8) - Durango(12)
After arriving in Durango, CO
Kathleen starts off our trip with a toast!
Then we were off to the Far View Lodge
in the middle of Mesa Verde National Park.
The first site we visited was the
Long House site.
Kathleen holds the rock back while
our group descends down to the site.
To get to the main living quarters
of the site, you have to climb up
two 15 foot ladders -
which you can see in the lower
right corner of the picture above.
Now you know that climbing ladders
is not one of our strengths,
but we made it without breaking anything!
View of the living quarters.
Need I say more!
The second site we visited was the
Cliff House. It also involved climbing
four 10 foot ladders to get out, but
again we made it
A view of the Spruce Tree House site from
the back of the museum. Public access to
the site is closed due to rock falls.
Our next stop was the Black Canyon
of the Gunnison National Park.
On our way from Mesa Verde to
Black Canyon, we made a stop at
Telluride to ride the gondola.
You would think that a town that has
a bank on every corner could
afford a better sign!
Nice looking gondola!
View of Telluride from the gondola.
Upon arriving at Black Canyon,
we came across some deer checking us out.
There was a storm moving quickly through
the area on the day we were there
making it tough to get some great photos.
But we managed to do so during some
momentary patches of sunlight.
Painted Rock
Some views of the Gunnison River
which carved the canyon.
After visiting Black Canyon of the
Gunnison National Park, we headed over to
Great Sand Dunes National Park.
About half way there, we crossed over the
Continental Divide.
We actually crossed the Divide in
two places during our trip!
There is a gondola here which
takes you to the top of the Divide.
It was very cold at the top of the run.
In fact, the operators told us that they
had to sweep snow off the platform
that morning!
We arrive at Great Sand Dunes National Park.
It's a little bit of a walk to get out to the dunes
as you can see above. But we made it!
View of the dunes from our
room at the the Great Sand Dunes Lodge!
View of the dunes from
the visitor information center
