Dolores, Colorado

We had kind of a long day of driving yesterday...over hill and dale. It was raining and cloudy for much of the day. We headed west on US Hwy 160. The scenery was lovely despite the rain and gloom. There were a lot of rustic barns along the way.

In the first half hour or so, we passed through the little town of Del Norte, Colorado. There isn't much to say about the town itself, but I noticed on every lamp post was a metal sculpture. Each one was different. I managed to photograph quite a few, but there were many I missed, including a cowboy and a moose...and there were others. Here are the ones I was able to capture.

So that was kind of fun. It was a nice distraction from the otherwise run-down condition of the place.

And moving on down the roads, there were more barns.

We passed through two tunnels on our way to the Wolf Creek Pass. The place was made famous in a song by C.W. McCall in the mid-1970's. If you were born during the 14th Century like me, then you might remember the song.

As we reached the summit, we were warned repeatedly of a hairpin turn ahead and advised of the nearest runaway truck ramps. It was hard to illustrate in a photograph, but let's just take a look at the image below. Just outside the left side of the frame is the hairpin turn that will take us to the road below the one we were traveling. This was also where we crossed the Continental Divide for the 4th time this trip.

Winding down, down, down, we leveled out and drove on, seeing more barns as we went.

Now this one below is kind of interesting. I can't decide if it's a grain elevator or a barn for giraffes.

After several hours of non-stop driving, we reached the town of Durango, Colorado. We were planning to stop here for lunch at a brewpub, but found the streets too narrow and lined with cars to have any hope of finding a place to park with our big rig.

We finally found an Applebee's with a place we could park, and so we called off the hunt for a more interesting restaurant and stopped for lunch. But all was not lost in Durango, because as my friend "Unknown" pointed out, we were to drive right past Durango Quilt Company on Hwy 160...literally right on the highway. It was impossible not to stop.

Durango Quilt Company isn't the quilt shop I had in mind when we started the day, which just made the day all the more interesting. I'll tell you more about it in a separate post.

Looking at the map, I noticed we were going to pass by Chimney Rock National Monument. There are several national parks and national monuments that showcase and celebrate the ancient dwellings of the Native Americans who once inhabited this area. Looking at some pictures, it didn't seem so different from Mesa Verde National Park, where we visited many years ago. And, since we were on our way to see Canyon of the Ancients National Monument, we decided to pass this one by. Nevertheless, we could see Chimney Rock from the road.

Just a little way down the road, we passed through the town of Cortez, Colorado, and what a cute little town it was. I dearly would love to have spent more time here, but I had my sites set on the quilt shop, and nothing but the quilt shop.

And wow...that was a great little quilt shop. I'll tell you about it in a separate post as well.

From there, it was just a few more miles to reach our final destination, located in Dolores. Dolores sits right alongside McPhee Reservoir. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the reservoir:

McPhee Reservoir is named for McPhee, Colorado, a company town founded by the New Mexico Lumber Company, that is now submerged under the reservoir. In 1927, the McPhee sawmill produced over half of Colorado's lumber. The town housed up to 1,500 employees. The sawmill closed in 1946.

It's always weird for me to think about entire towns submerged by the building of a dam, but that's what happened. There was rain in the forecast, and the clouds were looking more threatening as we traveled along, but the storm passed us by, and there was no rain.

Whenever we arrive at a new location, the kitties first want their treats, and then they want their catio.

And dinner is soon to follow for them. Smitty even got out for a nice long walk.

When all cat business was taken care of, we found the laundry and started a single load of clothes. While we waited for that, we went for a walk around the RV Park. This place isn't called "The Views" for nothing. There were some beautiful views of the valley below.

It's hard to see in the image above, but let's just zoom in for a minute so you can see what we saw at the extreme right of the plateau located off in the distance. To us, it looked like some kind of structure...maybe even a mission...and so we got out the binoculars to have a better look.

It turned out to be layers of mountains with the plateau sitting in front of a larger mountain behind. Either that, or it's a mountain-sized cat...Catzilla, perhaps. What do you think?

Looking to the right, we could see this:

Looking farther to the right, we could see this:

On the other side of the park, and directly behind our rig, we could see this:

We also saw our old friends the desert marigolds. We didn't see them when we were in the mountains.

Also, this teepee, which appears to be available for rental.

And this interesting grass.

So this morning, we'll have breakfast and then head out to see Canyon of the Ancients. I suspect this will involve hiking out to see the Native American structures, but really, I have no idea. It was one of the items stuffed into my Colorado folder, and honestly, with the quilt shop located so close, how could we resist? (Be "we," I mean "me.")

My work is cut out for me with two quilt shops to tell you about. I'll start with Durango Quilt Company next time I write.