Wednesday, June 28
Drove to Durango via 9/285 through Poncha Springs. Took 160 to Monta Vista and stayed outside of Durango at a KOA. Good site, close to the facilities and nice and flat.
That evening Steph and Svea hung at the Starbucks and Sven hit some trails up on the Mesa away from the forest fire that loomed over town. Great ride, went a bit over and Svea and Steph were sitting on the curb out front after getting the boot from Starbucks…that sucks, but the biking was Fantastic.
Thursday, June 29th
After another fantastic Sven breakfast we headed to Mesa Verde to see the amazing cliff dwellings. Really neat. Crazy how people lived so high up in these pueblos. Alien landscape, seemingly flat land that falls away to massive canyons. We made it back to Durango for our scheduled whitewater raft trip. Superfun! Had a great time with our guide, Diego (20 yrs old!) and a family from Lubbock, TX. We all paddled, sometimes for show, but a few times we really had to give it to it. Sven and Svea had the front and definitely took a brunt of the ‘cold’ water with Sven’s corner ‘randomly’ taking the first hit on every wave. Afterward we had dinner at Ninas Mexican joint and found an awesome state park campsite at Target Tree. Excellent and unique campsites, very quiet and cool night made for great sleeping (and stars). Sven thought he heard elk bugling, but on the morning’s hike he found the source, cows of the beef variety. Fire above Durango growing steadily, 300 acres after 3 days with ‘little containment.’
