San Juan Skyway - The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips - page 437

Today visitors can experience a similar sense of discovery as they roam through these
apartment-like cliff dwellings, most built in the middle of the 12th century. They range in
size from one-room “studios” to structures containing hundreds of rooms.
At the Chapin Mesa Museum, lifelike dioramas and various exhibits on basket weav-
ing, pottery, masonry, and other skills trace the evolution of Puebloan culture from its be-
ginnings in settlements along the Colorado River to its demise nearly eight centuries later.
No one knows for sure why these ancient people abandoned their homes, but some
suggest the soil became exhausted from overfarming. Others claim a period of relentless
colddrovethemaway.Oneofthemoreplausibleexplanationssuggeststhat,beginningone
summer in the 13th century, the rain stopped and did not return for more than 20 years. By
then, the cliff dwellings had become ghostly ruins where nothing moved but the wind.
We can only guess at the fate of these people, but it is likely that they dispersed
throughout the Southwest and that some of the Indians who now live in northern Arizona
and New Mexico are among their descendants.
13. Mancos
FromMesaVerdeNationalPark,thedrivecontinueseastonRte.160toalushvalleyoccu-
pied by the ranching town of Mancos, which exudes Old West ambience. Nearby Mancos
Lake State Park has a lovely campground in the midst of a ponderosa pine forest, and the
lake itself is a paradise for boaters and anglers.
Heading east again, the road passes through ranchland and aromatic sagebrush flats to
Cherry Creek, the locale where novelist Louis L'Amour penned the westerns that immor-
talized southwestern Colorado. The wide-open spaces continue all the waytoDurango,the
drive's point of origin. Thrilled by the captivating views throughout the San Juan Moun-
tains, many a motorist has simply turned around and driven the entire route back in the
opposite direction.