Cortez

The northern escarpment of Mesa Verde and the volcanic blisters of the La Plata Mountains to the west dominate sprawling Cortez. A series of Days Inns, Dairy Queens, and Best Westerns, the town has a layout that seems to have been determined by neon-sign and aluminum-siding salesmen of the 1950s. Hidden among these eyesores, however, are fine galleries and a host of secondhand shops that can yield surprising finds.