Telluride and Mesa Verde

Good Evening Everyone!!! Wow today was a very, very busy day for us. We got up early for breakfast and walked around downtown Telluride. Telluride is a very "dog" friendly town. It seems everyone had a dog and the stores allow dogs into their shops. There's even doggie parking areas in several places around town. You'll see dogs parked outside stores. Everyone here also ride bikes around town. I think only the tourist drive around, residents walk or ride their bikes.

Thia pictures is the waterfall and mountains surrounding Telluride. I don't know if you can see it but there's a hotel or inn located right at the edge of the cliff right above the waterfall. How cool is that?

Telluride by far is the most beautiful town that we've come across. Although it's smaller than Aspen, in my opinion, it's a lot prettier place. I'm surprised Telluride is not talked about as much as Aspen. I think Aspen is heavily advertised and maybe it has better ski slopes but if you want an alternative place to go. . .Telluride is definitely an awesome alternative.

The view of the mountains surrounding Telluride as we were leaving and driving on highway 145. Highway 145 is another highway that has spectacular landscaping. After Telluride, we headed for a 2 hour drive to Mesa Verde then finally stopped over at Durango.

This picture shows the Spruce House Ruins at Mesa Verde. In order to get to the house, you need to walk down a winding path. Isn't it cool? The clay houses at Mesa Verde are located under a cliff. Mesa Verde is a location in Cortez, Colorado where ancient Indian dwellers lived. It's located at the top of a mountain over 15 miles up. It's amazing how these Indians found a way to build their homes under the cliffs.

This is inside Spruce House. It's very interesting to see how the Indian's lived. There were no artifacts at the site just the clay homes. There's several ruins at Mesa Verde. . .we visited only Spruce House. The other two main ruins required a guided tour and there was a long wait so we decided to skip them. Spruce house is self-guided. The other two attractions involve a tour guide and you're allowed a hands on experience such climbing into the house, crawl through tunnels into the rooms, etc.

This is the view from the Spruce House looking up at the entrance and this is your climb back up to the top. It was a tough walk back up especially in 90 degree temperature. I felt bad for the older folks and little kids. You don't realize that you need to walk back up to the top when you first work your way down to the ruins.

If you visit Colorado and will be in the lower Southern area, Mesa Verde is a must see!

View from the top of Mesa Verde as we were driving down the mountain. Mesa Verde is a bit dry compared to the other areas of Colorado that we visited. It was a stark contrast to all the green landscapes that we've seen so far.

After spending several hours at Mesa Verde, we drove down to Durango which is about 40 miles away. We're spending the night here, tour around in the morning then head down to the Sand Dunes. We did walk around down-town Durango later in the afternoon to look around at the different shops they had. Anyway, I'll post pictures of the Sand Dunes tomorrow. We should have a lot of fun there! Until later. . .