Tuesday & Wednesday, 9/19-9/20/17

 western descent from Wolf Creek Pass

 Our campsite 

 Lookout Point...the signature entrance to Mesa Verde

 the drive through the park

 2002 forest fire

Tuesday was a travel day as we left the Great Sand Dunes NP and moved on to Mesa Verde National Park.  We took full advantage of our spectacular campsite location, getting up to watch sunrise and making coffee, bacon, and eggs as we enjoyed a true wonder of the world.

Our drive to Mesa Verde, 243 miles across what they call high mountain desert, was uneventful with stops for lunch, gas, and some take for dinner in Durango.  Our campground for the next three days is right in the park, surrounded by gorgeous mesas.  With no light pollution, we again stayed up for quite a while enjoying our campfire and the constellations above.

On Wednesday, we had coffee and cherios (it’s an even numbered day), and then oriented ourselves at the vistors’ center.  From the visitors center we had a very leisurely and picturesque 22 mile drive to our destination of the day, Mesa Verde’s “Cliff Palace”, which is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. 

The Pueblos who built numerous cliff dwellings in this area, first settled here around 500 AD.  For the next several centuries they lived either on top of the mesa or on the bottom of them.  It wasn’t until 1200 AD that the first cliff dwellings were constructed.  Cliff Palace was took 20 years to construct from 1250-1270, but was only occupied for about 24 years before all 65,000 Pueblos in the area moved.  Cliff Palace was the home to approximately 100-120 residents.

We took a 75 minute ranger guided tour down to Cliff Palace.  Like a descent into the Grand Canyon, the temperature rose about 20° by the time we got to our destination.  The descent was too difficult; fortunately we’ve acclimated to the altitude after being at 5000 feet or higher for the past five days.  The ranger’s presentation was very informative and thoroughly enlightening.  To witness up close such an incredible culture and civilization was the thrill of a lifetime.

Our tour was completed around 4:30, so we retraced our scenic route out of the park, and headed west another 10 miles to the city of Cortez where we had a wonderful dinner of Mexican food complete with margaritas.

Another amazing day one of our country’s great treasures!