Colorado Rocky Mountain High

From Colorado Springs we headed southwest through beautiful grasslands full of wild sunflowers until we reached the Arkansas River that made its way through a stunning gorge.  The river was busy with trout fisherman and white water rafters and small campgrounds lay beneath the tall pines along the banks.  The mountain range we drove beside held some of the state’s 54 fourteeners (mountains 14,000 feet or higher) and it was easy to locate the different life zones up the sides after learning about them the day before at Pikes Peak.  As we drove on and cut through the ranges we entered the perfectly flat San Luis Valley where farmers harvested wheat and hay.  Nearing the south we travelled over the San Juan mountains, steep winding roads climbing to high altitudes before dropping us down again through a series of switchbacks to place us on the Trail of the Ancients and past huge mesas (flat topped hills or mountains with steep sides) and buttes (bee-utes are small rock formations left once a mesa has eroded).   We were in Ute Indian country and visited the well-preserved archaeological ruins at Mesa Verde National Park, a world heritage site.  About AD 550 the Ancestral Pueblo people built entire cities inside caves on the sheltered alcoves of the canyon walls.  The cliff dwellings were amazing and we spent half the day here visiting and learning about their lifestyle.  Colorado has so many diverse landscapes; we have been trying to imagine the snow covered peaks of the Rockies and wish we could stay longer.