2013 Ouray Trip - Part VIII - Mesa Verde

On Sunday, we got up quite early and headed to Mesa Verde, which isn't far from Durango.  It had rained the night before and this morning was a little damp and foggy.

Driving to Mesa Verde

We were very excited to go to Mesa Verde National Park.  My husband hadn't been there for about 20 years and I hadn't been there for about 10 years.  (My youngest daughter and I visited Mesa Verde in September 2011 while my husband had business in Durango).  The last time our family had been there, we weren't able to go to Balcony House because the wait was too long.  Now they have a system where visitors buy tickets to tour Balcony House and Cliff Palace, so we stopped and bought tickets on the way in.  Our tour of Balcony House was at noon and our tour of Cliff Palace was at 2 p.m.

 30 foot Ladder to Enter Balcony House

View of Ladder from Balcony House

 Kiva at Balcony House

View of Cliff Palace

We started at the arrow & walked down into Cliff Palace

Another view of Cliff Palace

We also drove around the park and took several self-guided tours, such as Spruce Tree House where you can enter an underground Kiva, Sun Temple, Pit Houses, and others.  We were fortunate that it didn't start raining hard until mid afternoon.  That evening we stayed inside Mesa Verde National Park at the Far View Lodge.

One of the best things about staying at the Far View Lodge was that the charge was only $125 and then we got coupons worth $50 to use at the Restaurants and Gift Shops in the Park.  We each enjoyed out own "Create your own Pizza and Salad" for dinner (a $30 value which we got free).