Monday, May 23, 2005
Why It's Better in Colorado

AKC dog shows follow the same schedule every year.

Presidents Day weekend in February is always the big 4 day dog show in Denver. Mid July takes me to the shows in Eagle Colorado, unless I go to the Houston shows that weekend. Early March is Scottsdale, Arizona, Labor day weekend is Cheyenne, Wyoming, And mid May means shows in Cortez Colorado.

Is there any more beautiful time of the year to drive thru this part of the country?


Not only is the scenery spectacular, but the variety is unbelieveable. Yesterday there was still 4 feet of snow at the Wolf Creek pass summit, on either side the temp was in the mid 80s.

The valley on the western side of the Wolf Creek pass is home to Pagosa Springs and is incredibly green and lush, I think this area rivals Lake Tahoe (circa 1980) as the most beautiful place in the country. On the eastern side of the pass the trees were just beginning to bloom.



The town of Cortez itself is one of my favorite places in Colorado. If you look on a map it looks like a pretty unremarkable little town. It is actually the "home base" for people visting Mesa Verde, one of the richest archeaological sites in the entire world.

It borders the Ute Mountain reservation, and is within an hour from the Navajo Nation borders. It is also within an hour or so drive of Four Corners and not too far from Monument Valley.

Because of the international nature of the visitors to Mesa Verde, the restaurants are surprisingly varied, plentiful and very good.

Shopping is terrific with lots of galleries featuring Native American art, textiles and jeweley. And there are lots of great pawn shops. I don't typically frequent pawn shops except in this part of the country. I think almost my entire collection of Pendleton wool blankets came from pawn shops in Cortez and Farmington, New Mexico, including my favorite which is actually a purple Chief Joseph shawl that came with the tags still on it. Price? $30!!!

Obligatory Knitting Content

I finished Ivy early Thursday morning before I left on my trip. I still need to find just the right buttons before I can wear it. Right now it's blocking, I would provide a picure but it's being blocked on a towel that is the exact same color as the yarn it's made from, meaning the picture was lacking any apparent detail. So pictures still to come....

Anne at 10:00 AM        
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