Mesa Verde NP - Established 1906
If you are not into archaeology or history, then skip this one - This is the only national park dedicated to man's work, not nature. This is where you can put into play your 'mesa management 101' skills that I am sure you were taught somewhere. There are two mesas - Wetherill and Chapin where the former is open on a restricted basis and the latter is the more popular destination. The mesas are about 20 road miles apart which translates to about an hour apart on the curvy roads. So getting to the end of one mesa from the end of another mesa is somewhat time consuming. Since we were spending just one day in the park, visiting two mesa was unreasonable to us.
We decided to stay in the park at the Far View Lodge instead of staying in Durango in order to get ranger-led tour tickets a day early and to have more time in the park. We got there in the afternoon just before the visitor center closed. And there she was - The 'Big Momma' tour ticket ranger at the vistor center ready to confront and control the general public on tour ticket purchases. I think she once taught at a strict Catholic school in the area. Her job was to make sure that if we got tickets to the early tour at Chopin Mesa then we were to get tickets to the late tour at Chopin or Wetherill sites. Since my mesa management skills had deteriorated and the sight of her was imposing, I decided to depend on dumb luck or pleading. We asked for and got tickets for the most popular ranger-led tour, the Cliff Palace. We then brazenly asked for Balcony House tickets for a tour just after the Cliff Palace tour. After consulting all her lists and a long delay, she sold us the Balcony House tickets we wanted. I felt like we won the scratch-off ticket lottery. It must have been that the economy was so bad that the tours were not in high demand that day.
The Spruce Tree House on Chapin mesa is not ranger-led so it can be toured at any time. The Far View Sites just below the Lodge lets one see how the Puebloans lived on top of a mesa not as a cliff dwelling. They close the gate at dusk - we can attest to that! We had time to do the Mesa Top Loop Road before the Cliff Palace tour. It should be noted that there are ladders to climb and narrow spaces to squeeze through so heed all warnings. At the Balcony House, they discouraged backpacks. If you insisted on wearing one, when you got to one opening, you had to take off the backpack then push it forward in front in order to squeeze through. If you plan to do these tours you may want to skip breakfast to stay a little skinnier. If you are trying to do most of this park, you probably need two days - one for each mesa especially if crowded. Before this trip I didn't even know what a kiva was but we sure saw our share of them on this trip. I enjoyed the park and hope to go back some day.
On the way to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, we took the million-dollar highway from Durango to Silverton. We went through Ouray then took a side trip at Ridgway to Telluride - neat. Saw the ski lifts working and wondered why? Then realized that the views up there must be spectacular in the summer as well as the winter so the tourists were going up there for picture taking or to get in line early to ski the slopes.
