If you’re not interested in the traditional autumn pastimes of football, hunting and cleaning the garage, Colorado’s beautiful fall days are perfect for road-tripping. Point the car northeast or southwest for two different, but equally fine, adventures.
Southwest|Visit Mesa Verde after the tourists have gone home.
A special centennial commemorating Mesa Verde’s establishment as a national park in 1906 has been going on since May. While crowds dissipate after Labor Day, ranger tours of Balcony House are available daily through Oct. 9, while Cliff Palace can be toured until Nov. 4. Spruce Tree House and the museum stay open all year.
Now is the time to take advantage of rare tours to parts of the park few have seen.
Spaces are still available on daily hikes to Spring House through October. The ranger- led hikes, limited to 14 people, cost $65. Spring House is still under excavation and thus unusually fragile; it gets its name from an active spring that seeps from a sandstone cliff inside the site. Visitors haven’t been allowed on the trail up to Spring House since the 1970s.
It’s an 8-mile, all-day trek, not for the out-of-shape. Each day’s hike leaves at 9 a.m. from the Chapin Mesa Museum. Prepaid reservations are mandatory.
Down the road, the annual Mesa Verde Country Wine and Art Festival is Oct. 6-7, featuring wine dinners around the region and a Saturday wine tasting and art viewing in Cortez City Park.
Northeast|Experience the Nebraska Junk Jaunt.
Also known as the World’s Longest Garage Sale, the annual Junk Jaunt covers 220 miles and encompasses about 40 communities in an area roughly bounded by three Nebraska highways: 2, 11 and 91. The third annual Jaunt takes place Saturday and Sept. 24-25.
Started as a way to get people to drive the scenic two-lanes of the Loup Valley and Sandhills regions of central Nebraska, the Jaunt has taken on a life of its own. Charter buses drive out from Omaha. Vendors can be as big as a flea market or as small as a card table on somebody’s porch.
The premise is simple: Some people put out stuff and other people come along and buy it. Start anywhere, stop anywhere, stay as long as you like, buy as much as your car can hold. The rules say you can sell anything legal: auto salvage, horse tack, antiques, woodwork and lots of tasty homemade baked goods. The Junk Jaunt is user-friendly.
Among the stops: Cairo, so named because the original survey engineer thought the sand-
hills looked like a desert; the streets have names like Nubia, Medina and Suez. Dannebrog, home of humorist Roger Welsch, whose latest book is “What I Know About Women, I Learned From My Tractor.” Ravenna, where you can sample kolaches of German, Polish, Czech and Scandinavian origin. North Loup, the Popcorn Capital of Nebraska. Hazard, whose unofficial motto appears to be “We Got Cows.”
You know I am not making a single word of this up. You can go to junkjaunt.com and read about it yourself. Download a map while you’re at it, and we’ll see you on the road.
The details
To find out more about the Mesa Verde National Park Spring House hiking trips or reserve a spot, visit the Mesa Verde Centennial Web page at mesaverde 2006.org or call 866-669-8227.
The Morefield Campground inside the park is open through Oct. 18, and the Far View Lodge is open through Oct. 21. More details about Mesa Verde, including days and hours of operation and how to reserve lodging, can be found at the National Park Service’s official Mesa Verde site, nps.gov/archive/meve/home.htm.
Food, drink and a place to sleep are available year-round in the communities near Mesa Verde, including Cortez and Dolores, Mancos and Towaoc. A travel planner and links to lodging, food and event information is at mesaverdecountry.com, or call 800-449-2288.
Details of the Third Annual Nebraska Junk Jaunt, including links to information about all the towns on the tour, are at
junkjaunt.com. The site includes a downloadable map and an online store to buy the Junk Jaunt Guide. The book will be available most spots on the route.
The Hazard, Neb., Cow Fan Pages – along with lots of information about local history, geography and characters – can be visited at nctc.net/~hazard.
Nebraska information in quantity: visitnebraska.com. Go to the site or call 877-NEBRASKA for a copy of the state’s travel planner.
Lisa Everitt is a freelance writer who lives in Arvada. Contact her at lisaeveritt@comcast.net.
