Mesa Verde

 

Our First "official" stop on our summer trip was Mesa Verde National Park near Cortez, CO. (We actually stopped in Albuquerque  last night,  got sushi and stayed the night!! Then drove the rest of the way to Cortez, CO today).  Clay remembered seeing Mesa Verde National Park as a child and thought that it was neat and worth the stop, and it was!  When we first entered the park we had to drive a ways to get to the cliff dwellings.   Part way there, we were forced to stop...several cars were just stopped in the road taking pictures...how rude!  At first we were extremely annoyed, but then we realized they were taking pictures of some bears - a mama and cub that were on the side of the road...and within seconds we became one of those annoying cars stopped in the road taking pictures!  They were litereally - RIGHT THERE  beside the road.  After we were done with the bears, we continued on and finally got to the spot to see the cliff homes.  But, they a little bit of a hike down to get to them.  It was hot and down hill was fine....but coming back up was a little slow going!  The cliffs themselves, were fascinating.  It is neat to see what people can create and live in - in the side of a cave!  We got to climb down into an underground room and it was sooooo much cooler down there, but still pretty light too.  There were different levels of building - they literally used every inch of space in the cliff.   After one stop, we were ready to go...off to Moab, UT to spend the night!