Motor Land Cruises included the Sierra Verde Cruise to Colorado.
The destination of the first day of the Sierra Verde Cruise was Chaco Canyon National Monument, with Pueblo Bonito (above), the largest of the great house ruins at Chaco. Pueblo Bonito had 300 - 600 rooms in a building rising four or five stories. The numerous circles are kivas, which were underground ceremonial chambers. For more information on visiting Chaco, please click on the photo.
After a night at the Pueblo Bonito Lodge at Chaco Canyon "where rooms might not be luxurious, but they lived up to the Harvey rules of cleanliness and comfort," the Detourists headed out after noon to Farmington where they stayed the night at the Avery Hotel. Next morning, the Sierra Verde Cruise continued with a visit to Aztec Ruins with its restored Great Kiva (lower center of the photo). Then it was on to Durango and west to Mesa Verde.
At Mesa Verde National Park the Detourists spent the night "among the cedars in the jolly little log cabins at Spruce Tree Lodge," perched above the Spruce Tree House Ancestral Puebloan ruins. The Motor Land Cruises continued the next day as the Detourists explored the ruins of Cliff Palace, and then headed east to Mancos to spend the night at the Wrightsman Hotel.
From Mancos, the Detourists headed east the next day to Durango and Pagosa Springs, Colorado, and Chama, New Mexico. Here they stopped to enjoy the mountain scenery and view the narrow-gauge railroad heading over Cumbres Pass. With an overnight stop at a ranch in the Conejos Valley, they proceeded the next day to Santa Fe. This completed their round-trip Sierra Verde Cruise. Please click on the photo for information about the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad.
Willis Lee of the U.S. Geological Survey and Stephen Mather, director of the National Park Service, descend into Carlsbad Caverns in a miner's bucket in 1924. At the time, there was no hiking trail into the caves. In 1927, when the Detourists visited on their Land Cruise, a primitive trail had been constructed into the caverns.
Stalactites, stalagmites, and fantastic columns greeted the dudes inside Carlsbad Caverns. A Detour driver is seen in this photograph with his Stetson hat. Visitors to Carlsbad Caverns National Park today are not allowed to climb on or touch the formations. For more information on the Park, click on the photo.
At Gran Quivira on the return trip to Santa Fe, the Detourists viewed the remains of the Spanish mission church in the background, and the ruins of the Ancestral Puebloan homes in the foreground. Today, Gran Quivira is part of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument which was formed when two nearby New Mexico state monuments (Abo and Quarai) were added in the 1980s. Headquarters for the Monument is in Mountainair, and from there the Detourists returned to Santa Fe, completing one of the other land cruises.