When we arrived in Spanish Fork my dad wanted to show us this cute little rest area. It is based around the railroad history in Spanish Fork Canyon. They had informational signs and a really cool replica of the type of Railroad car that they used.
Our next stop was in Moab to grab some lunch and we decided we would take a tour at "The Hole in the Rock". They wouldn't let us take pictures inside :( - It was an actual home for many years to Albert and Gladys Christensen. I can't quite remember but I think it was around the 1940's they had blown an area out of the rock and opened a restaurant there which became very popular. It eventually closed and they began blowing out more sections of the rock to make their home. It took them 20 years to finish it. It was interesting to see all of their ideas on how to heat and provide electricity inside their home. After Albert died, Gladys lived there until she passed away. They are both actually buried there! There are a few shops surrounding it on the outside and some fun little spots to see along the walkways.
We arrived in Cortez around 4 pm, got settled in at our motel, grabbed some dinner and the kids swam in the pool.
On our second day of the trip we drove 45 minutes to Durango. We were going to ride the Durango/Silverton Narrow Gauge train. This historic train has been in operation for 128 years carrying passengers behind vintage steam locomotives. It has been featured in many movies! The train starts in Durango and will take you to the old mining town of Silverton and then back to Durango. Now each way is a 3 1/2 hour ride. We didn't think we would last that long each way but you have an option to take a bus either way and then ride the train either way.
We chose to ride the bus up to Silverton. We had really cool bus driver! Driver Jim was awesome! He talked about many interesting facts about the Durango and Silverton area and about the train.
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| Part of the Old Pony Express Trail |
When we arrived in Silverton we had two hours to walk around before we rode the train back to Durango. It is a VERY small town and some of the stores were closed. We had a yummy lunch at Natalia's.
We took an old time photo of the four of us while Mom and Dad looked around some shops. We met back up and got ready to board the train back to Durango.
The train ride back was really cool! The scenery was beautiful! We could open the windows a little bit to let in fresh air and it even rained a little bit to cool things off. Three and half hours was quite long and I think all of us took a short nap :) but it was a really cool thing to say you did it once!
We were gone all day and didn't get back to the hotel until about 6 pm. We all were very tired. We relaxed in our motel room and talked to Mom and Dad while the kids went swimming again.
Our third day of our trip was our first day at Mesa Verde. Mesa Verde has ruins where Pueblo Indians once lived between 900-1200 A.D. There are a lot of sites to visit! Our first stop was the Chaplin Mesa Museum.
The first site right next to the museum was called Spruce Tree House. Most of the sites you have to walk to with some switchback trails or uphill walks but they aren't too bad. All of the sites are just amazing.
The next stop was one of three guided tours that you have to pay for. We chose to do two because the third one seemed a little steep and had high ladders to climb - Yes we are a bunch of babies! The first site was Cliff Palace. Your Ranger takes you through the tour, tells you about that certain site and what they think life was like during that time using their best guess from what they have excavated and studied. They had a lot of it roped off so we couldn't walk through certain areas. This was for everyone's safety since some of the dwelling was unstable. The rangers were very strict that you could only bring in water - no other food or drink. You also couldn't lean against the walls or touch the walls.
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| Ranger Josh |
The next stops are sites you can drive right up to. These were called Pithouses and Pueblos. There were about five sites to stop at and I took a lot of pictures but here are a few.
The last stop of the day was Sun Temple. It was never finished and nobody knows what the purpose of it was supposed to be. It almost looks like a maze and there are no rooms in it.
We had a picnic lunch and then went back to the motel to rest and get ready for dinner. We ate at a restaurant called The Dry Dock Restaurant and Pub. The food was OK. There really weren't a lot of good restaurant choices in Cortez. After dinner, we all went swimming and sat in the hot tub to rest our aching feet :).
The next day was our second day of Mesa Verde. There are less stops on this route but they take a little bit longer to walk to and to get through. Our first stop was the second site we had paid for called "The Long House". Hands down it was everyone's favorite site! It was huge and we could walk through pretty much all of it. Our ranger Tim was excellent and very informative.
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| There is vegetation due to natural springs in the dwelling! |
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| Mom and "her husband" Ranger Tim! During his tour he was talking about what the Pueblo's life might be like and as an example said Mom was his "wife". |
We really enjoyed our days at Mesa Verde. Dustin and I weren't sure if the kids would like it but they really were interested in all the sites. We went back to the Motel to clean up and change.
For dinner, we went to the "Bar D" chuckwagon dinner and show. We have seen the "Bar J" Wranglers, from Jackson Hole, while they have performed in UT and we love their show. The "Bar D" were good but the dinner was rushed. Our table was one of the last ones served. They want everyone finished eating before the show starts so we were basically shoveling our food. We ate so fast that Caden got a stomach ache!
We were going to go home the next day but decided to go back to Moab and stay one more night. We stopped at Newspaper Rock. That was one place that Dustin wanted to see.
We had a picnic at a really cute park then we walked around Moab looking through their shops. It was very hot and Dad bought everyone ice cream. Moab was really beautiful! The red rock mountains and the Colorado river running through it was breathtaking.
For dinner, Mom and Dad wanted to take us to the Sorrell Ranch. You take a very pretty drive into the canyon to get there but on the way we stopped at the Red Cliffs Lodge first. This is a very classy and gorgeous Lodge that have suites or cabins only for the great price of $200 to $300 a night! However, so gorgeous! They have a restaurant and winery, a lot of activities, and a movie museum. The museum houses pictures and some props from films, commercials, etc. that were filmed in Utah.
