As we made our way back east for the holidays, we stopped in at Mesa Verde National Park. After living in Colorado for 7 years, it seemed a bit crazy we hadn’t spent time at Mesa Verde NP nor Great Sand Dunes NP (spoiler: that will be in the next post). Our campsite for the 6 nights we spent in the area was in the San Juan National Forest, a dispersed camping area known as Madden Peak.
The Madden Peak area ended up being pretty nice – it was quiet, level and free. However, it seems this area is rainy compared to a lot of Colorado. It rained almost every day we were there while most other parts of CO were staying dry.
We ended up getting two different tours on different days in Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde is known for the remains of indigenous housing in the form of cliff dwellings. The park is completely littered with them, over 600 have been found in the area.
The first tour we did was of Long House. It’s really impressive seeing how dry the area is (no rivers, no standing water, etc.) and imaging the life these people lived. At the back of the dwellings, there is typically a “spring” – in the form of dripping water that comes out of the rock layers. However, it definitely didn’t seem like enough to support more than a few people.
We also went for a ride at Phil’s World, a trail system just outside Cortez, CO. We’ve always enjoyed riding here in the past and it didn’t disappoint on this visit!
On another day, we went for a big loop drive up 145 to Telluride, then around and down the Million Dollar Highway through Durango and back to our campsite. The fall colors were popping – I think 145 might be one of the best roads in Colorado for fall colors.
Our final trip into Mesa Verde was for our second cliff dwelling tour, Balcony House. This is supposed to be the most “strenuous”, but it’s really just because you go up a tall-ish ladder to enter the dwelling. It was smaller than Long House, but still very interesting and unique.
All in all, Mesa Verde was a definite highlight of the year. The cliff dwellings are amazing! We both find it really enjoyable when we get to learn something along with visiting a beautiful place.
-Kyle