RV Adventures

Our last stop in Colorado was Mesa Verde National Park.  Mesa Verde was named a National Park in 1906 by Teddy Roosevelt (Thank you Mr. President) and contains some of the best preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States.  All the sites are on top of a Mesa that stretches on for miles.

Our campground was right across the street from the Mesa and the entrance to the National Park.

You have to drive up to the top of the mesa to see anything. The views were great!

The last of the Puebloans to live in this area were here in the 11th century. They left behind the cliff dwellings that the park is so famous for.

The most majestic of the dwellings is called Cliff Palace. It had closed for the season already when we were there.

A smaller dwelling in the cliffs of the mesa.

In order to enter one of the cliff dwellings, you had to take a ranger led tour. Our tour involved a 32 rung wooden ladder and a 12 foot long tunnel that you had to crawl through. Yikes!  They had samples of both the ladder and the tunnel in the visitors center so you would know where you were getting into!

We had to climb this 32 rung ladder to get to the dwelling.

Just don’t look down while you are climbing.

Once inside the cliff dwelling, the place was pretty roomy.

This “hole” in the floor would have had a roof.

Inside the “hole.” I don’t recall the proper name for the “hole.”

We had a lot of rain the week we spent in the area, but by watching the forecast, we picked the perfect day to visit Mesa Verde.  This National Park is definitely worth a visit!

We were also in the Four Corners area.  Four Corners is the only place in the country where four states meet, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. 

The Four Corners!

Of course, we had to visit the monument erected at the Four Corners.  It is out in the middle of nowhere on reservation land and is run by the Native Americans.  You are charged $5 per person (cash only) to visit.

Welcome to the Four Corners.  It’s in the middle of nowhere.  Everyone has to pay $5 to get in.  The parking lot is dirt and full of pot holes!

And here I am, standing in four states at one time.  The place is not as deserted as it seems in this picture…there was a line of people behind Jim (being the photographer) waiting to have their pictures taken too. A sign said “take only 3 pictures” in order to keep the line moving. It was definitely a slow time of the year when we visited, thank goodness.  I read online that in the summer, you have to wait in line for an hour to get a chance to stand in the center.  No thanks!

Around the perimeter of the Four Corners Monument are vendor stalls.  Native Americans sell their wares from all these little booths.  The fact that each set of booths is in a different state makes me wonder about paying sales tax to the correct state.  Then again, being that this is on a reservation, maybe there isn’t any sales tax!

One other fun place we discovered in Cortez, Colorado (the main town outside of Mesa Verde) is the Burger Boy. It’s a drive in – car hop – burger joint.  The burgers were good, but the funny part is Jim had just watched the movie Overboard with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.  In the movie, it’s stated that the characters met when Goldie was working at the Burger Boy.  That was an omen, we just had to try the place.

Welcome to Burger Boy!

They bring the meal to you.

It’s time for another bird picture! This BIG guy was sitting outside our RV windows. At the National Park I saw a display that identified it as a Magpie.

A Magpie…I think. Whatever it was, it was HUGE!

After a week at Mesa Verde, we headed south. There is a very prominent land formation called Shiprock.  It’s on the Navajo Reservation and is revered by them.  It was given its name because it’s said to resemble a 19th Century Clipper Ship.  Use your imagination.

Shiprock, rising 1,583 feet into the air.

That concludes Colorado. Next stop…New Mexico.