Cortez, CO

We left Arkansas in mid June heading to California with a planned stop in Cortez, Colorado. We were not on I 40 long before we opted for the back roads. Our first stop was at Boiling Springs State Park near Woodward, Oklahoma. It was a nice campground with a bike trail that we couldn't resist. From there we took the mountain route into New Mexico and enjoyed camping along the Red River at June Bug Campground near Red River, NM. It wasn't long before I was alongside the Red River with fly rod in hand.

We stopped in Cortez to visit with Leon's high school chum, Greg, and his wife Elaine. They showed us one fine time.

We accompanied Elaine, Greg, and their friends Sherman and Diane on this 66 mile ride in the San Juan National Forest north of Cortez.


The scenery in the mountains north of Cortez was absolutely awesome. We couldn't have found a better place to ride the quad or better people to ride with.

On June 15 the fab four packed a picnic and went to Mesa Verde National Park for the day. We learned about kivas, pithouses, monoliths and the culture of the Ancestral Puebloans, the politically correct term for the Indians that were called Anasazi.

We explored the Spruce House and some of the smaller sites and stopped at many of the overlooks viewing the abundant ruins along Chapin Mesa Road.

At the overlooks you could view many of the ruins across the canyon floor. Some are open for tours; others are not.


We took another day trip with the quads; this time to the canyonlands area west of Cortez. The scenery was quite different from our mountain ride but equally as interesting.

How excited we were to look across the river and spot our own ancient ruins.

It called for further investigation so through the river we went. Elaine loves to splash through mud puddles but sometimes she prefers to wade through the deeper waters!

No sooner had we crossed back through the river than Leon looked back and spotted another ruin. And again we had to take a closer look. We could only imagine what these ruins would look like if they were excavated.

We were obviously on a rarely traveled path. Greg led the way back to the road.


This ride was as close to a roller coaster ride as I care to get. It was another great day. You can see more photos of our Colorado trip.