Stop #12: Mesa Verde N.P.- Morefield Campground

We left pretty early on Thursday morning to drive to our next destination. It was another long day on the road but many beautiful things to see along the way.

Just outside Mesa Verde National Park, was Cortez and it was nearing dinner time so we visited our favorite store.... Walmart for some groceries, etc. The Morefield Campground area inside the park was very basic. We were dry camping. No water, electric or sewer on the sites. Good thing we were self-contained for short periods of time!






We settled in for the night and actually slept without A/C. It was pretty cool outside which was nice. The next morning we were ready to check out the ancient cliff dwellings that were made by Puebloans. There were two tours that we signed up for, Cliff Palace and Balcony House.

Cliff Palace was the largest example of a cliff dwelling in North America and spectacular. We were asked not to touch anything due to how fragile they are. This tour was a little strenuous due to the stairs and ladders that we had to climb.

Next was Balcony House and it was supposed to be a lot more strenuous. The sky darkened and the rain started lightly as our ranger guide talked about the ancient people who had built this structure. Since it wasn't lightning, we continued the tour. This dwelling had lots of stairs and mostly ladders to climb as well as a tunnel to crawl through that was only 18" wide. When we exited, it was really starting to come down and Wesley had fallen asleep somewhere during the tour. Jason had to carry him out which was nerve-racking and dangerous!

 












The wildlife was really fantastic in the park. We saw lots of deer standing by the road and one even came on our site.



We left Mesa Verde and went to four corners which is where Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah meet. Each state side has booths with items made by the native american tribes of that area.

 

 

Our next stop was the Grand Canyon...