Our intention early this morning was to mix a bit of exploring with some necessary chores. Of course we elected to do the exploring first. We started out by heading north from Tawaoc on US-160 until we turned off on US-491 in Cortez. We followed 491 northwest for a bit until we turned off on Road Bb (no kidding) toward Canyons of the Ancients. Our first stop was at Lowry Pueblo Ruins which were pretty much a ruins except for a portion under a big roof where the ruins were not quite so ruined. There was much coarse masonry.
Peggy and I then drove back onto another road which took us through Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado toward Hovenweep National Monument which is in adjacent Utah. There are allegedly many ruins sites of Puebloan folks in Canyons of the Ancients but other than Lowry, we did not spot any from the highway. They appear as vaguely placed red squares on our atlas and all require either some 4-wheel driving or hiking or both. Maybe a better title for this place would be Canyons of the Ain’ts because you ain’t gonna see much besides brush.
We wandered along until we made it to Hovenweep National Monument where we found a nice, air conditioned visitor center right close to some more ruins. We moseyed into the visitor center and found the kinds of postcards we like in the gift store. We also benched ourselves for a video tour of Hovenweep’s ruins sites. Considering the temperature outside, I was hoping the movie would be sufficient to fulfill our hiking quota for the day but we were seduced by a short trail to an overlook of a nearby canyon filled with interesting masonry ruins.
Solar radiation was abundant in this locale so it was hot today. There is scant shade on the trail. Water should be taken liberally when hiking here. After ooohing and aaaahing about the former buildings and shooting some pictures, we fled back to the visitor center’s shady breezeway to avoid incineration. Then we took a narrow county road back toward Cortez. Soon after you have left the bleak ugliness of eastern Utah the road crosses the border with Colorado and almost instantly the scenery gets greener and the canyons more colorful. The road follows McElmo Creek and it is quite scenic, in a bucolic sort of way.
As we approached Cortez, we realized we were now going to pursue some chores. We turned from Cortez back down US-160, picked up one of our propane supply tanks and returned to Cortez to have it filled. Fraley Propane was the spot. They sent us over to the tank where their guy did all the work and sent us back to the office where we paid about $1.50 a gallon. I believe that is the best price we have ever paid and the service was excellent. First task completed. Now we were obliged to take care of our second chore which was going to the recreational reefer store. Many varieties of many things were available there and I left not much poorer, thanks to the erudite voters in this state who made dope legal.
Two tasks of three finished, we headed for our last chore; visit the casino since tonight was prime rib and seafood buffet night. The prime rib was okay but the seafood was pretty good. The desserts were tasty and they offered a big fresh fruit bar with real fresh fruit but that strangely included pink shrimp and oysters on the half shell. Peggy and I also tried our luck at some slot machines but, since we were completely unaware how, why or when you win on the contemporary electronic whizbangs, we cashed out after much laughter and only $4 poorer.
We got a few pix along the way and you can see some of ’em if you click here