Day 12: Mesa Verde

I made the kids get up early (7 AM is early now) so I could have them eat breakfast and we could hopefully get some tickets to tour the Cliff Palace.  But umm, I didn't look up when they actually opened to start selling them. I should have and then I should have gone myself to the tourist office in town to buy them.  By the time we arrived (8:30ish AM) they were all sold out for the morning tours, although they still had afternoon ones. But we had to drive home before that.  Anyway, we drove up to go look at the Cliff Palace and other places. But literally, by the time we even stopped just at the Cliff Palace to look at it, everyone had died--even Leo.  Nobody wanted to look at anything or even get out of the car.  So we drove home.  It's a pretty desolate drive I have to say. The biggest town we went through was Grand Junction, CO.  But for the most part we never had cell service and were in the middle of nowhere.  We had to jog back in to Utah, going through Monticello and Moab and then to 1-70(?) to Grand Junction then up through Palisade and Rifle, CO.  Leo and I found lots of places we want to retire.  First and foremost, Mesa Verde Valley right by Cortez, CO because of the lovely reservoir for boating, and the whole area is beautiful.  Or Meeker, CO.  Or Rifle, CO.  And then we almost hit a deer (it was a miracle we didn't hit it because it was less than a foot from our van, inches really.)  And we saw elk, and bison, and antelope, and in Payson we saw a bald eagle.  And more deer, luckily just off to the side of the road this time.  And we stopped to change the kids' diapers somewhere just before we went into WY (near Baggs and Dixon)  and Leo shut off our headlights and we were in complete blackness.  It was weird.  No one was on the road, there were no houses around for miles in any direction (in daylight you can see for miles and miles there).  In Bryce Canyon they make a big fuss about how dark it is there and about it's lack of light pollution.  It has nothing on Wyoming/northern Colorado.   Oh, and one of the best parts of the drive home was that we stopped and got Dairy Queen treats for everyone, and they had my favorite Frozen Hot Chocolate. It was perfection.  Leo got his favorite (I invented it for him, thank you, thank you) a Peanut Buster Parfait but with the hot fudge replaced with the chocolate cone dip. And the kids were all so excited to choose whatever they wanted. Lando was funny because he wanted something that looked "fancy" not just a blizzard.  And it took a while but he finally ended up with a Peanut Buster Parfait without the peanuts. Otherwise we had the cheddarwursts straight from the package again near Moab and then scrounged around for the dregs of our snacks we had packed.   Also not so great was listening to Eragon--the narrator's girl voices drove Leo and I crazy, it wasn't that well written anyway.  Anyway, usually the drive home is rough--everyone tired and grumpy--but this was one of the smoothest drives we've been on with our kids.  Yay!




I promise he was just on my lap while we drove at 10 mph from one viewing place to the next which was only minutes apart.



Can you see Shiprock?


There I zoomed in on this one, but it's in the other pictures too.

Sunday July 23:

• Tour Balcony House or Cliff Palace
• Drive home to Rawlins

• Breakfast: cold cereal

Day 11: Chaco Canyon

 Driving from Canyon de Chelly to Chaco Canyon we took a road through the reservation that I had never been on before.  I love new roads.  Seriously, I do.  I have a good memory for places I've been and I love to travel by car on roads I haven't been on before.  This road was a lot more scenic and the reservation a lot prettier than by the usual route I've taken from Farmington to Gallup and then over to Holbrook and down to Payson.  Anyway, we went up and over these mountains that I didn't even realize existed between Arizona and New Mexico that were covered in fir trees and really beautiful.  And as you came out the other side you could see Shiprock out in the barren desert while still in the forest.  And then we drove across the "wake" of Shiprock and that was neat too.  I've never been that close before.













This was my hazy photo while traveling through Shiprock (the town) and there was a lovely sunset with rain in the distance and it looked really cool.  Of course I am no photographer and was late getting out my camera anyway.  So not so cool in this picture.


Surprisingly, we made it to Chaco Canyon.  Leo really didn't want to go--he just wanted to go straight to Mesa Verde.  And I called ahead knowing that the roads in can be awful and they said not to take the southern entrance unless we had a 4X4 vehicle and no trailer.  So that added an extra hour an half to the trip because we had to come around from the north.  Anyway, the road was way better than it used to be.  They actually have a cement patch through the bottom of the wash/creek.  Last time I came with Leo (years and years ago before Elena was born) we took our little car straight through the rocks and water.  Yeehaw!  But Chaco is one of my favorite places ever so Leo was kind enough to drive the extra hours to go.  And I'm so glad!  I love this place.  Love. Love. Love.  Yes, the cliff houses of Mesa Verde are cool because they're on a cliff and very pretty, but I love how remote and EMPTY this place is in comparison to Mesa Verde.  And the Pueblo Bonita ruins are HUGE!  And you just get to roam around them at will vs the guided tours at Mesa Verde.  I love it.  And my kids loved it.  Yay!  So prepare for lots of pictures of ruins and desert ridges and mesas.  I love the desert too.  I think that's why I love where I live so much--the rocky ridge behind me.  As for our itinerary, we had Burger King for lunch because it was Jubal's birthday.  And then we cancelled our reservation and got a hotel room.  Leo and I were done with camping.  And I love Hampton Inn.  It's my favorite hotel.  Just FYI.  And we had eaten our beef and cheese sandwiches the night before. So we had cheddarwursts straight from the package while on the road both Saturday and Sunday.


The picture in this picture is of a place in Aztec, NM--I've also been there years ago--where they restored a giant kiva to what it would have been like.  This isn't considered "good" archaeology anymore, but it's actually pretty cool because it gives you a sense of how immense the structures were that you don't get by just looking at the ruins.

End of the day and the kids were tired.








It takes a lot of work to take a selfie.


Sebastian was done with photos.





Storage pit.






One of the largest kivas.





Lizard tail, still wiggling.

The pro at work.  He actually caught the whole lizard but then tried to hold on to it with just it's tail.  I told Sebastian he should be a naturalist but I don't really think that's a thing anymore.  What a shame. He's always catching things and then drawing highly accurate pictures of them.  Wasps and spiders and stuff.

Saturday July 22:

• Drive to Chaco Canyon

Visit Pueblo Bonita and Casa Riconada

• Visit Mesa Verde 
• Hike to Step House, Square Tower Overlook, Far View Sites
• Get tickets for early tour Sunday.
• Camp at Mesa Verde  Resort (#015193)

35303 US Highway 160 

Mancos, CO 81328 

970-533-7421 

• Breakfast: cold cereal
• Dinner: tinfoil wrapped sandwiches (roast beef, provolone, garlic butter)

And last but not least, a picture of one of my Chacos in Chaco Canyon.  I would love to go back someday and hike to see all the petroglyphs (yeah, pathetic I've never done that yet) but I think Leo's had his fill for a while.