After wrapping up at Mesa Verde on Monday afternoon, we made our way to the funky hideaway Kelly Place. It’s an incredibly archaeologically rich B&B/campsite tucked away in the red rock canyons near Cortez, CO, and the boys shared our fascination as we hiked around the dry arroyo & restored kivas (underground storage/community structures created by the native inhabitants).
You can check out a few images plus this 360º panorama I captured via early-morning drone flight (drag down to spot the tiny red Westy 😌):
After a nice hot breakfast, we headed north towards the spectacular Arches National Park, home to soaring spires & seemingly impossibly balanced rocks and flying arches. Much like clouds, the miles of rock formations offer a million interpretive possibilities, and we had a ball calling out the things we saw—from “Seamus Rock” to Santa’s “Chimnaysium” where we think he practices column-descending in the off season.
Sadly Hen’s legs were pretty thrashed from run-ins with stinging plants earlier in the day, so his explorations with Mom-O were cut somewhat short. They did make it out towards Delicate Arch, and meanwhile Finn & I got to scramble all around the Window Arches.
Check out some rather amazing (if I may say so!) photos we captured, as well as this crazy little video:
After taking in our fill of the sights, we set out to find medicine, cold compresses, and ice cream (hey, why not?) to mend Hen’s throbbing legs, after which we headed to our campsite for the evening. Fortunately he mended quickly enough that we were able to explore the unattended freight train he was delighted to see sitting just across the way.
Here’s a small set of images from our sunset sojourn.
