Happy Tax Day!

Northbound on US 84

Today’s blog is short and sweet. After a leisurely breakfast in the warm sunshine, we headed off towards Mesa Verde National Park. The weather was again picture perfect. It’s a simple route from Santa Fe leading north on US 84. It’s interesting that US 84 is supposed to be an east-west highway, but from Santa Fe it goes mostly north and a little bit west. For the first hundred miles, or thereabouts, it is pretty straight and flat and runs through valleys between mountains in the Rockies. The elevation is about 7,000 feet. After crossing over into Colorado, the road begins crossing over mountain passes with lots of ups, downs and curves. (Great driving for the Miata.)

At Pagosa Springs, CO, At Pagosa Springs, CO, US 84 terminates at US 160 (about 170 miles north of Santa Fe) and we turned west toward Mesa Verde Park which is about another hundred miles. A little after 1 we were getting hungry, so we started looking for a place to eat in Durango, CO. The main road appears to be a bypass around the main part of the town, and we were unable to find a restaurant alongside the road. Near the north end of the city, we spotted a large modern shopping mall and speculated that there might be food there.

Ghost Town

Surprisingly, even though it advertised many big name stores (Old Navy, Ross, TJ Maxx, Penney’s and many others) the entire mall was nearly vacant. It was like a modern ghost town. Needless to say, we didn’t find any food. However, after exploring most of this “ghost town” we had an urgent need to find a restroom. We first had to find a person who could direct us to one and after being told 3 times by 3 different people we finally discovered them hidden in an alcove in a short hallway. There were no signs anywhere except on the entrances. That was our adventure for the day.

We left the mall (and Durango) hungry. Fortunately, we had our emergency rations of peanut butter crackers, so we proceeded onwards to our destination. We reached the park’s visitor center about 3:30 and found that it closed at 4:30, so we spent a little time browsing the exhibits there. When we left, there were snow flurries that Peggy worried about driving through in the Miata. I have to admit, the Miata doesn’t like snow. But the flurries were minor, nothing stuck to the road, and we continued uneventfully to Cortez, CO where we will spend the night. After unpacking and getting settled in, we had dinner at a delightful Mexican restaurant near our lodging.

Tomorrow, we’ll go back to the park and view the cliff dwellings.

Road Sign of day: Buffalo Thunder Road