Blogs from Cortez, Colorado, United States, North America - page 3

August 5th 2009 Doing a disservice It has occurred to me that, other than commenting on the weather and the availability of alcohol, I didn’t say very much about Salt Lake City. It is a curious city. Downtown SLC is very much the working heart of the city, housing a selection of banks and other sky-scraping office blocks. Wandering around on a Tuesday (?) afternoon, there was hardly a soul to see. Even at lunchtime during the school holidays. Nik asked a passer-by where the people were. The answer: the mall. She found the people and took photos of them as evidence. Whilst Nik summoned the energy to wander around the scorching city for the afternoon, I whimped out and relaxed by the pool. She had relatively little to report back except for the wedding taking ... read more

The Grand Canyon to Cortez via Monument Valley - 38°c Only just a little bit fragile from the night before, I woke up when my alarm went off at 7am and showered and packed ready for the coach departing at 7:45am. It was marginally comforting to see that the majority of the people attending the room parties last night were all feeling just as delicate as me this morning! And as I boarded the coach and noted the sea of heads peering above the seat in front each looking just as unenthusiastic about the early start as the next, I couldn’t help but smile! About 45 minutes after leaving the lodge, we arrived at a tower just south of the Grand Canyon where once again we got off and were treated for further spectacular views of ... read more

Hungover! Bad too =( Serves me right =P Went and had brekkie but couldn't eat much. Quickly packed and got on the bus... I realised I left my cardigan in our room which I'm actually pretty upset about. It was the Intimo one... Slept on the bus. We had an early lunch stop, in Kayenta, Macca's of course =P Again didn't eat much, just had a coke, and a couple chips. Back on the bus, then did a tour of Monument Valley. By the time we arrived there i felt fine... The we got onto this little buses and went down the bumpiest road ever. It was bumpier than rollercoasters. So then started feeling really sick. It was good seeing all the different shapes in the rocks... However, really sick of rocks by this point. Got ... read more

The Sand Canyon Trail in Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in southeast Colorado is probably the best hiking attraction of the this relatively new Monument. It runs for 6.5 miles north and south with the south trail head located about 12 miles west of Cortez, CO on County Road G. There is also the 5.0 mile East Rock Creek Loop Trail and two unnamed long loop trails plus the east Sand Canyon area to explore. There are at least 35 small Ancestral Pueblo ruins sites in this area. Castle Rock Pueblo The Castle Rock Pueblo Trail is the first spur off of the Sand Canyon Trail. From the front side of Castle Rock a small arch is visible to the left. Below the arch are the rubble remains of some of the estimated 40 ... read more

The drive out of the Grand Canyon’s North Rim was as good as it was coming in, not that it should have changed much in 24 hours - and what a fantastic commute for the park rangers. Our next stop was Page; a town that sprang up when the Glen Canyon Dam was built and Lake Powell was born, creating tourism in the shape of a huge watersports playground. However, just before we arrived in Page we stopped off at the stunning Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River. We had a wander around Page the following day and took root in a nice little bar with it’s own Microbrewery, where we watched some rare TV, and got talking to a Dutch couple who had to sit there and endure their national team being dumped out of ... read more