Natural Bridges National Monument

Sipapu Bridge

We did a day trip from Monument valley today. First stop was Gooseneck State Park, where the San Juan river does about 4 turns right below the viewpoint, traveling several miles in what is probably no more than a 1000 feet in one direction. Then we took an interesting state highway, it went straight up a bluff in about 3 miles full of 5 MPH hairpin turns, all on a narrow gravel road.
The big stop was Natural Bridges National Monument where we viewed the 3 main bridges: Sipapu, Kachina, and Owachomo. I hiked down to the of Sipapu, an interesting 600 foot change in elevation in about .6 miles. Mary and I both went down to get a closer look at Owachomo. We learned that a bridge differs from an arch by how it was formed. Bridges have flowing water that carve them out, usually a river that pierces through the rock over time.
On the way back, we took the Valley of the Gods road, which has geology fairly similar to Monument Valley with lots of funny shaped buttes.

Horsecollar Ruins, occupied 1050-1300 AD

Monument Valley

View from John Ford Point

On the recommendations of others, we decided to do the full day tour of the valley with a guide rather than touring ourselves. It was well worth it! We spent most of the morning in Mystic Valley just south of Monument Valley. Here we explored a lot of arches: Skull arch, Half Moon arch, Honeymoon Arch. We also examined a number of Anasazi cliff dwellings. They were fairly small compared to what you would see in Mesa Verde, but were often accompanied by petroglyphs nearby depicting animals nearby. One called the House of many hands, had hand prints everywhere on the wall of the rock. Lunch was a huge burger with accompaniments in the shade of a big rock wall.

John and Mary at Honeymoon Arch

In the afternoon, we headed to Monument Valley. The first part was what anyone would see in their car: Left and Right Mitten, Merrick Butte, the 3 sisters, and probably the most spectacular view from John Ford's point. One immediately recognized the movie scene in one of John Wayne's movies. The campground where we are staying, relates to this scene. In the 1920's Hary and Leone Goulding bought land across from monument valley to start sheep herding. During the depression, everyone was suffering here. So they took their last $60 went to Hollywood with pictures of Monument Valley to convince them that this was the ideal spot for filming Westerns. John Ford saw the pictures and ended up making "Stage Coach"and other movies out here.
We left the main road and went through the back country. Part of our tour was watching a 90 year old woman, named Susie, preparing wool for a Navajo rug in her hogan, a traditional wood and mud building. We saw lots of rock formations and arches with interesting names like: Thunderbird rock, Sun's Eye, Ear of the Wind Arch, the sleeping dragon, totem pole, and the sleeping giant. Our final stop was the North Window to get a view of the familiar buttes of this area. Probably the best picture of the day, however, was taking at sunset from our campsite, which has this great view of the Valley.

Monument Valley from our campsite.

Four Corners

Fall colors outside Telluride

Today, the gorgeous Fall weather continued: blue sky, pleasant temperatures. We went over Dallas divide in the morning with the spikes of the San Juan mountains in the background and the golden leaves of Aspen in the foreground. We stopped in Telluride, which was ablaze with color in this deep valley. Then on through Lizard Head pass with oohs and aahs every time we took a turn. Wilson peak with a little snow on top and all the greens and gold below was the highlight of the day.

Wilson Peak

About noon, we came out of the mountains onto the sage brush plains. Our stop the Anasazi Museum outside Dolores, which gives a good history of the region. People have lived here since 11000 BC, but the most famous occupants were the Anasazi people from about 700 AD until they left in 1300 AD. They are most famous for the dwelling in Mesa Verde, but there are over 6000 ruins of their buildings in this region. Pueblos, Kivas, towers, and pit houses are all around this area. The best theory as to why they left is that the weather changed enough so that they no longer could grow corn here.
We continued on through four corners area - boy has this changed since our last visit. They are removing all the wood stalls and replacing them with brick, while the monument itself is now out of concrete. We continued our journey toward Monument Valley. This is dry, desert land, but the colors are really splendid.

To Ouray

Fall Colors on Monarch Pass

Today was mostly a travel day. We headed southwest from Denver on US 285. The aspen were displaying their colors on Kenosha pass where we stopped for lunch. But the highlight of the day was going over Monarch pass on US 50. The colors were a mix of green, yellow, and orange. Every time we took a corner a new view of aspen against the dark green of the conifer trees would arise. The river banks were also covered in yellow cottonwood trees.
We reached Ouray about 5 PM. Ouray is surrounded by mountains on 3 sides. It is often called the little Switzerland of Colorado because of the nature of these peaks. We had just enough light left to visit Box Canyon Falls. The falls drops about 200 feet here in a narrow, 20-foot wide canyon along the fault line. You can't see much of the falls, but you sure can hear it.
Dinner was at the Main Street Restaurant, a nice family place. Time to call it a day.