San Juan Skyway and Mesa Verde

In the south west of Colorado sits the San Juan Skyway, a loop of several roads that connects historical sites, a National Park, ski fields and incomparable views of the San Juan Mountains.

After a play in the park at Ridgway, we took the 550 south through the town of Ouray and then up, up, up beside the Uncompahgre Gorge towards the Red Mountain Pass, so called because the three mountains at the top are Red Mountain 1, 2 and 3.

And they really are RED!! A vivid orange-red.

The river flowing back towards Ridgway is a ridiculous shade of this orange-red.

Perhaps that's natural, given the mountains, or perhaps it's the result of a long history of mining in the region.

The century-old broken remnants of that history are visible all over the hillsides and valleys.

Silverton was only a short detour away and is the end point of the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad which we were lucky enough to see chuffing out of town en route to Durango (and several times again as we raced it south).

Silverton retains the character of its late 19th century origins with its dirt streets and character buildings set amongst the San Juan Mountains.

Through falling rain we crossed over two passes with views of the West Needle Mountains and Grenadier Range and then headed down in altitude towards Durango.

There we stayed at an RV Park and in the morning headed west towards Mesa Verde National Park.

This part of the loop (along the 160) is not as scenic as the rest but it's worth the drive to get to the world-heritage listed Mesa Verde which protects the cliff-side and mesa-top dwellings of the original Puebloan people.

The drive out to view the major sites takes you up onto the top of the mesa and across the top of it with vantage points out to the surrounding region (here, you're very close to the four corners - Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico).

With a storm brewing in the East we checked out the Spruce Tree House (a self-guided tour of a cliffside dwelling).

We had first attempted to watch a movie in the nearby Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum, but its slow pace led to the kind of wriggling noisiness that messes with other peoples' experiences and so we quickly departed.

We took Bessie on the Mesa Top Loop drive, stopping in to view the Square Tower House and Sun Temple and looking across to Cliff Palace (which can only be toured with a ranger-guided group - not something suitable for our little monkeys).

On our way back up towards the national park campground we stopped in at Cedar Tree Tower and the Far View Sites which preserve mesa-top sites.

We found a great open campsite at the Morefield Campground within the National Park and not long after, the heavens opened and doused us with heavy rain.

The next day we headed north on the 145, still not in sensationally beautiful territory, but after a play at a fantastic playground at Dolores, the scenery improved greatly and the road crossed over Lizard Head Pass, offering views of more vivid red-orange mountains.

We took a detour to the ski village of Telluride, thinking we would only stop in for a quick look, and instead were surprised to find a town campground right in the heart of it, with a vacant site beside a flowing creek.

Telluride is a very cool ski town. They have free gondola rides up to the top (St Sophie Station) and down the other side (to Mountain Resort Station) plus free bus shuttles around town.

Beside the town campground was a sensational playground and skate park (which we made use of) and several sports fields (where Indy avidly watched a local game of baseball).

When we asked the kids what they liked most, they both agreed the ride on the 'bongola' (gondola) was very cool. 

The next day, we crossed back to Ridgway and overnighted in Montrose.