Sept. 25, 2016 Leaving Durango for Albuquerque- stop at Jemez Pueblo on reservation

We are on the way to Albuquerque with a stop at the  Pueblo of Jemez visitor center.
There will be a traditional lunch and then we will depart for Albuquerque which is 50 miles away.

The distance from Durango to the Pueblo is appox. 178 miles which means we will have a rest stop before reaching the Pueblo.

Weather is mild and sunny and we left at 7:30 am because of the long drive and to have time for a walking tour in old Albuquerque before dinner.

Around 9:30 am we stopped at the Apache Nugget Casino and gas station in Cuba, NM.
There is nothing around this business except open land. Where the customers come from is a mystery to me.

We got there too early to go into the casino as it opens at 11 am.

http://www.apachenugget.com/casinos/apache-nugget-casino/

Bathrooms limited in size for men and women so it took a long time for everyone to use them.

We then drove to the Pueblo of Jemez to go to the visitor center.

http://www.jemezpueblo.com/History.aspx

Really nice facility with museum, gift shop and classrooms.

 Half the group toured the museum with the local guide and the other half participated in making a clay basket and 30 mins. later we rotated from classroom to museum.

The local ladies made a spicy tortilla dish and since we were warned we took our bag lunch out to a patio table by the bus and had our lunch there.
When we went back to the visitor center  (1PM) the tour director told us the bus broke down again and it  will be several hours before another bus comes to pick us up and take us to our hotel.

Fortunately right next door to the visitor center was a gas station/mini mart where we bought bottles of water.

3PM the replacement bus arrived and we all got on and by 5pm we arrived at our hotel. The tour director told us to be at the bus by 5:45 so we can go to our farewell dinner in old town.

The restaurant was closed but the tour co. reserved it for our dinner. It was a good meal and we enjoyed visiting with the members of the group.

We have a 9am flight tomorrow and opted to take the 6 am bus to the airport.

Sept. 24, 2016 A day in Durango- on our own

Today we are on our own. Some of the group took the optional train ride to Silverton- an 8 hour tour- six hours round trip on train and two hours for a mine tour and lunch.

The weather is sunny but cool. Tired of eating hotel buffet breakfasts we went downtown and found a new restaurant for breakfast- The Lone Spur Cafe. Evidently it opened in Aug. Food and service great.  Decor was very cool too.

Afterwards we strolled down the main street looking at the shops.

Above the Strater Hotel has the Diamond Lil Saloon
We took photos in front with the cutouts and a photo of one of the saloon gals inside.

 On the way back we stopped at Grassburger for grass feed beef hamburgers which were tasty.
We then visited  the railroad museum- really big and could spend hours looking at everything- and found out there was  a tour at 2pm.

 interior of private car

Since we were warned by our guide that the lunch the next day was not going to be very good we went and bought deli sandwiches to take with us on the bus.

After lunch I decided to take the tour of the Durango and Silverton Railway museum and yard. I was the only one on the tour so it was a private one and I saw where they refurbish the rail cars, get the wood and coal for the engines, the wood shop where they make the seats and the roundhouse. Very interesting.

We had made dinner reservations at the Mahogany Grill in the Strater Hotel. Wonderful meal.

Tomorrow we leave for Albuquerque.

Sept. 23, 2016 visit to Mesa Verde National Park- home of the cliff dwellers

Today we are going on an optional tour to Mesa Verde National Park. We started out by stopping at the visitor center for a short visit and to have our local guide join us.

Mesa Verde is approx. 40 miles from Durango and because we are on a bus which goes slower than a car it took about an hour to get to the visitor center. Since it is a mesa the bus had to climb to about 7,000 feet. After we left the visitor center the bus climbed to about 8,000 feet to the level part of the mesa.

views from the mesas

When we left Durango we had a slight rain but once we reached the top of the mesa we had a little fog.

https://www.nps.gov/meve/index.htm
We spent 4 hours visiting different sites on the mesa and viewing the cliff dwellings.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-americas/early-cultures/ancestral-puebloan/a/mesa-verde-cliff-dwellings

Ancestral Puebloans occupied the Mesa Verde region from about 450 CE to 1300 CE and then they disappeared.
We saw the site of a pit house- first houses on mesa and then a kiva, second house and then the cliff houses.

The view of the cliff dwellings was pretty good and even better with binoculars. Hard to believe how the natives carved out the dwellings and how they climbed up and down from the mesa to the houses.

cliff dwellings

We did stop at the Chapin Museum at the end of the tour to see the exhibits. Here we saw artifacts and dioramas of life on the mesa.

At 1pm we dropped our guide off at the visitor center and the bus headed to Durango.
On the way down the mesa there were slight snow flurries.

At 2pm we got back to the hotel and headed for lunch and had free time until 5:45 when we had to meet at the bus to go to the James Ranch for a steak dinner provided by the tour company.

The daughter of the ranch owner gave us a short history of the ranch before we had dinner. Weather rainy so we did not get to get tour of the ranch.
At 7:45 pm we got on the bus for the hotel.

Tomorrow we did not sign up for the optional train ride to Silvertown so we will have a free day to sightsee and rest.

Sept. 22, 2016 leaving Page AZ and going to Durango CO with a stop in Monument Valley

Nice weather today which which means good conditions for photos and visit at Monument Valley. I cannot wait. This is one place I really wanted to visit and on my bucket list.
Many western movies made here and Kanab UT.

The distance from Page to Durango is about 290 miles and 5 hours by car. The route will take us into and across the Navajo Reservation.

Our first stop was at a Burger King that had a Navajo Code talker exhibit.

Across from the BK was a Navajo museum which was very interesting. A lot packed into one small room.


There was also an actual Navajo hogan and we were able to go inside to see how traditional Navajos lived.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2901

Some businesses and stores were also located here. First town we saw on the way here and after we left here until we reached Cortez, CO.

Left BK at 11 am and arrived at Goulding's in Monument Valley at 11:40 am. We have to be on the bus at 1pm so we have to have a quick lunch and do our souvenir shopping, take pics and see the beautiful rock formations in 90 mins. Not enough time to do the place justice.

Sightseeing tours to the monuments are available and if I ever come back plan to take the trip out to see the famous monoliths here that have been featured in many movies and tv shows.

 Sleeping Indian

 typical landscape on the reservation

The cabin from John Wayne's movie She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is here with some items from the movie.

There is also a museum with a display of costumes and paraphernalia from the movies filmed here.

Joann Dru's costume from She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

We had lunch at the restaurant at Goulding's and it was very good. Great view of the valley too.

At 1pm sharp we left and headed to our next stop at Cortez, CO to go to the CO visitors center.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortez,_Colorado

The visitors center had a good selection of goods relating to Mesa Verde since it is close by. One can buy Mesa Verde stuff here or the visitor center in the Park.

Nice center with some exhibits and souvenirs. Got there at 3pm. 2 hrs travel time. Once we entered CO we had to advance our watches one hr. since AZ does not observe Daylight Savings time.


Therefore we got to the center at 4 PM DST and left for Durango 30 mins later.
Two hours later 6 pm we arrived at the Best Western Rio Grande hotel in the center of Durango. The hotel was really outdated, swimming pool in the center atrium and no restaurant/dining room. Our room was really dark due to dark painted walls and window facing no.
Only positive about this place it is very close to the historic downtown. We have 2 nights here.

We ate the Palace Hotel-recommended by hotel clerk- and the food was good but the service very slow especially considering the dining room was 1/4 full.