Sky Ute Casino, Jo Annes Alpaca Ranch and Charma Historic Foster Hotel and Railway

Stayed at the Sky Ute Casino in  Ignacio Colorado, parked up in the Casino RV lot, while we were there we took  photos of some Indians who were there for a Veterans Powwow¸ held in honour of the soldiers that served in the wars, fantastic people and traditional costumes.The inside photos arent as good as the ones from out side.  Later we went to dinner and met a lovely lady Jo Anne, who has an alpaca ranch about 4 miles away, we have been invited to have a look at them tomorrow.

Today we woke up with the car all iced up, the start of winter is here, and it’s going to start getting cold now and very likely to snow in the next day or two. After a nice free breakfast at the Casino we headed out to Jo Anne’s ranch, what a treat that was, we met the herd, what cute animals alpacas and Llamas are, and curious, makes me want to have a herd of my own, Lee loves them too.



Jo Anne and Sally the alpaca



Mr Lama (can't rember his name) the only lama in the herd isn't he just magnificent



another couple of cuties





 



Cute Sally again

  We headed off towards Taos in New Mexico, checked out the railway museum at Charma, it was closed but they are all out in the open, lovely old locos and carriages. Had a beverage at the Foster Saloon in Charma and met a couple of native Apache’s nice people.






On the way to Charma and New Mexico




One of the old Steam engines at Charma




We had to have a drink at the Foster Hotel in  Charma and it did sell Fosters

Trimble Hot Sprigs and Durango.

Got a late start today, we went to Trimble Hots Springs which was opposite our RV park, it was lovely in the water one pool was 105deg and the other 109, we are in the hotter of the two, the trees behind were beautiful and cast a golden reflection onto the water.


We had a good time in Durango met a lot of nice people and went to a few night spots and a number of galleries, one gallery in particular had work by an artist called Rory Wagner, fantastic, could be a good investment as he died a few months ago. Any way today we head off towards New Mexico.  

At Trimble Hot Springs 7 miles north of Durango.



Hills behind Durango




Lees found his soul mate outside the chocolate shop





Colorado River at Durango



Dolores giant onions, Durango, Mesa Verde

Overnight in Dolores, had a look at the “Spruce Goose” a weird looking train thingy, one of only 5 built around 1920, it was used as a mail and goods train running 204 miles between Dolores and Silverton daily, it was decommissioned in 1951.



Cliff Palace

 

Cliff Palace with people for size comparision,
about 100 people would have lived here

 Today we went to Mesa Verde, where the Anasazi Indians built cliff dwellings around 1200 ad, this one was discovered around the 1880’s,  it had been abandoned for around 600 years, they moved on to a more southerly location because the area was too harsh and they exhausted the site by over working the fields and cutting down all the timber for construction and fire wood, apparently the winter in this area can last up to 6 months with plenty of snow
.
This one above  is called Cliff Palace, the other below is called The Windows, how they got there has us mystified, they must have flown in......4-5 holes in the cliff face . There are over 4700 archelogical  sites in the area. At its peak they predicted that there would have been a population of about 30,000. As this race didn't leave any written records it is all speculation and a lot of unanswered question, all we can say is that we are lucky , what a hard life our predecessors had.
                                                                         The Windows
Last night we went into Durango what a great little town, lots to do, we went to a couple of bars with entertainment, tomorrow we will look around in the daylight and probably head off to New Mexico later in the day or tomorrow.
Highlight of the trip so far is finding this huge Big Daddy onion in Dolores, grown by a local farmer who likes big things, weighed over 3 lbs or 1.5 kgs.

Dolores Colorado to Cortez and 4 Corners

Well today was a little different to all the previous days, which were all about rocks and canyons etc, today we went to the Anasazi  Heritage Centre (local Indian tribe), we had a look through the museum where we bought a Stanton Englehartand print (  abstract of the desert) also walked to Escalante Pueblo which where the indians used to live, then we went into Cortez had lunch at a very Australian like boutique lunchery called 'The Farm' , nothing flash, all organic and home grown, lunch sizes were realistic, not like most of the american meals we have had so far, we usually just share one between us.

