Yesterday, I was feeling good and very determined not to spend Saturday of a holiday weekend sitting in the house. I asked Dave if we could go to Ouray and sit in the hot springs. He said can we do it on Monday, cause I’m worried about you sitting in the car that long. Its a two hour trip up and back.

Ok, so I start looking for whats happening around here and i found these great ruins called Hovencamp about thirty -sixty minutes away.
forst, we got detoured and turned around by pur GPS. Wasted thirty minutes driving unnecessarily. Once on the right track, it seemed we were driving through the middle of nowhere for twenty loooong minutes. (Cause we were!)

Finally, we arrived and Dave heard we would have to hike a little bit and started worrying about me. I told him I felt good, so lets go. We donned our big hats, grabbed a bottle of water and took off! There’s a gallery of my photos, Dave hasn’t sent me his yet.

So I have Daves pics now, but I wanted to explain that this place is and feels sacred. When we got up on the high side of the canyon rim, the wind started huffing at us and then settled again. It was a good thing my hat was secured!

These are all basically the same pics with me in them this time. By the time we headed back to the office, it was 85° and our clothes were stuck to us, I hated to take off my hat because I was sweating like a hot dog!

I jokingly said to the park ranger that what she said was a bridge was not so in my eyes. I misunderstood her evidently, because the only way to get from one side to the other is to hike 80 ft down and then back up the other side. Otherwise, one walks around the rim and the turns around and goes back all at the top of the rim. I’ll show you a picture.

So we hiked from the visitors center to the Square Tower, or so Dave said. Then turned back and went where the map doesn’t show for a little ways.

These dwellings are of the ancestors of today’s Pueblo Indians lived. Round, square, and D-Shaped towers at canyon heads mark once-thriving communities. No one has lived in them for over 700 years! There are so many unanswered questions like why did the build right on the rim of the canyon. Not safe! Where did they go and why did they leave? Drought? Running from enemies? No one knows, but its awe-inspiring just the same. Like the boulder house. How in the world did they do that?

After out adventure there, we had to figure out how to get out of there back to Cortez (where I thought we were going to eat) but Daves GPS was acting funky again. We drove a few miles in the wrong direction, but once we got on track, the 42 mile drive was absolutely gorgeous. I never saw this part of Colorado and it was too beautiful for my eyes to take in, much less get a picture of.

I managed a few but they don’t begin to describe how awe-inspiring the views were! We came out of desert into lush green farm land with trees and mountains rising all around. We saw houses where it seemed impossible to live, we saw rock formations that defied gravity. It was just amazing and the whole time I’m thinking Lord please let me get out of this car with no problems! My back was taxed to the max, but I’m still up and walking, Praise Jesus!

We left Cortez and went back to Dolores and stopped for ‘linner” at our favorite Mexican restaurant that I can never remember the name of. I indulged in a coconut Margarita and a taco salad, Dave had an enchilada plate and his regular Coronarita. When we got home, I turned right around and went for another walk, I guess I was scared to sit down. I walked the entire park before I finally let myself rest.

I’m sore but mostly sleepy. I was up at 4am!