20240915 EF Go Ahead National Parks Bus Tour Day 4/20 - Durango, Colorado to Mesa Verde, Colorado

American West Bus Tour Day 4/20 - Durango, Colorado, and then on to Mesa Verde

We awoke to another beautiful day. Weather predictions showed chances of rain, but it never impacted us. We drove through some and saw some off in the distance, but other than a drop or two that fell while we were in Durango, we had perfect weather all day.

Today was a big bus day. The ride from Santa Fe to Durango, Colorado was approximately four hours. We drove for a couple of hours, taking in the sights along the way.

Crossing the Rio Grande

The colors in the rocks changed based on their mineral composition

You can’t have a bus of seniors in motion for more than two hours without taking a bathroom break. There were two problems with that today. First, in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, there are very few places to stop. Second, the Park Service facility where this tour usually stops was closed for maintenance. Enter the Chama Valley Supermarket / Ace Hardware. 

They graciously allow tour groups to use the bathroom in the back of the store. Did I say, “bathrooms”? Nope. Bathroom. One. For 30 passengers, one driver, and one tour director. Lucky for us, about a block away, the Welcome Center was open on a Sunday and they had two more bathrooms that we could use.

We got back on the bus for the next two-hour ride to Durango, Colorado, taking in more fantastic views.

Chimney Rock

Chimney Rock and Companion Rock

Durango is an old railroad town and has kept much of that look.

The first order of business was lunch. We chose Fired Up Pizzeria. After reviewing all their wood-fired selections, we settled for this:

We promptly apologized to everyone on the bus for our selection

We got an eyeful while eating...

Stay classy, Durango!

We had time to walk the main street in town. We did a little shopping and sightseeing, checking out the Western flavor of the town.

Main Street

Howdy, Pardner!

OK, this was a little out of place

Back near our bus pick-up area, we explored the Durango & Silverton Narrow Guage Railroad and Museum.

The place can only be described as eclectic. It had trains, of course. It also had cars, planes, model trains, military items, minerals, basically a little bit of everything. It sits right at the train station. The train is now a tourist attraction and it runs to Silverton and back to Durango.

A locomotive turntable

These two were wandering around the tracks between the buildings.

Just a pair of mule deer, wandering the tracks

As we continued meeting the other travelers on this tour, we ran into Red & Jo. We met them on our Viking World Cruise in 2021-2022 and shared a table with them in a café in Malaga, Spain. The world really is a small place.

We arrived back at the bus where our Bus Captain, Robin, greeted us with her familiar and genuine smile.

We boarded the bus for the next one-hour stretch to Mesa Verde National Park. 

Mesa Verde, or Green Table, is a national park around a massive mesa – Mesa Verde. Mesas are easily recognizable because of the flat appearance of their peaks – hence the table description.

After entering the park, we started the slow climb up the mesa. The views from the bus along the way were stunning.

We made an unplanned stop at Park Point Fire Lookout Tower.

Park Point is the highest point in Mesa Verde National Park at 8,572’ above sea level.

We could see four states from this vantage point, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah.

We got on the bus one last time for the ten-minute ride to Far Point Lodge, still in the park, and our crash pad for the night. It is a strange place as most of the rooms are not in the main lodge. Other buildings are scattered throughout the lodge area. The idea of giving everyone an amazing view from atop the mesa. Unfortunately, we wound up in the cheap seats as the view from our room was a bush. I didn’t bother taking a photo.

There are no TVs in the room, cell service is barely there, and there is no usable internet. It is all designed so you feel more a part of the place and take it all in. Well, if the view from our small patio was anything more than a bush, perhaps. But it wasn’t, so it was a little lost on us. I’ll take a room with more creature comforts. Beyond that, the room had a small desk, a fridge, and two queen beds so that meant we were sleeping separately tonight. After 41 years in a king bed, a queen just doesn’t cut it.

The shower was basically the size of a cruise ship shower with all the water pressure of an 80-year-old man peeing. So there was that too.

We walked back to the main lodge for dinner. We caught the remnants of a sunset so that was nice.

After dinner, we had to walk back up the hill to our room. This area is a dark sky area so there is little illumination to light your way. We weren’t able to take in a great star view as the moon had a little something to say about that.

We will be up early tomorrow. We will take the bus to a restaurant for breakfast and then depart for our tour of Mesa Verde with a local guide. All that starts at 7:15 tomorrow morning so time for some shuteye.