We left the hotel in Cortez and by 9:15 we were entering Mesa Verde National Park.
We didn’t realize how seasonal this park is. We were lucky that we got there when we did. Only one small loop of the very large campground was open, and it was slated to close entirely on Sunday. The Lodge was already closed for the season, and they were only running one tour of the cliff dwellings. Several ‘houses’ were closed due to rehab and safety issues, and others were just closed for the season.
We drove down the park road and stopped at Park Point along the way. There was a nice view there at the highest point in the park of 8572 ft. We were really feeling the elevation as we hiked and talked. From there you could see all the damage from fires over the last 100 years. This area is very slow to recover.
We drove to the museum and Spruce Tree House and hiked down to the edge of the ruins, but just a few days before we got there engineers had determined that it was not safe to have people in there because a piece of the overhang was separating from the cave. On the plus side, the Ranger said, you won’t have people in your pictures.
We then toured the very nice museum there and had a nice lunch at Spruce Canyon Terrace.
After lunch we drove the Mesa Top Loop where we could see many of the cliff buildings that were closed for the season. We were also able to tour the Pueblo dig sites in the area.
Back at camp we had a quick dinner and then retired to the tent to stay warm. We found we had internet service from the hotel we had stayed at the night before(how does that work?), so I checked my Facebook and E-mails while Mike typed. It was a very cold night(We are guessing just above freezing), and our last night of camping on the trip.
