Mesa Verde National Park – July 20, 2015

Sunday morning we headed north to Cortez, CO. Cortez is a quaint little town. It’s a little touristy, as it’s so close to Mesa Verde National Park, but I think maybe it deserves to be on our list for possible places to retire. We drove into Durango in the afternoon, very touristy. Not really our cup of tea. We looked at some new housing there, but the houses were too close together. I think we need a little breathing space.

Monday we went into Mesa Verde National Park. We did the whirlwind tour of the park, driving all the park roads and stopping at the highlights. First, we hiked the 0.5 mile trail to Spruce Tree House. Spruce Tree House is the third largest cliff dwelling, and possibly the most well preserved. It was constructed between 1211 and 1278 AD. There was a park ranger there that was training a new ranger, and it was interesting to hear her point out features we may have missed if she wasn’t there (the baby’s footprint in one of the rooms, the impressions of the corn cobs in some of the architecture, and so forth).

We then took the tour to the Cliff Palace ($4.00 per person, tours fill up quickly in the summer). The Cliff Palace is probably the most famous dwelling, and is the largest cliff dwelling. It’s an hour tour, and although it’s only ¼ mile, you descend many steps and climb four ladders (what goes down, must come up). Cliff Palace was constructed in the 1200s.

We also bought tickets to the Long House tour (also $4.00), but there was a 2 ½ hour gap between the end of the Cliff Palace tour and the Long House tour. We stopped and looked at some of the ruins on the top of the mesa and had lunch at the Far View terrace.

The Long House tour is probably the most in-depth tour. Last year, it was a ¾ mile hike, as there was a shuttle that took people from the gathering place on Wetherill Mesa to the trailhead. However, there is no shuttle this year (we asked, but never got a good answer as to why). So, it’s now a 2.25 mile hike. During the hike, the guide talked about the different animals we may encounter: feral horses and mountain lions and bears, oh my! We didn’t see any mountain lions, but we saw the feral horses and there was bear scat just outside the ruins. It started to rain on our way to the ruins, and by the time we arrived, we had to seek shelter in the kiva of the ruins. It was a nice way to experience what the Indians did when a storm rolled in. Long House is the second largest ruin. It was constructed in 1200.