Tailored....

So we've been moving. Friday afternoon the winds in AZ were 30-40 steady and the Navajo Reservation (where Canyon De Chelly is) was in the process of being consumed by a dust storm. Being the lightest and most agile camper in the campground meant that we were packed in 10 minutes, taking refuge in the car and on the phone with Tim in NY looking for options.
We high tailed it North East through the night to Mesa Verde National Park, arriving about midnight. Vanessa got to try my in car sleeping quarters during the ride ("Uhhhh, Max is sitting on my face again!") LOL

We got to two overlooks before the wind and dust made the view almost completely obscured. I went back to the campground, got our money back ("I have asthma and can't do this air" worked!) and we headed for the mountains. About 30 minutes north of Cortez CO we hit the real forest. The ooohs and ahh's started up and I realized that Vanessa has never been on the real woods, seen a stand of trees over 20ft tall or played with snow. Well it was all there at once for her to see. We pulled over a lot. We we're aiming the GPS at Aspen, and I knew we'd find somewhere before then... Suddenly we are passing Telluride. Hey, I know that name... Fancy ski resort right? YUP! We did a nice real estate shopping drive through of the mansion district (mountain village) and then went down to the historic part of town. Hey, wouldn't you know it, its the total off season here (between Skiing and the summer festival seasons), feels like a ghost town and the town park has a campground, half empty right in the middle of town on the river. We have a tent site 20 feet from a raging river, snowy peak views on three sides and a 5 minute walk into the main town. Wonderful!

The air is clear, sun is shining and it couldn't have gotten lower than 45 last night. We went to a local bar last night for dinner. We are going to take a day off here and see when the dust settles in UT and AZ so we can continue our tour of the four corners.