Mesa Verde National Park

Did you ever have one of those mornings when you wake up in a bad mood? Unfortunately that was me today. Not sure if it's all the traveling, my allergies, being with my husband 24/7 for the last 6 weeks, hormones, or whatever, BUT it did not make for an enjoyable morning for our day. Despite my crankiness in the morning, the day did turn out well.

We drive up to the Visitors Center at Mesa Verde National Park and buy tickets for two ranger-led tours of the cliff dwellings. Our first tour is of the Palace Cliff Dwelling, the largest of the cliff dwellings in the park.

We eat our picnic lunch between tours and do our second ranger-led tour, Balcony House. This is more interesting and fun than the first tour. I highly recommend this tour if anyone goes to Mesa Verde NP. Lots of ladders to climb to get to and from the cliff dwelling, narrow paths and a very narrow tunnel to crawl through. The ranger we had for the tour was excellent.

Ladder that everyone climbs up to enter Balcony House:

We drive around and stop to look at several other smaller cliff dwellings along the canyon. The park isn't very pretty except for the cliff dwellings--they had several fires in 2002 and 2003 so most of the trees along the drive have burned. The ranger said it will take 200 years for the trees to grow back.

Our last stop is at Spruce House with it's self-guided tour.

We drive into Cortez for dinner and to pick up some groceries, and head back to the RV park.