Great Sand Dunes to Mesa Verde

Adrian drove for about 45 minutes to start off our trip.  He did a great job!

After transitioning into mountains at the Rio Grande, we stopped at a cool overlook at the San Juan Valley.  The kids had a good time playing with chipmunks at the Treasure Falls overlook.

We could see smoke from some of the fires and as we drew close to Durango, CO the smoke was getting closer, and we realized that it was in the direction we were heading.  When we arrived at Mancos, CO (just 10 miles east of Mesa Verde), we saw the location of the fire.  Celinda was able to see some of the flames.  As our kids said, "It was intense, scary."  We wondered if it would affect our stay at Mesa Verde.  Fortunately for us, it did not.

Elliot described the area as fun but too dead - most of the park is in various stages of return from many years of forest fires.  Everyone thought that the  cave dwellings are amazing:

Elliot liked the Balcony House hike because he got to be Assistant Ranger, leading the way to each of the stops.

We learned alot about when they were first built and why.  Learned that there was a progression of building that started on top of the mesas and moved down into the alvcoves.  The Mesa Verde area was populated from ~400-1300 CE.  They sat unknown by European-Americans until the late 1800s.  They were always part of the memory of the descendants of the Puebloans who migrated south to AZ and NM.  

It’s fun to locate the villages in the natural alcoves when you are looking at the canyon.  It was great to walk into them and see a lot of the details up close.  We had terrific rangers who were really helpful, informative, and nice.

We saw a young black bear, two feral horses, and a bunch of mule deer.  

The fire was still burning around Mancos when we left.  Our thought are with the people who live around there - some who work in Mesa Verde.

Tomorrow (Mon, 25 June), Four Corners, maybe Monument Valley, and the Grand Canyon!