Our trip to Mesa Verde/Four Corners started as a 2 person trip, became a 3 person trip, became a 5 person trip, then ended up just being a 2 person trip. We had a blast though. It was fun to go camping, hiking, get a tan, and see some history all at the same time.
On the way there we decided to stop in Monticello and get some pictures of the temple since I may not find myself down that way very often. It was very small, but beautiful.
People may think I'm a dork (and they often do) but I love stopping at the state borders and taking pictures of by the signs. I doubt that I will ever get all 50 states, but I don't care because it is fun anyway.
Once we hit the border we were over halfway there. We decided to camp on BLM land for free that is about 1 mile away from the Mesa Verde park entrance. It was a great choice, except I thought I was going to die from gnat attacks from about 6-9 every day.
I hate sleeping in sleeping bags because I am such a restless sleeper and constantly find myself in need of zipping the entire thing back up and and re-situating myself about 1,000 times a night. Therefore I decided to sleep with just my Payson Lions blanket and froze my butt off. It was not a pleasant night.
The next morning we headed to Mesa Verde. The Mesa is is divided into two parts divided by a huge gorge so we decided to spend a day on one side and a day on the other side. The side we chose to do first has the most to do and is therefore the most popular. The first cliff dwelling that we visited was Balcony House, which turned out to be my personal favorite. It was divided by a wall into two sections and involved 5 ladders and two tunnels. Very fun. And I thought I had a good front porch view.
After Balcony House we headed over to Cliff Palace, which is the park's largest and most popular cliff dwelling. It is definitely not hard to see why and is very impressive.
After Cliff Palace we drove a loop that included many overlooks onto cliff dwellings that are not visit-able as well as Cliff Palace, Balcony House, and others. Then we headed to the museum which is located right next to a self guided cliff dwelling with a reconstructed Kiva that you can go down into. This area was heavily populated with tourists (many many children) and so that is probably why Spruce Tree House does not rank that high on my favorites list. We did see some pictographs painted in red on the walls of this house though.
After visiting Spruce Tree House, Jamie and I took on the Petroglyph Point Trail. It was only 2.5 miles, but it was a tough hike and we were very tired by the end of it. The famous Petroglyph panel is very near the end of the trail right before you go up on the mesa top to make the loop back. The rest of the trail from there was very easy and if I were to ever go back to Mesa Verde with kids I would take the trail backwards instead, then backtrack once I got to the petroglyphs. This would make the hike much easier and shorter.
To relax, we went to the museum nearby and watched their 25 minute video (which I slept through after the first five minutes). It is a waste of time if you have already done the guided tours, because the tour guides already covered all of the information that was in the video. We checked out the museum for about 30 minutes, got some souvenirs, then headed for the Mesa Top Loop, which is a 6 mile loop with some overlooks, a temple, and some pit houses and adobe villages that have been preserved by building huge sheds up around them. These were very interesting to me, especially the pit houses.
We hit a few overlooks of the valley on the way out. The best one (it is the highest point in Mesa Verde) is called Park Point Overlook.
Then it was back to camp where we fended off gnats for a few hours, ate some dinner, and went to bed. I decided to use my sleeping bag this time and was pretty cozy most of the night.
The second day at Mesa Verde we were on the smaller, less traveled side of the Mesa. This was nice because there were fewer people crowding the facilities, although our guided tour was a much larger group since we chose a popular time (the first one of the day is at 10:00 am and by that time many people are in the park).
We did a guided tour of Longhouse which is almost as large as Cliff Palace. There were a lot of people on our tour and it was HOT outside. There was very little shade except at the back of the alcove. The cool thing about Longhouse is that there is a ceremonial plaza in the front (probably a Great Kiva without a roof) where people from many dwellings probably gathered to perform and watch important religious ceremonies.
After Longhouse we went to a few overlooks then hiked around and saw more remnants of pithouses and villages, including one that had a Great Kiva. We followed that up with a self guided tour of Step House and a hike to another overlook. This Mesa had far less to do than the other Mesa and we ended at about 3:00 so we decided to hit Four Corners that day instead of waking up and doing it the next morning. Obviously we had to stop for a picture at the New Mexico border.
Mesa Verde was extremely organized and a well-oiled machine. I can't say the same for Four Corners, but eventually we got in there and got our pictures. One lady did a backbend across all 4 states. I thought that was pretty cool, but did not attempt it.
We got back to camp at about 5:30 so we decided to pack up and come home that night instead of the next morning since we had done everything we set out to do (and more). We got home around 11:30.
Tips for future travelers:
1. Staying on the BLM land for free was a great idea and was very close to the park.
2. If you have kids, limited time, or don't want a strenuous hike then do the Petroglyph Point Trail backwards then turn around and hike back out the way you went in once you hit the petroglyphs.
3. Bring lots of water. You will use it. There is a handy spigot at the Cliff Palace picnic area on Chapin Mesa to fill up and a handy spigot at the Wetherhill Mesa Information Kiosk but other than that, there are only small drinking fountains everywhere else.
4. Skip the museum video if you are planning on doing the guided tours.
5. If you have limited time, just do Chapin Mesa and forget about Wetherhill Mesa. It is cool, but a lot of the same (Keep in mind that I recommend doing both sides).
6. If you want to do both sides, Wetherhill Mesa can be done in half a day (5 hours), but Chapin Mesa will be a full day (especially with kids).
