Ruins around Cortez, Co Part 1

CWSkopec

Back in October (yes, October... I've been really behind!) I took a quick 4 day trip to Cortez, Colorado. It's just a small town right near the Four Corners, but there are some truly impressive sites to be seen there, including, but not limited to Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde holds a special place in my heart (and about 12 gbs of space on my hard drive from just one day! :rofl) and I'm still working through all the images I took there on the second day of my trip, so I'll stick to just images from my first day, a hike along the Sand Canyon Trail in the Canyon of the Ancients National Monument.

::As a side note, I've been able to get productive and start processing these photos because I have a new computer & nice big monitor, but I'm not 100% sold on the calibration being right, so along with the always welcome C&C, if the colors look off, please say so cause I probably didn't mean for them to look awful! :wink ::

1| Morning at Kelly Place (a nice little bed & breakfast I stayed at just a mile up the road from the Sand Canyon Trail Head) Hint - ruins of Swift House are on the cliff face


2| The top of Sue's Ruin, a reconstructed pueblo on the Kelly Place property, basks in the morning sun


3| The last remaining wall of Castle Rock Pueblo, an 800 year old, formerly 40+ structure village.


4| In other words, "Don't Touch!"


5| A small, unnamed ruin tucked into an alcove


6| Saddlehorn Hamlet - named for the rock formation above it


7| An up-close & panoramic view of Saddlehorn Hamlet


There's a few others in my Sand Canyon Trail Gallery but these were my personal favorites!

jdryan3

Very nice B&W shot of Saddlehorn

Bambi

what a wonderful place. I love the light and textures. of the set, my favourite is the close up of the wall.

Zaui

I also like #6.

An under-rated part of the country. Lots to see for ruins fans, including Canyon de Chelly in north-east Arizona and Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northern New Mexico.

CWSkopec

jdryan3 wrote: »

Very nice B&W shot of Saddlehorn

Thank you! The targeted adjustments in CS5 really helped me tweak that one just to my liking! That shot is actually a 6 shot vertical pano, but the sky and immediate foreground were too boring to justify leaving in the final. So I cropped it square.

Bambi wrote: »

what a wonderful place. I love the light and textures. of the set, my favourite is the close up of the wall.

Thank you! It's really an amazing area just to visit, but the textures make it even better to visit with a camera in hand!

Zaui wrote: »

I also like #6.

An under-rated part of the country. Lots to see for ruins fans, including Canyon de Chelly in north-east Arizona and Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northern New Mexico.

Thank you, Scott! It was a horribly difficult drive to Cortez and back home to San Diego. I think that about every 10 miles I saw a sign for another monument or historic site I wanted to stop at. It's amazing that I made it there and back without significant detour