{"id":3337,"date":"2014-08-31T13:01:12","date_gmt":"2014-08-31T18:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=3337"},"modified":"2014-08-31T13:43:02","modified_gmt":"2014-08-31T18:43:02","slug":"colorado-discoveries-40-mesa-verde-np","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/08\/colorado-discoveries-40-mesa-verde-np.html","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Discoveries 40: Mesa Verde National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DSC_2002\"<\/a>

An archeologist’s dream park. At the Spruce Tree House at Mesa Verde National Park.<\/p><\/div>\n

This post is about the first of the four national parks we visited on our southwest vacation. We tried to jam this visit in during our drive to the Grand Canyon, and it was admittedly a really tight fit.<\/p>\n

We spent about 3 hours in the park, but it could easily be turned into a 1-2 day visit. There was a lot we elected not to see.<\/p>\n

Mesa Verde National Park<\/a> is only about 35\u00a0miles west of Durango on U.S. Route 160. We got a nice early start from our hotel in Durango and reached the park before 8am. Once you exit west from Durango, the Rocky Mountains begin to disappear in the rearview mirror and you are left with the buttes and mesas that are characteristic of the American Southwest.<\/p>\n

After a few minutes at the visitor’s center, it was a slow climb up into the mesas to get to the Spruce Tree House<\/a>\u00a0cliff dwellings. This area of the park is only about halfway through; there is quite a bit more to see, but in the interest of time we told ourselves “We’ll come back here one day.”<\/p>\n

We had visited cliff dwellings before, at the Manitou Cliff Dwellings just west of Colorado Springs<\/a>. Those structures were moved from a collapsed cliff dwelling in Cortez, Colorado (just northwest of Mesa Verde National Park) and moved to Manitou Springs. We\u00a0were familiar with the history of the Anasazi peoples<\/a> who lives in the Four Corners region as far back as the 12th century.<\/p>\n

There was plenty of parking at Spruce Tree House and the nearby museum. We visited the museum and then took the 1\/3 mile trail down into a canyon to see the artifacts. The trail was\u00a0pretty much straight down, with lots of switchbacks.<\/p>\n

\"Timmy<\/a>

Timmy ready to explore the museum. The WPA-era architecture is worth seeing.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Jacob<\/a>

Jacob was pretty happy on this trip. I don’t see those smiles often these days, but he was enjoying the geology of the southwest.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"We<\/a>

We had a beautiful day at the park, but with the dry climate it’s still important to carry enough water down to the cliff dwellings.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Switchbacks.\"<\/a>

Switchbacks on the trail down to the Spruce Tree House cliff dwelling.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Seeing<\/a>

Enjoying the assorted parts of the cliff dwelling. Each area had a very specific purpose: living, eating, or worshiping.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"You<\/a>

You could climb down into a small area that I believe was used for worship. It was a tight fit, and there was a line to get up and down the ladder. The kids enjoyed seeing it.<\/p><\/div>\n

There was much more to see, including the Petroglyph Trail, the Balcony House area, and the Cliff Palace area. We chose to see those areas at another time and continued on the road out of the park westward towards the Grand Canyon. We hope to return one day to spend more time there.<\/p>\n

Mesa Verde National Park<\/a> is easily accessed via U.S. 160 in southwestern Colorado, near the town of Cortez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is about the first of the four national parks we visited on our southwest vacation. We tried to jam this visit in during our drive to the Grand Canyon, and it was admittedly a really tight fit. We spent about 3 hours in the park, but it could easily be turned into a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[100,386,532,533,534],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-RP","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3567,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2015\/01\/june-july-vacation-summary.html","url_meta":{"origin":3337,"position":0},"title":"June\/July 2014 Vacation Summary","date":"01 January 15","format":false,"excerpt":"Our June\/July 2014 summer vacation to the American southwest was fun and filled with National Park goodness. We are grateful for\u00a0the National Park Service's \"Military Annual Pass\" program which saved us nearly $80 in entrance fees on this trip. Here's the summary of everything we did: Drive to Durango Durango\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"arizona\"","img":{"alt_text":"IMG_9830","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_9830-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3366,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/09\/grand-canyon-first-impressions.html","url_meta":{"origin":3337,"position":1},"title":"Grand Canyon: First Impressions","date":"01 September 14","format":false,"excerpt":"The day we stopped at Mesa Verde National Park and the Four Corners Monument, we had to eventually make it to the Grand Canyon campground. It's only about 5-6 hours worth of driving from Durango, but we made several stops. So we were hard pressed to get to the campsite\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"arizona\"","img":{"alt_text":"Our first views of the Grand Canyon were breathtaking.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/DSC_0094-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2695,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/10\/colorado-discoveries-17-spruce-mountain-open-space.html","url_meta":{"origin":3337,"position":2},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 17: Spruce Mountain Open Space","date":"29 October 13","format":false,"excerpt":"Colorado basks in their \"open spaces\". I'm not sure if it's a special category of park or what, but there are many in our community, and there are several between Colorado Springs and Denver. That's where my latest adventure took me. Just north of the towns of Monument and Palmer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"colorado\"","img":{"alt_text":"The parking lot was packed! You can see that it's not a huge \"mountain\".","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/IMG_0001_2-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3304,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/08\/colorado-discoveries-drive-to-durango.html","url_meta":{"origin":3337,"position":3},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 37: Driving from Colorado Springs to Durango","date":"30 August 14","format":false,"excerpt":"I guess it's high time I start writing about our family's southwest summer vacation. After all, we left for the vacation exactly two months ago. As usual with my lapses in writing, real life started to get in the way. I really truly want to write about these adventures while\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","img":{"alt_text":"DSC_1326","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/DSC_1326-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3315,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/08\/colorado-discoveries-38-durango-silverton-rr.html","url_meta":{"origin":3337,"position":4},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 38: The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad","date":"30 August 14","format":false,"excerpt":"Dave had been telling me about the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad for many years. Okay, perhaps over 20 years. It was the highlight of a Colorado trip he had taken as a teenager, and he was excited for a chance to share the experience with the boys and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"colorado\"","img":{"alt_text":"DSC_1487","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/DSC_1487-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3327,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/08\/colorado-discoveries-39-bar-d-supper-show.html","url_meta":{"origin":3337,"position":5},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 39: Bar D Chuckwagon Suppers, Durango, CO","date":"31 August 14","format":false,"excerpt":"After our ride on the Durango & Silverton, we headed about 10 miles north of Durango (much of which was along the train route) to visit the Bar D Ranch. These types of ranches are popular tourist attractions throughout the southwest. There are several in Colorado, including the Flying W\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"bar d\"","img":{"alt_text":"DSC_1938","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/DSC_1938-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3337"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3362,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337\/revisions\/3362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}