Mesa Verde 2024

This past September we decided to visit Mesa Verde National Park. On the Friday we left Oscar worked a 1/2 day, the kids went to school for a 1/2 day, and I went to a My Favorite Fall Things party before we started our drive. Oscar had signed up for a 1/2 marathon trail run at Pergatory Ski Resort on Saturday so we spent our first night in Durango. Here's the beautiful lookout at Wolf pass. I'm very happy we weren't driving in the winter. It was rough enough on our breaks without adding snow and ice to the mix. 

Durango hotels are expensive, but we didn't need to be there long, so we booked the Junction Hotel and hostel. It was our cheapest option, but it had good reviews. Unfortunately our room hadn't been cleaned. We walked in to find beds unmade, towels draped across the chairs, and trash hadn't been taken out. Fortunately they got us a new room, and it was otherwise a good stay, but changing rooms took up some of our time. We got dinner later than we were expecting, and Oscar didn't get to bed quite as early as he would have liked to. We'd brought Easy Mac for the kids, and Oscar and I picked up Thai food.

The next morning Oscar took the car to go up to Purgatory while we stayed in Durango. We'd thought about going up to do the summer activities at Purgatory resort, but the weather forecast called for heavy rain. It was still showing that prediction in the morning, so we decided to get breakfast and go to the local children's museum instead. First we walked to "Oscar's Cafe." It was a small cafe that was super busy with a long wait. We decided to just order some cinnamon rolls to go, and while we were waiting Allison started playing with this little two year old boy and his grandmas. The grandmas invited us to sit down and eat with them, even sharing some of the boys bacon with Tyler and some of his toast with Allison. They told us they really appreciated Allison entertaining their grandson since he's usually difficult to wrangle when they go out to eat, but he was absolutely transfixed by her.

After breakfast we walked over to the Powerhouse Children's Museum. We got free admission thanks to our Denver Children's Museum reciprocal benefits. It's much smaller than the museum in Denver, but the kids had plenty of fun there. Tyler enjoyed rocket launching until he accidentally launched his rocket just a bit too far and it got stuck. They tried to retrieve it, but it would have required taking the high cover it had landed on completely off, so it had to stay.

We requested late check out from our hotel, and the latest they could give us was 12:30pm. Instead of having Oscar pick us up, we walked along the river back to the hotel and arrived maybe 2 minutes before he did. He'd had a good run, but he was sweaty and needed to shower before we continued our trip to Mesa Verde. We knew timing was going to be tight as it was, and even though the museum was only about 5 minutes further away, we didn't want to reduce his shower time by 10 minutes. I started taking things out to the car, which is when the heavy rain started coming down. I handed our keys back to the hotel staff right at 12:30pm. We barely made it! 

The weather forecast had said rain was coming around 10:30am, which would have been while Oscar was still running, but he got lucky that it didn't come until he was back in Durango. It was coming down pretty hard until we got out of Durango, then it cleared up fairly quickly. Oscar had a good run, but he was very achy. It'd been a long time since he'd done a race with so many hills, and he was sore. I drove, and we stopped at the only gas station along the way to get him some Ibuprofen.

Once we were in Mesa Verde we went to the visitor's center to use the bathroom and pick up Jr Ranger books for the kids to work on. We couldn't stay long though, since we had limited time to make it to our 2:30pm Cliff Palace tour. They say to arrive 15 minutes early for a safety briefing, and we weren't sure if we'd be allowed to do it if we got there after 2:15pm, so I drove as fast as I dared drive along winding roads. Their website says to plan on 75 minutes to get from the visitor's center to Cliff Palace. We made it in about 40 minutes. Good thing it wasn't the busy tourism season and a ranger didn't pull me over! I had to slow down behind a couple cars that were leisurely enjoying a scenic drive, but otherwise I didn't encounter too much of a delay.

After parking we weren't sure how to get to exactly where the tour started, so we walked along until we saw a ranger and asked him for directions. We were a little stressed since it was about 2:17pm, but it turned out he was our very ranger for the tour. He told us we were fine and to just follow him.

The safety briefing happens at the Cliff Palace lookout. A big patch of clouds blocked the sun and made it feel much colder for about 15 minutes, but the sun came back out on our tour. The kids worked on their books while we listened to the safety briefing and waited for our tour to start. They didn't check for tickets until 5 minutes or so after 2:30pm once we were descending into the canyon, so we hadn't needed to stress so much about arriving 15 minutes early. Our ranger was happy to see the kids with their booklets out. He answered their questions and helped point out local flora to them for their bingo on the last page. 

As you take the path down into Cliff Palace, you can see a smaller dwelling across the valley. We were told we were taking the same path the Ancestral Pueblo people would have taken but with increased safety measures provided by the national park.

It was a good tour, though I had to keep a close eye on a fidgety Allison. At first we sat in a shady area across from the dwelling while he told us some history and the ranger from the tour before us played a wooden flute similar to what the Ancestral Puebloans might have used. Then we were taken into the dwelling itself and circled around the Kiva, a congregational space used largely for ceremonies. This was where Allison was entirely too fidgety and I had to insist she sit and be still. I was worried she was going to fall into the kiva!

