After tearing down our tent, we headed to a nearby school playground to kill some time before Mancos' BurroFest. (This was also where I reserved our hotel for the next two nights).
BurroFest is a celebration of all things burro! A burro is another name for donkey (used more commonly in the Southwest). I aligned our travel dates to correspond with BurroFest because there's not a lot that happens in a small town like Mancos! Here, the boys petted a burro, and we bought burro cookies (cookies in the shape of a burro, not cookies for burros!)
Then we got ready for the main event -- an obstacle course for burros! After the opening parade of the participating burros (which were judged according to costume), they timed the burros to see who could be led through the course the fastest.
(the one in the background was Colson's favorite burro)
I was happy to see a fry bread stand, so I bought some for the boys to try for lunch. I prefer fry bread tacos (the savory kind). These were more like elephant ears/funnel cakes with cinnamon sugar. I tried putting peanut butter on one as a variation of the plain PBJ sandwiches, but they didn't go over too well.
Cooper and Calvin raced off to find a geocache. Carter and Colson get a little tired of geocaching, but the middle boys are always up for the hunt!
Cleaning up our lunch. Also at some point this day, we lost one of Colson's shoes. We looked all over the van and even drove by some of the places we parked. Until we went to the store, he had to wear his sandals (which would normally be fine, but they were falling apart, and the hot glue was starting to wear off).
We visited a bit more with Silver in the morning before leaving Mancos.
The only way Colson naps these days is when we're driving, so we took a drive to Canyons of the Ancients. I was trying to get to McPhee Reservoir, where we used to take teenagers every Monday night when I worked in Cortez, but I couldn't find the spot where we hiked. I was happy to stumble upon this place, though, and we were still able to see McPhee but from a different angle. Colson had indeed fallen asleep, so Amy stayed in the van with him (and for some downtime for herself), while I hiked with the big three.
Not sure what this animal in the shade was...
This was one of our first opportunities to see the outline of the Sleeping Ute mountain (from certain angles, it looks like a Ute warrior lying down with his arms folded across his chest -- you can see the headdress, nose, arms, knees, and big toe at the end). Legend has it that one day, he will rise and lead his people to victory. The boys were trying to get in the same position.
McPhee Reservoir from the top!
We also saw some ancient Puebloan ruins
We saw some more cacti on the trail and got back to the van just as it started raining. In this picture, Cooper is wearing my YouthWorks hat that I wore the summer I worked in Cortez. It used to be dark navy blue but has faded considerably over the years.
We stopped at the visitors center. Here the boys are pointing on the Colorado map some of the places we've visited.
Later that night, we went to the Cortez Culture Center for a Native American dance demonstration. This man talked most of the time about his heritage and their music and powwow traditions.
His grandson played a song for us on the native flute.
He also demonstrated the "fancy grass" type of dance. I was familiar with this after attending several powwows during my summer serving with YouthWorks on the Northern Cheyenne reservation.
And his wife and granddaughter sang a song that had been passed down in their family.
At the end, the boys got to try out a round dance!
Back at the hotel, we had some reading time before bed. They're loving this Disney storybook collection.
In the morning, they were thrilled with the breakfast provided by the hotel, especially the pancake machine!
We headed back to our room for a breakfast picnic!
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