Welcome to Part Three of the travelogue about our RV trip to Utah, Colorado & Nevada in the fall of 2018.
Map of Part 3 route
Monday, Oct 15, 2018 (Colorado) Durango to Mesa Verde National Park (Morefield Campground)
Today was our shortest driving day ever (under one hour), to Mesa Verde National Park.
We camped at Morefield Campground, which was almost deserted.
Much like Cedar Breaks National Park, Gore Creek, and United (Durango), the campgrounds within the park would close for the season as soon as we left.
We chose a nice campsite, and soon six deer began grazing around us.
Not only do we love watching the deer, but it’s fun to watch the kitties watching them!
Tuesday, Oct 16, 2018 (Colorado) Mesa Verde National Park (Morefield Campground)
We had booked a Private Tour with Durango Rivertrippers and Adventure Tours, and arranged to be picked up at our campsite. Our guide Denise, who had worked many years as an archaeologist, was fabulous! We started at the Mesa Verde Park Point Lookout—the highest point in the park—which afforded sweeping views in every direction. And Denise took us through a 360-degree ‘tour’ explaining what we were looking at in every direction. We could see the Carrizo Mountains in Arizona, Shiprock in New Mexico, Canyonlands in Utah, and of course many mountain peaks in Colorado.
We also stopped at several overlooks that afforded views of many cliff dwellings.
Along the way we also stopped at sites where archaeologists have unearthed remains of ‘pit houses’ and ‘kivas.’ It was fascinating to listen to her describe what archaeologists currently think about the way the Ancestral Puebloans lived back then.
And if you think your house is small, you should check out these ruins, or something similar, to gain some perspective!
We had already booked a tour of one of the cliff houses where visitors are allowed to walk through the ruins with a park ranger. One of the more popular ones is ‘The Cliff Palace,’ which we would have liked to tour (150 rooms and 23 kivas) but it was closed for the season (by the time we got there), so we booked a tour of ‘Balcony House’ instead.