Mesa Verde

 Our adventure for today was to go to Mesa Verde.  After sleeping in until the sun came up and a fun breakfast at a diner on Main Street in Cortez we headed out to Mesa Verde.  As we were going through the entrance gate the ranger told us that our pass would expire at the end of the month.  This took us by surprise since we had just bought it a week ago and it is for an entire year but we had already gotten our money's worth since we had stopped at three national parks on this trip.  (Side story-- A few weeks after we return home I got a letter from someone who worked at the city of Wamego asking that I provide my contact information to the office at the Cimmaron National Grasslands where we purchased the pass.  The lady who sold us that pass realized that she had given us last year's pass but didn't have anyway to get a hold of us other than my name on the credit card.  She googled my name and found race results from the triathlon that we compete in every year which lists Wamego as my hometown.  She remembered that we had discussed a tourism event that Wamego hosts and called the city to get our contact information to make sure we got the right parks pass-- talk about customer service.)

 Our first stop was the visitor center to get tickets for a tour of a cliff dwelling.  There are some tight sqeezes as the cliff dwellings were not designed with people Arthur's size in mind but they did have a replica of one of the entrance tunnels so we could determine if Arthur would fit-- it was just right.  As we drove out over the mesa we stopped and toured several ruins along the route.  Mesa Verde was home to a fairly advanced civilization up until 1285 and then for an unknown reason the area was abandoned.  It is home to more than 600 cliff dwellings and 5000 archaeological sites-- with new areas continuing to be found.

We stopped at the archaeological museum which was fascinating.  It was possibly a little dated like many museums in the National Park Service but consisted of numerous dioramas of pueblo life that were created in the 1930s to employ artists during the Depression.  The details and intricacy of the buildings, figurines, and scenery were amazing but we failed to take pictures.  There were also some great displays showing the changes in styles of artifacts such as pottery or baskets over the centuries the area was inhabited.  Seeing the differences made looking at baskets and shards of pottery much more interesting.  There were also some exhibits giving details explanations of how some daily tasks were done such as grinding corn or weaving sandals.

Next we did a driving tour with some scenic overlooks stops looking across the mesa canyons to numerous cliff dwellings.  We would have loved to hike some but we were limited on time and our legs didn't complain much to sit on plush car seats after hiking out of the Grand Canyon the previous day.  Our tour was of Balcony House.  We had to scale a 30 foot ladder to enter the front side of the house.  This cliff dwelling was home to about 30 people.  It had a spring that seeped through the rock along the back wall to provide water.  there was a small plaza area looking out over the canyon.  While it was occupied during the 13th century the only was to access the area was through the 18" tunnel that we had to crawl out of at then end of the tour.  It would have been a chore to move a piano in.  

While we would have loved to explore the area more we needed to continue headed east.  We stopped for a brief lunch in Durango for BBQ overlooking the river.  Then we headed up and over Wolf Creek pass and actually had to drive in snow for a little bit.  On the other side we traverse the plains of the San Luis Valley with in a stone's throw of Great Sand Dunes National Park but we had to keep on driving to our destination-- an Airbnb in Fowler, Colorado.  I have driven through Fowler many times over the years and never thought it would be an overnight destination but the choices are limited in eastern Colorado and it just happened to be on our diagonal up to I-70 and there happened to be an Airbnb which was perfect for us.  After restful night in Fowler we continued on across the high plains and I-70 until we finally returned to the trees and rolling hills we call home-- always a beautiful sight.