Mesa Verde Summer Vacation

A few years ago Jason suggested going to Mesa Verde for a family vacation. It didn't work out that summer for some reason or another so it became a place we would eventually visit. A few months ago while trying to decide where we should go for our summer trip, we revisited the idea of going to Mesa Verde. Jason booked a room for us and did most of the planning.
 Jason likes to head out the door for vacations early! On day 1, our first stop was going on a hike in Arches National Park, by 10 A.M. we were driving into the park. This was Korb's and Mad's first hike to Delicate arch. Jason and I were lucky enough to have gone kid free last year. During this visit the kids and Jason thought the arch was awesome, I thought it looked pretty much the same.

After returning to our car we drove thru Moab and headed to Cortez,Co to meet Russ, Lisa, Colton, Kyler and Penny (aka the Colorado Eckardt's). We arrived at our hotel with time to spare for dinner, so we did a little swimming in bath temperature water to kill some time. We had pizza for dinner and the kids did what kids do best and wrestled around and hung out together for the rest of the night. 

 On the 2nd day of our trip we woke up early, enjoyed our continental breakfast and packed up everything we thought we would need for the day. At the visitor center in Cortez, we purchased our tickets for the cliff dwellings we wanted to see in Mesa Verde. The first cliff dwelling we toured was Balcony House. From the beginning the kids started to work on earning their junior ranger badge.

It's one thing to hear about what the tours entail, it's a whole different story when you are actually looking over a cliff at a 32 ft ladder visitors have to climb during the tour. Our ranger for the tour as an older man, he didn't make me feel at ease with the whole situation, he was an older ranger that cracked jokes left and right. Once the tour started it turned out to be better then expected. Mostly because we were able to walked thru a few rooms and the 32ft ladder wasn't as bad as it seemed after all. By the end of the tour I couldn't have asked for a better ranger either. He was Native American and he knew his stuff. He taught us a few customs, beliefs and a bit of their culture. He kept us reverent during the tour by letting us know to some this is more than a tour but a spiritual visit. Kind of neat. 

 The second dwelling we went to visit is called Cliff Palace. It's a much larger dwelling and it has a lot of kivas. To be honest we all enjoyed Balcony house the best. Our last stop for the day in Mesa Verde was going to the visitor center, the kids earned their junior ranger badges. The ranger was really sweet and nice to the kids. Made the whole thing into a big deal. The kids wore their badges with pride for most of the trip.

Dinner was in Durango. A little bit of a drive but well worth it. Lisa and Russ made our reservations to this place. Bar D Chuckwagon is the place. Dinner and a show. Dinner was delicious and the show was fantastic. We had some good laughs. Here's a clip I found on You Tube on one of the songs they perform. It's so much better live. Mads loved the misfit farm!

Day 3 of our trip was a little bit more laid back. We slept in a little, ate our breakfast and made it to Mesa Verde a little later in the day. Outside a nearby Walmart we bought some fry bread from a family doing a fundraiser. I'm not sure how authentic it was but it was pretty good. 

We went to check out the Spruce House dwelling and the Mesa Tops. The Mesa tops were interesting because you could see how technology changed and developed thru time.

For dinner we went to a local restaurant. It was gross food. We're still trying to figure out why or how people recommend this restaurant. We took another dip in the pool and called it a night. 

On day 4 of our trip we started to head home. On our way home we wanted to stop at Four Corners Monument. I was warned that this visit would only last 20 minutes. There's not much out there and 20 minutes included stretching our visit. 

After Four Corners we continued on our way home via driving by Lake Powell. We stopped at Glenn Canyon Dam on a whip and even took a tour. The kids kept well entertained while we waited for our tour.

  The outside part of the tour was super windy.

 After a little bit of driving we decided to take highway 89 for a a little while. Taking this highway would mean driving a little longer to get home but we weren't in any hurry. We drove thru a lot of small, little towns. Found a lot of campgrounds and recreational areas. Someday we'll have to go camping in that area. We had a late dinner in the car. We had decided we wanted KFC for dinner. By the time we found a KFC it was a few hours later. We almost gave up and stopped at a few different places but in the end we made it.

The rest of the drive home was uneventful. Listened to songs, talked and tried to bet Jason's Bejewel score on his IPad (which I still haven't done). It was a great little vacation trip that checked off a few places off of Jason's bucket list.