10 Discoveries You Will Love in the High Desert of the Colorado Rockies

Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde NP

The Rocky Mountains is a significant feature of the North American landscape. The The Canadian Rockies and the four Canadian national parks are some of its most popular attractions. But the discoveries we made around the high desert plateau of the Colorado Rockies should really be as popular, especially since a significant part of Native American culture complement its outstanding rock formations.

Mesa Verde National Park

We spent a week in this largely undiscovered area en route to the Denver High School graduation of Bill’s granddaughter Cassie. About an hour west from where we stayed is beautiful Durango, Colorado, a city of about 17,000 people at 6,500 feet in elevation.  Another fifty minutes west is the Mesa Verde National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It sits very near the Four Corners, the intersection of the states of Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona at elevations of 7,000-8,500 feet.

an Ancestral Pueblo in Mesa Verde NP

One day we took the self-guided tour of Mesa Verde, the largest archeological preserve of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from 600 to 1300 CE. There are over 5,000 known archeological sites and well-preserved 600 cliff dwellings, including Cliff Palace, the largest in North America. The Park is easy to go through with over fifty miles of roads and many more trails. It is to me, the best national park of this type in the country. And it is just ninety miles from and “aligned” to the earlier ancestral Puebloan settlement of fifteen large buildings that comprise the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site which we visited in 2012.

aerial view of Durango, Colorado

The next day we asked the Durango Visitor Center to map out a plan for our city day trip. A few blocks around E 3^rd Avenue are historic Victorian Homes, original hospital, churches, and residences of the city’s storied past of gold.  We then drove up a winding climbing road to Fort Lewis College to enjoy the beautiful aerial views of the mountains and the city valley below. Back to the city floor, we had a good tour of the Durango Art Museum and the busy Durango Theater that is currently featuring Mamma Mia. Then we had my Mother’s Day lunch at Ken and Sue’s before we took a walk along the banks of the Animas River some sections of which are famous for river rafting. On the way back, we drove through the Ute Indian Reservation, southeast of the city, with its world-class visitor center and museum. There is a bigger UTE reservation in Utah and that is how Utah got its name.  

Wyndham Pagosa

We stayed at Wyndham Pagosa in Pagosa Springs, higher in elevation than Durango at 7,150+ feet and five hours southwest of Denver. Wyndham Pagosa had a week’s availability of a one bedroom unit for us and we decided it would be good to break our trip there. We were already amazed at what we discovered in Durango but there were two more great sites right where we were based.

Mother Spring in Pagosa Springs

The town of about 1,700 is named for its sulfur springs, including the world's deepest geothermal hot spring. At approximately 144°F, this is the Mother Spring that feeds the other pools hosted by three local hot spring soaking locations right at the outskirts of the downtown area, the largest of which is at The Springs Resort & Spa. They and the pretty Visitor Center close by are right at the banks of the San Juan River that cuts through town (and is excellent for fishing).

Chimney Rock National Monument from the highway

at the  ridge top of Chimney Rock NM

But the highlight of our week was our visit to the Chimney Rock National Monument, another important discovery just nineteen minutes south of our resort and at more than 7,000 feet in elevation. The rangers told us they were initially trying to incorporate it as part of the Mesa Verde National Park but in 2012 it was decided to be named as a separate national monument. The Great House Pueblo of thirty-six rooms and two kivas at the top of the ridge, close to Chimney Rock and its close neighbor Companion Rock, had a largely ceremonial role in the Chacoan culture that was centered in the Chaco Canyon, ninety miles away. As the moon makes its lunar cycle across the sky over a period of 18.6 years, it appears in a Major Lunar Standstill (MLS) between the two rocks for approximately 16 months. The latest began in 2004 and the next one will be in 2021. As a matter of fact the construction of the Great House was started during the MLS in 1076 and ended at the ensuing MLS in 1093.

Pagosa Springs, Colorado

Beginning with Mesa Verde National Park and ending with the Chimney Rock National Monument, the area should really be more popular than it is. I guess the reason it is not is that it is more remote, high up in the Rockies. The national parks of Canada in the Canadian Rockies are just an hour away from the city of Calgary. This Colorado high desert plateau is 5-6 hours away from the nearest big city, Denver. But I would like to encourage all, especially Americans, to visit this area for its cultural and natural significance.

     
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