On Saturday Carol and I got up reasonably early, ate breakfast, and headed out to Mesa Verde. After driving about 30 miles or so we saw directly in front of us a very large mesa with a huge rock outcropping on top of it. The mesa was several thousand feet higher in elevation than the road on which we were traveling and we were heading straight for it. Sure enough, in a few minutes we arrived at the gate to Mesa Verde National Park. I am so grateful that our nation has preserved for us some of the most wonderful places as those contained in our national parks. After entering the gate we drove to the top of the mesa on a narrow and winding but beautiful and scenic road. It was another 25 miles through the park to get to the museum and the “Spruce Tree House”, the only ruins open to the public at this time of the year. Mesa Verde contains the archaeological remains of the “Cliff Dwelling” Indians. They built many communities here in the park under rock overhangs as well as others on the relatively flat mesa top. They are a wonder to behold. After a short visit we retraced our steps back to Durango and headed out for our day’s journey through the mountains of Western Colorado. Little did we realize the adventure that lay ahead of us.
Soon after leaving Durango we began a steady climb toward a mountain pass and it began to snow. Soon we came upon a sign that warned that all commercial vehicles were required to have chains to continue further. Since we were not a commercial vehicle this did not apply to us. We were grateful however that we had rented a four wheel drive Chevy Trailblazer because the snow began to stick to the road and soon it was covered and began to deepen. There were not many vehicles on the road and the conditions were worsening by the mile. We were traveling on a fairly narrow paved road that was winding it’s way toward a mountain pass of over 10,000 feet. There were steep drop offs on first one side and then the other of the road. The road was slick and getting slicker as the snow continued to pile up. And then a miracle happened! We caught up to a snow plow clearing the road just ahead of us and so we settled in behind it for the long slow ride over the mountain. It was a huge blessing, one that would be repeated again the next day as we traveled over another mountain pass.
At one point we came upon a section of the road with a sheer drop off for at least 1000 feet right next to the road with no guard rail of any kind. Fortunately for us we were on the side of the road that was against the mountain though the entire road was slick and wet. Soon we arrived at Ouray (Youray), a beautiful town in a mountain valley that bills itself as the “Switzerland of America”. I’m not sure I’d go that far but it was beautiful. We stopped for lunch and a short walk through town, glad to be walking and no longer driving in the snow. As a matter of fact our driving in the snow was over for the day as we continued our journey out of the mountains and across wide open country to Grand Junction Co. where we spent the night. As if to put a period on our day the Lord gave us a beautiful double rainbow as we were driving into town.
