Day 7 – Mesa Verde National Park, Part 1

Megan’s Take

First, I want to give a shout-out to the great campgrounds we’ve been to so far. Salina Campground in Salina KS – great laundry room within an indoor recreation room, clean bathrooms, playground and outdoor activities. Great Sand Dunes Oasis – direct views of the national park dune field, clean bathrooms, quiet and more remote, playground. Alpen Rose RV Park in Durango CO clean bathrooms, spacious laundry room, onsite cafe, swimming pool. And today’s campground – Mesa Verde RV Resort! For a nominal fee, we were able to roll in around 9:30 am and check-in early. It has a small playground, swimming pool/hot tub, clean bathrooms, laundry room, and great location (minutes outside Mesa Verde National Park).

The kids were really excited to move onto a new campground and new adventures. They have been getting along really well – much better than at home. I’m not sure why, but it’s fun to watch them enjoy each other’s company and actually be friends.

We basically skipped the visitor center and went straight to a scenic drive through Mesa Verde National Park, checking out all the overlooks and hiking along the way. I thought the kids would fight me on wearing desert gear, but they were willing to wear trail pants, sun shirts and hats, and hydration packs. We hiked the Far View trails complex where we could walk in and among the ruins of ancestral pueblo structures, and then we headed to the Cliff Palace loop.

We all took a guided tour of Cliff Palace – so cool to see such a large ancestral pueblo structure up close! I had been worried about taking the kids on the tour because there are steep stairs, ladders, and drop-offs. Not to mention standing around while the ranger is talking. But thankfully, Emmett was content hanging out in the hiking pack, and Emilia was such a good hiker! She was very curious, interested in the houses, and had questions for the ranger. I was really impressed with how well they tolerated a guided tour in the heat.

After the tour, we continued on through the Cliff Palace loop and stopped for a 1.2 mile hike at Soda Canyon overlook, where we could see Balcony House.

So glad we didn’t skip this at the end of our day, because the views were stunning.

Emilia was a champ hiker – and a chatterbox. She excitedly came up with a recipe on the last half of the hike for a special treat. She was going to chop up popsicles in a bowl for us to eat with dinner. She needed popsicles, spoons, a bowl, a fork, and a knife, and she literally detailed her recipe step-by-step for at least 20 minutes so that I was clear on how she planned to make it. (This all stemmed from me telling her she could have as many popsicles as she wanted when we got back to the camper after our hike.)

Phil’s Take

Megan glossed over the bits at the beginning of the park. Right off the bat we were greeted with a famous beautiful sight.

There were several lookouts with awesome views, the first was the Mancos Valley Overlook that yielded this panoramic view to the east.

The next overlook was the Montezuma overlook, which gave us this panorama to the north and a view of The Knife Edge.

The highest point in the park called Park Point gave us good views in all directions, which is no doubt why there is a fire tower there. It gave us great views both to the north

and to the south.

The final roadside overlook we stopped at was Geologic Overlook, which has some views of springs along the rocks, but it is hard to see from pictures.

The next stop, and our first real excursion outside the truck, was the Fair View Community Sites, with significant ruins of houses and other structures.

This is where we first saw the kivas that are very common in these settlements. You can see them here, they look like key holes.

The rest of the day was the guided tour of Cliff Palace and the remainder of the loop and overlooks as Megan noted.

We took more pictures today than any day so far, included in the gallery here.