21 May, 2019

Day 2 - Mesa Verde National Park

Before going to our Day 2 travelogue, please go through below posts to follow the itinerary.

Utah Vacation Plan with Kids

Day 1 - Arches National Park and Canyonlands National park


Monument Valley Park and Four Corners National monument

On Day 2, we have covered 2 national monuments and 2 national parks. Since it is becoming a lengthy post, I had to split my Day 2 itinerary to 2 posts.

We covered Monument valley park and Four corners monument by afternoon 3 pm and we headed towards Cortez to reach Mesa Verde National park




Our next stop was to Mesa Verde national park. The statue before the visitor center is amazing.

This national park in Southern Colorado is known for it's well preserved ancient Puebloan cliff dwellings. Today, this park protects around 5000 archeological sites and 600 cliff dwellings.

Be sure to stop by the visitor center to buy tickets for the Longhouse, Cliff Palace and Balcony House. Cliff Palace and Balcony house tours are a must if you visit this place and the tours require you to climb ladders and even crawl a bit at some places. Check this website for Visitor center hours and the opening/ closure information of some sites.

Our first stop was to Spruce tree house overlook, which is near the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum. We spent some time in the museum watching the exhibits of ancient pueblo culture. Spruce tree house overlook is very nearer to the museum. This is 3rd largest and best-preserved cliff dwelling in the park. 

The drive to the spruce tree house from the visitor center is also very scenic with road going through the hills and valleys. 

We drove the 20 miles scenic loop in the park. On the way, we stopped at overlooks to watch Cliff palace, Square tower house and Sun temple at the end of the loop. 

Here is a slide show of the pictures:





Square tower house looked really beautiful and we should appreciate the park for preserving these ancient dwellings. Cliff Palace looked great too. Since we reached late, we couldn't go on a tour but I definitely recommend touring it.

Balcony House was closed in April when we visited and it might be open in Summer. We started back by around 7 pm and started our drive to the hotel. We booked our accommodation in Pagosa Springs for that night, which is known for the world's deepest geothermal hot springs.

On the way to Pagosa Springs, we crossed Chimney Rock National monument. It is just 15 to 20 mins before you reach Pagosa Springs. Since it was late for us, we couldn't visit this monument.

Will meet you with the travelogue of Day 3 where we visited 'Treasure Falls' and Mahalakshmi temple in Crestone.

Until next time,







2 comments:

  1. Wow such a nicely written travel blog! You tempt me to travel more¡

    ReplyDelete

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