Adios Durango

Friday morning it was time to get this Hook On hooked on and hit the road. Mesa Verde is just about an hour from Durango and on our way to Moab so we wanted to stop and check it out. Vince and Holly will meet up with us later but decided to not join us in Mesa Verde so they could get a little work done.

After you enter the park, you still have to drive about 15 miles (up) to reach the visitor center and then drive about 5 more miles (up) to see the first dwelling. It sits upon a HUGE hill/mountain/plateau/knob?? and the whole time we were driving I just kept wondering, what made that first guy or family look up toward this enormous rock and think...let's spend days climbing that thing and see if that's where we want to live. Truly amazing what folks 800 or so years ago had to do just to survive. And here I am having a panic attack over my showering conditions. I blame society, it has made me what I am!

The views were absolutely amazing and the cliff dwellings were well planned by being protected from the wind in the winter and the sun in the summer. The cliff dwellings are in several different locations. Some required intensive hiking and ladder climbing to reach them while others were a little more accessible. Considering we didn't want our kids falling off ladders to their deaths, we choose to stick with the more accessible ones. This was purely for the kids sake, not for mine. I really wanted to risk my life to see stone houses built in a cliff but as a mom you have to do what's best for the kids ;-)

You had to hike down into a canyon to see Spruce Tree House (the one we went to) but it wasn't too bad. It was a nice paved trial but it was still steep walking back up. Along the way we got to see this snake having a little snack. The kids were mesmerized but no, we will not be getting a snake.

Millie was brave and wanted to crawl down in the underground room after Rick. She is fearless.

Then of course Reed had to follow.

It was a very interesting place but we decided to go ahead and leave after the first one because we figured they were pretty much all the same and that way we could get to Moab a little sooner.