We were waiting on a snow storm which had finally moved through. At last we were able to check out Mesa Verde National Park.
In the late 1200s A.D. the Ancestral Puebloans left their homes. Since 1906 this Colorado National Park has been protecting a #WorldHeritageSite. It's considered to be home of some of the best preserved Ancestral Puebloan archeological sites and the largest cliff dwelling in North America. Now, when I tell all of this to Emmylou, our eight year old daughter, her eyes kind of glaze over like I'm speaking a foreign language. However, when she sees pictures of these amazing houses she's all about checking them out.
Unfortunately for her, there are no cliff dwelling tours in the winter so we could only see these sites from the outside. This was a bit of a disappointment for Emmylou. In her words "it wasn't as cool as I imagined because I thought we could go inside". We also weren't able to check out some of the trails that we wanted to because they were closed due to the recent snowfall and/or rockfall concerns. Double bummer. Even so, we really enjoyed seeing the magnificent sites that were accessible for viewing.
Our first stop was to Spruce Tree House.
While the trail is closed for the foreseeable future due to rockfall concerns, there was a short trail leading to a fantastic overlook with an #amazing view. We spent quite a bit of time here oohing and aahing over the houses and their details.
From there, we went inside to the museum.
This was a fabulous #educational experience. Once again, we spent a good amount of time here discussing the many displays. Eventually, we conquered the museum and set off to the Mesa Top Loop Road. This was a scenic drive with many stopping points to get out and view the various dwellings and other historical sites. Overall, it was an impressive and educational experience for us all. Once we saw everything there was to see we made the two and a half hour drive to Moab, Utah where we would base camp for the next couple of parks in our tour line up.
Arches and Canyonlands here we come....
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