Better Outside Than In: Mesa Verde

Saturday, September 9, 2017

Mesa Verde

9/8:
The general plan for this part of the trip was to climb some more 14K foot mountains in Colorado. After 2+ weeks of near perfect weather the weather forecast at high elevations was for thunderstorms. Based on that, and the fact that I also had Mesa Verde on my list, I decided to head South and do some warm desert hiking.
I started out on I70 going West past Aspen, A Basin, what I think is the Eisenhower tunnel and other ski areas. Then it turned into red and brown rock which reminded me of Utah.
I decided to drive through Ouray, Silverton, and Durango on my way South. The couple I met on my last day at Rocky Mountain said that Silverton was good hiking and in particular recommended Marys High Line and Upper Iceburg lake. Ouray is the first town you get to if you are traveling from the North. I stopped in at the tourist center and got some maps and information about the area.
This area is a great place to visit and maybe live some day. Smaller towns with some great hiking, some 14K footers, and some nice camp grounds. This could be a trip in itself.
The road between Ouray and Silverton goes up to around 11K feet. Lots of old mines in this area and mountains that look like they were mined at one point. Drove by a very impressive waterfall at one point that went straight down into a blue lake.
Heard two versions of Me and Bobby Mcgee on the radio. Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead versions. "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose"...
At the end of the day I was right outside Mesa Verde. It was that time in the trip that I had to stay at a Walmart. I actually ended up spending two nights there. There were showers at Mesa Verde so that combined well with sleeping at Walmart. This was a 24 hour Walmart with food and a reasonable clean bathroom. Not bad for free and also reasonably quiet. Not a lot of people shopping at night and a very large parking lot so I was far away from the actual store. Probably about 10 other vehicles camping over night. A few campers, some cars, and a van or two.

Ouray

9/9:
Mesa Verde. There are a number of hikes at Mesa Verde and some cliff villages that you can check out on your own. To see the best areas though you need to take a tour. This is also good because you learn a lot about the area and the cliff dwellings. I went on the Cliff Palace and the Balcony House tours. One interesting thing I learned is that there is no running water in the park both now and back when people were living in the cliff dwellings which is around 1200. The area has sand stone which absorbs water and then where it hits a layer of slate, created when the area was an inland sea, the water comes out.
The hikes at Mesa Verde were interesting. Lots of interesting rock formations and a totally different experience from the rest of the trip. Desert hiking with cactus and lizards.
Good decision to come here for a few days.

Cliff Palace

Small wall to block incoming air so fire does not have air blowing on it.

9/10:
Went to other loop road at Mesa Verde. Went on a nice 6 mile loop hike in the AM which had a self tour cliff dwelling at the beginning. Saw a drawing of a hand at this site. Also walked through an area that had burned recently. The trees made some interesting shapes.
After lunch I decided to go to Canyons of The Ancients which isn't far away and is also on the way to Arches which I decided would be the next stop. Canyons of the Ancients is not a national park so you can go where you want. This area had castle like dwellings that were from a different time than Mesa Verde (newer?). I could have stayed at Canyons of the Ancients since it is all federal land and open for camping but I pressed on toward Arches. I ended up at the nicest rest area I will probably stay at. It had some red walls next to it and a short trail that went into an area of cool red rocks. The bathrooms, like many rest areas out west, were clean and open 24x7. Felt completely safe and I wasn't the only one sleeping there.