Montrose to mesa verde 

This location at Montrose was our only chance to see the mesa verde and to travel through the red mountain pass. It is a 3 hour drive there. We were excited to go although not sure how easy it would be .

There are state parks and national forest parks all along until we reached a ski resort of Ridgeway. (1 hour)

Now we started to climb… up to a headway with such pretty views, then as we climbed we found stretching meadows lakes and near tops of mountains 

Ominous clouds developed at the top was lizard pass meadows and pine forests large and flat. So many wild flowers and streams. The sheep mountain elevation is 13000 and we seemed close to the top there. There are 3 mountains over 14000 feet. (We were high up but roads seemed safe except one part where half road had slipped down mountains and was being repaired. … one way traffic and road builders in charge of thoroughfares )

San Juan national forest covered the way down and the road following San Miguel river. (Another hour had passed and we just lapped up the beauty )

We started descending 

Rico was an old mining area and rundown old mines and houses everywhere was shut except gas station 

Next came lower camping fishing horseriding country and Cortez 

At last we had reached mesa verde national park 

It is so majestic towering above the landscape. The road winds around and up  with viewing places. I’ll let my photos speak for themselves sites we saw. It is unforgettable 

By now it was 3.30pm as we descended and decided to take a longer but easier route back or do we thought!

We headed for Durango and Silverton. The idea was this was an easier option then on to our hotel back through ridgeway.BOY WERE WE WRONG!

The red mountains pass was the scariest road vince has ever driven on and lots of hair pin bends and no crash barriers. The scenery and rocks were unbelievable. All colours red green yellow. Rockies at its most spectacular 

We survived.

What a brilliant day xxx

I’ll upload photos tomorrow as I ate chillies by mistake and am a little ill😩