Trip now or next year?

mesa Verde isn’t worth visiting without going on a guide tour of the archeological sites. Tours are cancelled because it involves crowds.
navsjo reservation and other reservations in the area are closed and Black their roads.

you can’t use this area as a base for Moab. It’s too far one way.

cortez to Durango is an hr drive. Cortez to Fsrmington is sn hr drive.

thingsyou can see as a day trip...

1 drive up to ouray or telluride and back. There is Durango dilverton old style train you can ride oneway thrn bus the other.
near Cortez sndin Utah are numerous national monuments fort ancient dwellings like hovrnwerp, canyon of the ancients, Aztec near Farmington, Chaco Canyon.

there is bear ears NM in Utah, chimney rock east of Durango
monument valley and canyon de chelley can be done as day trips being two hrs one way away.
you can do needles district of canyonlands as a day trip
in SE Utah there is also natural bridges no, goosenecks state Park.
Driving from natural bridges to goosenecks you drive down switchbacks on the side of a cliff with an u dear 10 mike speed limit.
pagisa Springs has can also be visited
doing a loop of Durango to ouray to telluride to cortez and then to Durango will take around 7 hrs to drive

durango is an old western town. Hotels are more expensive here but it’s very walkable with shops and restaurants. It’s the nicest of the towns
cortez is an older hotel town with lower level hotels that have lower cost.in the downtown area there are a coup,e blocks that are walkable. Fatminyon is also cheaper. Here it has done cheaper higher name brand hotels that might still have cheaphotel pt rates. I don’t know what it is now, but Farmington had a Courtyard that was around 10K pts.. day vet stayed there.it was fine.