Yesterday, 26 September 2023, we rode from Durango, Colorado, to Page, Arizona, a ride of 230 miles/370kms.  It was pretty easy and we spent a couple hours exploring Mesa Verde National Park which is about 40 miles west of Durango and was designated a national park by Teddy Roosevelt in 1906.  MB and I had driven past Mesa Verde numerous times while living in El Paso, boy did we make a mistake but I will let the photos in the gallery make my case.

I was riding alone for this segment.  I am having a hard time waiting until 10am to start riding and I want to do other things than just ride motorcycles.  This time of year we have eleven to eleven and a half hours of daylight so waiting until 10am, you have wasted 25% of it already.  Riding solo has some advantages like stopping when you wish, riding att your own pace and using the cruise control which is hard to do when following other riders.

The transition from mountains and skiing and snow to more of a desert with a southwestern flavor occurs so quickly.  Durango is definitely Colorado while 40 miles west in Cortez you feel like you are in the dessert and it has more of a New Mexican flavor.  

I explored Mesa Verde for three or four hours from my motorcycle stopping to take photos now and again.  I spent a little time in the museum but would love to go back and spend two or three days exploring the park.  The cliff dwelling themselves were very reminisent of the Gila Cliff Dwellings just north of Silver City, NM.  My family spent many weekends camping with our friends and horses in the Gila National Forest during our twenty years in El Paso.  I believe the dwellings at Mesa Verde may be 500 years older.  Cortez, Colorado would be an excellent base to explore Mesa Verde as it is only ten miles west of the park.

Cortez to Page is 220 miles mostly through the Navajo Reservation, which I believe is the largest Native American reservation in the US.  It is beautiful and so desolate.  We really hosed the Native Americans.  I don't think you could grow cactus on their land.  As I said, it is beautiful and a lot of the ride was through land which Biden has designated as the Escalante National Monument which is usually the first step toward national park status.

We are at Page, Arizona for two nights.  Page is kind of the center for exploring the area and it sits on Lake Powell and is two hours north of the Grand Canyon.  Lots and lots of red and vermillion cliffs in all directions.  Later today we are going to get a guided tour of Antelope Canyon (very famous slot canyon) and I hope to get a few good photos.  I brought a fisheye lens all the way from Alaska to use here.  Also, near is Horseshoe Bend where the Colorado River doubles back on itself.  Last time I was here I did not have a wide enough lens for my Leica to record the entire U the river makes and I hope to correct that today.

There are lots of new photos in the gallery from the past two days of riding.  Again, comments to me at ktmrider2[at]live[dot]com