Yesterday, we traveled to Mesa Verde National Park which is outside or Mancos, CO. Our cousins, Scott and Sharon drove to our RV park and joined us on the journey. Of course, any journey that is worth its salt must include food and this one was no different. On our way to the park we stopped for a late breakfast in Durango, CO at a small hole in the wall restaurant called, if I remember correctly, The Durango Diner and it was awesome. To try and paint a picture of how hole in the wall this place is, I figure the width of the restaurant was maybe 10 foot while the length was maybe 40 foot. There were a small group of tables in the front of the place followed by a long serving counter with classic rotating stools and ending with another small group of tables. Another unique quirk this place had is its only phone was a pay phone hanging on the back wall. The waitress told me that when their previous phone broke they had a very hard time finding a pay phone to replace it. Ok, now you have a picture, I hope. If you don’t look at the photos for this post and there is one of me with a plate of two very large pancakes. Many of you might remember, in the past, I had a reputation for being able to consume a very large amount of food at a single sitting. Well, for the most part, that is in the past, with the exceptions of Ice Cream, Sushi, and Pancakes. I asked the line cooks if before they plate my food, they would spread some more butter on the top and flip them one more time to sear in the butter. When we were stationed in Hawaii there was a restaurant on Hickam AFB called Orville and Wilbur’s that made their pancakes this was, and it is to die for. This place in Durango was the first place I’ve been able to get to do this for me since we left Hawaii in 2000. Well, breakfast was fantastic and with its completion it was time to head out to Mesa Verde National Park.
We got to the park around 1:30pm which when visiting a normal place would be fine but at Mesa Verde if you get here that late, you are just late. You see, from the point where you drive into the park until you get to the official visitor’s center takes about 45 minutes. The speed limit is 35mph and it is about 25 miles point to point. When we got there, quite in need of a bathroom break, the visitor center was closed for cleaning and would not open for another 30 minutes then it would close for the day at 3:00pm. Lucky for us there was another visitor center further down in the park. It closed at, believe it or not, 2:00pm but we got there with about 10 minutes to spare so we were able to pick up our standard magnet and post cards.
Visiting most of the Pueblos, etc., require a specific guided tour ticket which of course are all sold out about a month or more in advance. But have no fear, there was one ancient ruin that was available, and it was only a short walk from the parking lot. That is the ruins that you see in the photos. We could have walked a trail to some more ruins that were visible, but it would have been a 2.5 mile round trip hike and was listed a very strenuous. Considering it was the heat of the day, we elected to give that hike a miss.
Our next stop in the park was a short .5-mile loop trail that took us into an area that had been devastated by a wildfire. The shapes of the trees left standing was quite spooky, something right out of a Tim Burton movie. The object of the trail was to see how the people terraced the area for farming. The hike was listed as moderate, and I guess that was accurate. I think I hit my asthma puffer a few times but overall made it ok.
From there we headed back home and had grilled Maui Steak for dinner. It was my first time trying that recipe that I got from my brother and while it was good, I have a long way to go to catch up to his mad grill skills.
Tonight, the RV park is having some life music and we are grilling Hamburgers. Tomorrow, my cousin Scott is going to cook some smoked Chilie Rellenos for us and we are going to spend a lazy day listening to some live country music and enjoying the fireworks show at night.
Well, enjoy the photos and please leave comments. I promise to answer them all!
TTFN
More important, a very happy pancake stomach