Mittwoch, 26. Oktober 2016

On to Utah's Canyonlands

Monday morning, when we left Pagosa Springs in the morning after breakfast, we had ice on the car windows, but bright sun. It was an easy one-hour drive (70 mi.) to Durango, an attractive little town with a quaint main street, two famous historic hotels and the railroad station for the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (station shown on right picture). We have visited Durango last year after Go West Summit in February and got to love it. Of course, we had to revisit the Toh-Atin Gallery, wonderful Indian art, though out of our price range.

On to Utah now, via Monticello to Bluff, where our first stop was the Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum, with ruins of an authentic pueblo outside and interesting findings dating to prehistoric times, discovered in of the whole area in the museum. Thanks to our friend Charlie, we got a chance to get a behind-the-scenes tour in the archives and besides pottery, basketery, arrow points and many other relicts in amazing condition, we saw the most beautiful sandals (see pic) we have ever seen, from around 1000 A.D.

From a view point high up, with a picturesque cemetery, we got an overview of Bluff, a rather spread out green little town of about 600 people. It is considered the hub of Utah's Canyonlands and though the town is pretty peaceful now, it is much more populated in the summer, though by far not as busy as Moab - which makes it sort of a hidden gem. Unfortunately the weather had changed in the afternoon and it had become cloudy, but temps were still over 70 deg. F. (22 deg. C).

Our hotel, La Posada Pintada, was a gem, a beautiful little boutique hotel in a newly built adobe construction with only 20 rooms on two floors. Rooms were tastefully furnished and designed, each room with its own patio with a view towards the mountains (see pic). We especially loved the bathroom, with two ornamental sinks, whirlpool bath tub and shower separately.

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