Day: July 13, 2020

Progress: Mesa Verde National Park

Mileage: 60 miles round trip

After work drove 9 miles to Mesa Verde National Park. There I drove the Mesa Top Scenic road with stops for some pueblo ruins up close (800-1400 years old) and a view across the valley to cliff houses, palaces and even towns built into the side of the sandstone. Finished with a short hike to Soda Point outlooks

Progress: Grants, NM to Cortez, CO via the “Hwy 666” from the movie Natural Born Killers (through Navajo Nation)

Mileage: 240

Stopped at Bandera Volcano, a private hike in the “land of fire and ice” where one can see an 800 foot deep volcanic caldera and a cave that has been filled with ice for 3400 years.

El Morro National Monument is an oasis with names carved into the sandstone from the expeditions that stopped here, from American Indian to Spanish to American settlers.

Long stretch of road through the Navajo lands from Gallup to Cortez, before settling in at the Retro Inn