May 21, 2013 - Mesa Verde National Park

May 21 Mesa Verde National Park Mesa Verde or “green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to 1300. Today the park protects nearly 5,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. We are going to see only a few of these spectacular dwellings. Mesa Verde was established on June 29, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt to "preserve the works of man," the first national park of its kind. The Ancestral Pueblo people evolved from pit...

May 10, 2013 - Mesa Verde

Yesterday was just a driving day. High point was that we found an especially pleasant campground. National Forest (which as usual meant pretty surroundings with lots of space between RVs) that had the added benefit of having electrical hookups. Today we stopped at Mesa Verde National Park. Both of us had been there years ago; the cliff dwellings have not changed, but the road, the visitor's center, and most of the other facilities have been updated. They've done a good job. We went on the Cliff Palace tour and were lucky enough to get a...

Oct 18, 2012 - Arches, UT to Mesa Verde, CO

Day forty eight: Destination- Mesa Verde Soundtrack- Blues Brothers, Glee, Cars, and Hall and Oats We stayed in the La Sal National Forest last night. It's getting cold! I'm missing my heated house a little... Nick says the drive through Colorado is beautiful. So, we went a little South and crossed into Colorado on 491. We went to Mesa Verde National Park. It seemed more like a museum to me than a park, but I guess all parks are sort of nature museums. Mesa Verde was where the Anasazi, and American Indian group, settled starting in 1 AD....

Oct 5, 2012 - Mesa Verde

10/5 Today we headed out to Mesa Verde National Park. I have to admit I have developed something I call “parka-pitous-fona-phobia”. I have to say the restrooms in the National Parks are immaculate, but they are pit toilets and I have developed an unnatural fear of dropping one of my cell phone “down there”. I have gotten to a point where I give my phones to Jack before even enter the building. Now for the Park. Mesa Verde is an area with over 4,000 archeological sites. There is evidence of people living there dating back 600 AD. It is also...

Jul 1, 2012 - Mesa Verde National Park - CO

Friday...the 29th Drove from Moab to Mesa National Park....not a very long drive so we arrived fairly early...Somewhere close to noon. Since we were so early we drove the park taking in the viewing areas. Also hiked a trail for a couple of miles that took us back over a canyon that gave us a clear view of one of the cliff ruin dwellings. Then off to the museum which was interesting. There are wild horses which we saw plenty of evidence (poop!) but no horse sightings. Also, there was another Indian cliff dwelling close to the museum, so we...

Jun 25, 2012 - Cliff Dwellings

We spent the day exploring the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park. In the morning, we took a tour of Balcony House which was a smaller place and required us to climb up tall, wooden ladders, squeeze through narrow passageways and crawl on our hands and knees through the tiniest of tunnels! It was a blast! All I can say is the Native Americans that lived here must have been considerably smaller than Russell! Then we took a twilight tour of Cliff Palace, which was a much larger place with lots of different areas to explore. We...

Jun 24, 2012 - Four Corners

After getting a new battery for the Jeep this morning, we hit the road. We did a LOT of traveling today... going to Utah, Arizona, Colorado & New Mexico! Actually we only traveled about 3 hours to Four Corners National Monument where these four states share a common boundary corner. It was neat to have each of us stand in a different state or do unique poses at the center of the monument. On the way to our campground near Mesa Verde, Colorado, we saw wildfires in the distance. It turns out the Weber Fires are only about 8 miles away from...

Jun 7, 2012 - Mesa Verde Colorado

June 6, 2012 and June 7, 2012 Mesa Verde National Park is one of the premier archaeological parks in the U.S. This park has preserved an extraordinary record of ancestral Pueblo people who made this their home for over 750 years between A.D.550 to A.D. 1300. With over 600 cliff dwellings and 5,000 archaeological sites this is an incredible walk back into time. We did two hikes into cliff dwellings, Long House and Cliff Palace, accompanied by park rangers. Cliff Palace-walking distance 1/4 mile w/5- 8 foot ladders into the dwelling and a 100...

May 15, 2012 - Durango to Mesa Verde

Was up early to do some computer work. The best WiFi connectivity is in the laundry room and not so bad because it is also warm in there. Beautifully clear day but in the 40s. Today has not been a very gratifying day. When we were dumping our waste water Bob found that the hose had a leak. This is NOT a good thing because the hose is very specific to Roadtrek. Because the hose is pulled from within the rig body, repairing with good old duct tape and other water proof is not the answer. Bob emailed Roadtrek service (I would have...

May 3, 2012 - On to Mesa Verde

After spending a few more nights at Bradfield Campground, my holding tanks were getting full, my fresh water tank was on empty, and I feared running out of propane, so I drove into Cortez and paid to spend one night at an RV Park. I managed to replenish my water supply, dump my waste tanks, do all of my laundry and fill my propane tank. I drove on to Mesa Verde the next morning and read the signs at the trailer parking lot; "No overnight parking" and another sign that said, "No trailers or towed vehicles beyond this point." I pulled in to...

May 3, 2012 - Cliff Palace Ruins tour

Tuesday, May 1, 2012 As a child, I remember that May Day, the 1st of May, was always a day of celebration and we would decorate our bikes, trikes and wagons, taking them to school to show them off. We had a May Pole, which was the school’s flag pole, that long pieces of crate paper hung from the top, and several lucky children got to wind the crate paper around the pole, weaving in and out between each other, until the crate paper was a colorful woven cover to the base of the pole. It was a celebration of spring and harvest time, but in...

May 3, 2012 - Mesa Verde & Balcony House Ruins tour

Monday, April 30, 2012 - Mesa Verde & Balcony House Ruins tour The weather was clear and sunny, although still cool enough to warrant a sweatshirt. I had some breakfast and then Zack and I drove to Mesa Verde for a day of exploring. My motor home is parked about 35 miles from the Farview Visitor’s Center, which is about 17 miles from Hwy 160, so it took about 30 minutes to get there on the winding steep roads. I parked and went in to buy a ticket for the guided tour of one of the two ruins offered. Cliff Palace, the largest of the cliff...