Friday, June 17, 2016
Posted from: Mancos, CO
Miles Driven: 72
Total Trip Miles: 1,476
Total National Parks visited: 3
Mesa Verde National Park is just cool. It is different because the most interesting parts are man made. But made my an ancient people. I was surprised at how little they know about these people and why they did what the did. By the time scientists got involved, much of the sites had had things removed and changed by settlers which took away some of the clues.
We stopped last night at the visitor center to buy tickets for ranger led walks to two of the most popular cliff dwellings, Cliff Palace and Balcony House. You can only get close to the dwellings on these tours, and they advise getting the tickets as soon as possible because they sell out. At peak times they limit you to one tour. We missed peak times by one week. Whew!
We drove an hour into the park to get to the cliff dwellings. Along the way we went through the tunnel. I told Matt not to honk so he didn't startle other drivers. So he rolled down the window and screamed "honk!" At the top of his lungs. Gosh thanks, Honey. That was perfect and exactly what I had in mind. It is moments like this that I realize that I married someone a little too much like my dad. I clearly recall my dad doing something really similar...like just a couple months ago. The picture is a little blurry because he startled me with his yelling (not to mention the kids cheering him on).
The kids were amazed at this sight. We all were. The size and fact that they were built in a cliff is amazing. This is Cliff Palace.
The walk down was steep.
The ranger told us yesterday that Mesa Verde had something no other national park can boast...LOTS of butt shots!
I asked them to turn around on the way up to spare us all another butt shot.
Then we went a couple miles to the Balcony House tour. This tour was very different. It was a lot of stairs, ladders and really tight spaces. This is Caleb walking through one of the small spots. Some were so small you had to crawl. Grace did a belly crawl because she had the Canon camera bag on her back.
This one also has a very tall ladder that really freaked some people out. The park ranger became a counselor and therapist as much as a tour guide for these folks. She was truly an awesome guide. We all did fine with the ladders.
This is Grace making a face at Matt because she usually led our group and was tired of the butt shots.
The old campground was turned into a picnic area. It was the perfect place to eat and work on our junior ranger booklets. I would almost advise people traveling without kids to pick up a junior ranger booklet anyway. It really makes you slow down and learn about your surroundings. A ranger asked if anyone knew the name of a certain habitat. It was a long hard word that I had never heard of, but Grace shouted it out. The ranger looked startled.
We found the same ranger who was so helpful to us last night and asked him to swear in the kids as Junior Rangers. He was more than happy to. He also told us something that he said was not widely known. The pine cone symbol on the ranger's hats were from the sequoia tree, as is the tree on the NP Service logo.
This national park was definitely worth the stop.
Tomorrow is off to four corners, Arches NP, and Canyonlands NP.
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