Mesa Verde

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September 30 - October 1, 2010

Mesa Verde National Park

There is a song that says, “What a difference a day makes” but after our experience lately, I would say, “What a difference 100 miles makes”!! Thursday morning we were up at day break and hit the road early to drive to Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, only about 100 miles from where we were in Moab, Utah, but in those miles what a difference in the scenery. I noticed that there were camping facilities right in the park, so called ahead to reserve a space for the night. When we arrived we discovered that we had a site with full hook-ups (we were expecting only electricity). Now we were high on the mountain that rose straight up out of the valley floor. Our camp site was at around 7,000 ft. elevation and tucked away in the woods. After setting up camp and having lunch in the RV we set off to enjoy the unique sights of this park. On the way we picked up a young man from Québec who has been travelling around Canada and the U.S. for the past 4 months. Turned out that he spent the rest of the afternoon with us!!

Mesa Verde is the site of cliff dwellings dating from AD600 to AD1400, and some remarkable ruins remain in the cliff sides. We had ranger-guided tours of two of these, the Cliff Palace and the Balcony House. Here are just a few pictures to show these remarkable ruins. Access was quite steep and difficult at times, as you can see, but we had a great day.

On Friday we spent the day driving to Flagstaff, AZ, and the only notable stop was at Four Corners where the states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet. This is on Indian reservation land and everything was quite run-down except for the monument itself. Somewhat disappointing to say the least!! It was another 32C day, though this area is looking for the heat to break after the weekend. By then rain may come, but we will be on our way across southern AZ, NM & TX. One more week - next Friday - and we arrive in Houston and can take a break from this break-neck speed of our restful vacation trip!!! Tomorrow, off to Jerome, Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon, then on Sunday the Grand Canyon. More later…..

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