SW US Trip with Marion C. and Sue Hope
Cortez, Colorado, Stop 15
June 3 - Day 22 - To, and In, Cortez
Up on Wednesday morning and had breakfast at the hotel (no improvement) and ran by Walker's on the way out of town to pick up some items we didn't get earlier. We hit the road for Cortez, only about 115 miles, planning to see Mesa Verde before meeting our cousins, the Goods. Along the way to Cortez, we came to a place where traffic was stopped. We finally figured that they were prying rocks loose on an embankment above the road. After a number of rocks were pried loose and rolled down the embankment, the traffic was allowed to pass. I tried to get some shots of the rocks falling but a still photo didn't do them justice. You can see the workmen prying them loose in the first photo and the falling rocks and dust they kicked up just above the center of the red SUV ahead of us in the second. Like I said, unimpressive in a still photo.
We continued on to Cortez, getting in about 10:30 AM. We first went to Mesa Verde and roamed around a bit. The panorama, from two photos, below is of the Cliff Palace, the largest of the cliff dwellings.
We elected to skip the guided tour into the ruins. There are a number of other sites that can be seen from overlooks along the rim of the canyon but I didn't get photos of them. We had lunch at the Far View Terrace near the Visitor's Center, then headed down from the mountain to Lewis (just out of Cortez) to see the Goods.
We had never met Martha Good but had interacted with her son, Victor, who lives nearby in Florida. Martha is the great granddaughter of Florence Virginia Hope Nix, our great aunt and sister of our grandfather, George Henry Hope, Jr. That makes us second cousins, once removed. We found their home and on driving up the drive, were immediately amazed at the proliferation of beautiful flowers around their property. We had a great visit with Martha and Leo. Martha is a remarkably talented person and their home is decorated with her work - she lays a mean stone wall too (grin). After discussing family relationships, drinking mint tea and getting a tour of the property and home, we posed for the mandatory group picture below.
Did I say they had a lot of beautiful flowers? (grin)
Here are a couple of shots down into the throats of some Irises.
After a really nice visit, bonding with our newly found cousins, we drove into Cortez, checked into our hotel. After an excellent dinner at Lotsa Pasta, we tumbled into bed. Tomorrow, we start the looooong drive to San Antonio.