Cortez, Colorado and Mesa Verde

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We left the beauty of Moab behind and headed to Cortez, Colorado. On our drive to Cortez we encountered snow at Monticello, UT. Thankfully it was for only a few miles and it was melting on the road as it fell.

Once we got the trailer set up we headed out to the Anasazi's Heritage Center which has detailed exhibits of artifacts of the Ancestral Puebloans that lived in this area for over 8 centuries. This was very informative about these people who lived in the four corner area possibly as early as 1500 BC until 1300 AD when they moved south to New Mexico and Arizona.

The next day we went to Mesa Verde National Park which protects some of the best preserved Ancestral Puebloan archeological sites in the United States. There are opportunities to visit different cliff dwellings that require hiking down to them, but there are also many that are viewable from the many pullouts along the route. It is hard to comprehend the difficult life they lived having to climb in and out of their homes daily to gather food and water. This is definitely worth the extra miles off the main highways to visit this amazing place.

The final day we drove out to four corners. Not much there, but figured we were close enough that we should visit it. Picture of being in four states at once. Very cold and windy that day so it was a quick trip.

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