So this was a big day for me. I have always dreamed of seeing the cliff dwellings here and it definitely did not disappoint. We got up to an early start - our campground is inside the Mesa Verde National Park, but it's still quite a drive away from the cliff dwellings. The camper is at about 7k feet elevation but we had to drive up to over 8k to make our way to Park Point, which is on the way to the cliff dwellings. The view was amazing.
From there we headed to Palace House. It's the largest of the cliff dwellings here and we got lucky because none of the tours had started, so we were able to get our pictures without anyone walking around inside. It was all short walks from the road to a spot where you could see them and get pictures, which was a good thing because man, the altitude was really tough. I have no idea how anyone goes in to Mile High stadium and wins a game.
We drove around to see all of the other locations and hit the museum and book store up for a quick stop. We headed back down to the camp site by about 2, got showers, did some laundry, re-organized the camper and generally had an amazingly relaxed afternoon. Headed down to Cortez for some awesome Mexican food (and Pokemon hunting) before we made our way back to camp. Another amazing day with an amazing sunset.
Tomorrow it's off to Taos!