Escalante Pueblo at Dove Creek 10 miles out of Cortez Colorado over looking the McPhee Reservior

MePhee  Reservoir Dove Creek in Colorada

Farming land near Cortez

One of the magnificent Cottonwood trees that grow in abundance all throughout Colorado

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Standing in all four States ( well sort of)



4 corners monument

spectular mesas and rock formations out side of Cortez on the way to 4 corners.

After lunch we went and had a look at a local Winery called Guy Drew, bought a couple of bottles of wine which we will savour over dinner one night, after we had tasted a few of what they had in the cellar, we headed off  about 40 miles to 4 Corners, this is where Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet, its the only place in the US that this happens, the land scape was pretty barren and dry, until you get closer into the towns, then you have this fantastic Cottonwood trees which are varing shades of yellow , stunning against the blue of the mountains in the distance.  Went to a casino on the way back home, didnt win didnt lose a good day day all round.


Mountains and Cottonwood trees as far as the eye can see



Ouray

Ouray is full of quaint little houses

Mae the cat that lives at the art shop

frozen waterfalls on the way to Silverton

Snow on the way to Silverton

silverton an old mining town, very colourful

Chucking a few snow balls on the way

colourful snow covered  mountains

On the way to Dolores near Telluride Ski and Golf Resort

Interesting mountains

Ouray a very small historical town, unfortunately we arrived just as they shut down for a couple of weeks, they will reopen for the skiing season, we did manage to see enough of the town, a handful of shops were still trading. Met a cute little cat called Mae who was the resident of the local art shop. We are amazed at the beautiful work that we have been finding in the gift shops, local Indian jewellery, art pottery etc, amazing and beautiful and bloody expensive, nothing like what our Australian aborigines produce which is very basic and limited. We also went to another mining town called Silverton, it was also pretty well shut down for the moment as well. The scenery on the way was pretty awesome, a lot of snow, and frozen waterfalls, we are lucky that the weather has fined up from a week ago, it would make it difficult and dangerous to travel if it was snowing, its pretty cold early morning and night, but during the day, it warms up enough to be comfortable. We have bought scarves and warm jackets, still it’s the best time to visit a lot of these National Parks as in summer as there are a lot more people sightseeing and the heat in the desert areas can be pretty hot.
From here we are travelling via Telluride to Dolores towards Cortez and onto Mesa Verde.

Colorado

Lots of neat old cars for sale really cheap









Lee at Painted Wall, Black Canyon Colorado





Colorado autumn colours







  Now in Colorado, the landscape changes dramatically, at first it is very dry ,rolling hills or flat and dry, pretty ugly really, then it starts to change further into towards civilisation , now it’s very pretty with the autumn leaves.    

Our first stop was Grand Junction, then  Montrose where we stay over night, lots of deer roaming around the place. We went to a park called black Canyon, pretty ordinary from all the stuff that we have seen in Utah and Arizona.
then onto a great little place called Ouray

deers in the RV park we stayed at



Views on the way to Ouray



On the way to Ouray, whcih is located in a valley in the mountains

On the way to Ouray



Bluff Utah, Newspaper Rock Moab Arches National Park

Stayed at a great little place called Bluff, the van park was terrible no toilets or water or TV don’t really know why we paid to stay..... next morning we visited a pioneer settlement that was being restored by the decendants, pretty amazing what the pioneers had to do to settle new areas, boy do we have it lucky.

We dropped into a place called Newspaper rock the largest collection of pertroglyphs (wall painting by the Indians).We then came across a place call “hole in the rock, some weird and wonderful things there, the Hole in the Rock is a home cut into the rock ( huge about 50 Sqs ) it is now a monument to the couple who dug it out, they have both passed on. Then onto Arches National Park,  Utah, what an amazing place, then onto Canyon Lands, mesas etc, I think that you can become canyoned out, but luckily so far they have all been so different, some more grand than the others, it’s hard to believe that the earth can vary so much in the way it has been formed and they are all so close together.



Petroglyphs at News Paper Rock, ancient grafitti




somepeople have nothing better to do, actually I think its pretty neat, made out of number plates and metal bits and car pieces,  this was at Hole in the Rock



This Bull was beautiful



Park Avenue, at Arches NP



Arches Views

Balancing Rock, Arches NP

Us under the Arches

Canyon Lands overlook

Merrimack and ??? cant remeber the other it starts with M though

views of Canyon Lands

More views of Canyonland