Day 7 27 July Mesa Verde National Park

Off to Mesa Verde at about 7:45 AM. We loaded our goodies all of us including Cooper the traveling Pug in the Dodge and away we went. We drove down HWY 160 to Pagosa Springs and as we were going through town saw a goldsmiths shop so we stopped and visited with a real nice lady that was the goldsmith. Summer Phillips she was just great gave us all the info we needed so we could find out the true value of the chunk. Summer weighed the chunk, it weighed 28 Grams of a Troy ounce. She also told us that she felt it has some sort of alloy in it and was more like processed gold than a nugget, that is how we felt because of the color. Summer said that the value would just depend on the actual pure gold content but figured that low ball was over $500.00. She also cleaned and steamed Donna's rings and wow were they shinny. Summer gave us a mans name in Durango, CO and we were going through on the way so we stopped and talked with Bill Cook owner of the Jewelry Works in Durango. Bill was very nice and went over everything about the chunk with us. He suggested as did Summer that we get in contact with a gold refining company and they both recommended the same place and both said to tell them that they had recommended them. So that was great and back on the road we went. We got to the park and were able to enter free on Dales Golden Pass great savings. The main part of the park was some 20 miles in and up to around 7000FT elevation. The Cliff Dwellings are just amazing and I would have never guessed that there were so many of them. We got to the Museum and walked around a while then outside to a picnic area and had lunch then off to view the park and dwellings closer. We had a wonderful time in the park and headed home around 4:30 PM. On the way we say a place that raised Elk and stopped on the way home to see them closer but they were laying down in the back of the field. We stopped again in Pagosa Springs and had the best dinner we have had, just a great meal. Home at about 9:30 PM what a day it was just fantastic, we all were just wore plumb out.