Day 6: Mancos, CO

Stop 5 / State 4:  Mancos, CO

Today, we headed directly North (about 156 Miles) to Mancos, CO which is directly across the highway from the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park.  Two years ago, we made a circuit of most of the National Parks in the Southwest and only spent one night at Cortez, CO (a few miles from here).  We spent the afternoon in Mesa Verde but there was so much that we weren't able to see that we just had to come back.

Mesa Verde is the only National Park that is dedicated to the works of man rather than the works of nature.  During the 3rd-12th centuries, the Ancestral Puebloans built over 800 amazing cliff dwellings.  On our last trip, we were able to tour some of the ones that were open for self guided tours.  Tomorrow, we'll be doing some of the larger sites that can only be done with a reservation and a guide.

But first, our trip:

Today's trip was almost entirely across Indian reservations.  Nice roads, little traffic.  At one point, we were passing through one of the reservation towns when, suddenly, oncoming cars and trucks were flashing their lights and pedestrians were waving their arms and pointing behind us.  We decided that we must be on fire and pulled over.  An ambulance went streaking by us and everything returned to normal.  That's the thing about towing a trailer.  We have wide mirrors to see back along both sides of the trailer but, if someone stays behind the trailer, we have no idea that they are there.  I'm sure that, if the ambulance had been there longer than a few seconds, he would have made some noise or pulled out to where we could see him in the mirrors.

The main point of interest along todays route was a huge rock formation called Shiprock.  Kristen took many pictures of what we assumed was Shiprock only to learn that her pictures were of some rock that we can't find the name of.

In this first picture, that's actually Shiprock in the distance on the left:

Here's a closer look at the mystery rock.

Another mystery rock:

Finally, Shiprock!

Entering Colorado (someone had graffitied most of the signs for miles).

Finally, our campsite (that Mesa in the background is at the entrance to Mesa Verde NP):

-J-