After our tour we visited other lookouts where you can see smaller dwellings in the distance. We gave the kids their tablets since they'd had enough sightseeing for the day.

Here are some views from the Mesa Top Loop. We listened to a narration on Spotify by a ranger who's a descendant of the Ancestral Pueblo people, and we met her the next day when the kids got their Jr Ranger badges. 

Oscar and I had to sprint to the lookout for this dwelling since all the parking was full and we'd pulled over in a non parking space. 

This area is largely top dwellings. Though the cliff dwellings are the most well preserved due to their position protecting them from the elements, most of the Ancestral Puebloans lived in top dwellings.

We passed a big beautiful lookout where you can see several smaller dwellings and a very distant view of cliff palace.

We saw the Far view sites but didn't explore too thoroughly since we decided to come back and explore them more the next day.

Here's another lookout with a nice view of Cliff Palace. Cliff Palace was great, but if you have to pick between the two, I would recommend doing balcony house instead. You can't see Balcony House unless you do the tour while you can at least see Cliff Palace even if you don't do the tour.

We saw a few more top dwellings before starting our drive out of the park.

Here we are at our final lookout. We hadn't even thought about fall colors when we planned this trip, but we got to see some anyway! It wasn't the best part of the season, but we at least got a taste of it.

That evening we ate at Pizza Hut. We were hungry! We'd had to skip lunch to make it to our tour, and the food areas in Mesa Verde were closed by the time we were done. 

That evening we went swimming and sat in the hot tub at the hotel. It's situated right in the middle of the rooms and several of the rooms have balconies that overlook the pool area. Oscar also picked up ice cream from the nearby Walmart. It was tasty, but the leftovers wouldn't fit in our tiny freezer. Tyler drank my ice cream soup leftovers the next day.

There was a lovely view of the sunrise the next morning.

After checking out we went to church at a local ward then went back to Mesa Verde. We went to the Visitor's Center first so the kids could finish up the requirements for their Jr Ranger badges. Several of the questions in their booklets could only be answered by viewing the exhibits at the visitor's center, and that's also where a ranger gives them a badge and swears them in. It closes at 4:00pm, and we'd scheduled a Balcony House tour for 2:00pm, so we figured we'd better go there first than try to rush back to it after the tour. 

Here are some lovely views from just outside.

I loved seeing the kids sworn in. I thought it was so cute! The kids, especially Tyler, really enjoyed the Jr Ranger program both here and at Great Sand Dunes NP. Now he wants to earn as many Jr Ranger badges as possible. 

Here we are at our first lookouts beyond the visitor's center. This time we had much more time to get to our tour than the previous day, so we took our time sightseeing. 

We'd love to return here and do a bit more hiking sometime. The Wetherill Mesa road was closed during our visit. Sometime after it reopens we'll come back, drive Wetherill Mesa, and hike to Long House.

We thought we had plenty of time to grab lunch at Far View Terrace, but the line for hot food was extremely long, and we only had enough time to grab a salad from the fridge. We were able to get a slice of pizza for Tyler since it was in a different line, but we didn't have time to get the soup and navajo tacos we wanted. 

Here are the kids about to descend into the canyon to tour Balcony House.

Our ranger informed us that this area has a natural water source. It's partly why this spot was so appealing to the Ancestral Puebloans. This tour requires more climbing and squeezing through narrow areas than Cliff Palace does, which makes it a bit more fun for kids.

We then climbed a ladder up into the dwelling. Our ranger said possibly they had wooden ladders then too, but wood doesn't preserve as well as other materials, so we have no evidence of it. They certainly wouldn't have had metal screws, though. There is evidence of hand holds, so maybe they were just climbing. That would be terrifying, especially if you were carrying a child too.

It's called balcony house because there's a large balcony area where you can see a beautiful view of the valley below. We even got to see some wild horses. They're descendants of the horses owned by the Ute Indians who lived in the area after the Ancestral Puebloans. Unfortunately they're a nuisance and aren't considered a protected species because they're not native animals. They try to relocate them since they're a threat to the native life the park aims to protect, and they cause damage to the local cultural sites.

After touring the balcony area we climbed up and around to the other side.

You could see the other side through this window in the balcony area.

Tyler and Oscar went through first. Since Allison and I came through last, I took a photo of them and the ranger through the window. 

On the other side we stood around the Kiva and were told about how it was used in various cermeonies. We were told current descendants of the Ancestral Pueblo people still come to the kivas in Mesa Verde to honor their ancestors and worship.

We then climbed through a tunnel then up a ladder and back out.

We stopped at a few more lookouts we'd missed the previous day.

We also went back to the Far View sites we'd seen the previous day and wanted to explore further. We took a small hike to some additional dwellings, which was definitely worth the little detour. It first led to a dwelling we could actually go into and explore. It just said "don't climb walls," on the signs, not "no do not enter."

It'd been cold earlier on our tour, but now the sun came out, and the kids were getting pretty hot in their long pants. 

We continued hiking to the ancient reservoir, which was very impressive.  Oscar ran to and from another site .3 miles away while I finished the loop with the kids. He caught up to us before we were back

We made our final stop at the geographic overlook. It has a little tunnel that goes under the main road so you can get to the lookout safely. From there we made our way out of the park and started our drive to our hotel in Alamosa.