Mesa Verde National Park




Day 35: Friday, August 2, 2019

We were on the road by 8 am, in time to make a gas and Starbucks stop—woohoo!! The kids were pumped to get breakfast sandwiches and I had not had a Starbucks drink in over a month, so I was excited too!



We got on down the road toward Durango, CO, where we planned to make a Walmart stop and find a place to eat lunch. We landed at The Container/Ska Brewery, which offered delicious food and tasty beer. After refueling (us and car!) we drove the last 40 miles to the KOA Mesa Verde.

Kinsey had never been to a Dollar Store and was asking to go to one so I made all her dreams come true in Cortez, CO! She was fascinated that EVERYTHING was $1.00!! haha! We grabbed some pool toys and then headed back to the campground to spend some time in the pool for the afternoon.

I did laundry and then we had a good dinner of grilled chicken, pasta salad, tomato mozzarella, and crescent rolls. The kids and I went for a walk around the park and met a balloon pilot who was in town for the balloon rally. He chatted us up, gave the kids some bubbles and lollipops, and got them excited to see the hot air balloons in the morning.



Day 36: Saturday, August 3, 2019

I was eager to see the hot air balloons on this morning, so I got up bright and early to run 4 miles into town. Sean and the kids drove down to Parque de Vida where the balloons were set to take off. We met up and it was still about an hour until the balloons were all set up and taking off. Since it was a small-ish event, it was pretty relaxed and we could walk around amidst the balloons and baskets right on the park field. It was a really pleasant surprise to have the event taking place while we were in town and we had a blast seeing the balloons take off into the morning sky.








We got back to the RV and got ready to go to Mesa Verde National Park for the day. We made our first stop at the visitor center to pick up the junior ranger books and sign up for one of the cliff dwelling tours.





From there we started to drive through the park to make our way to the museum and the area where we could see some of the dwellings. We walked to the overlook for Spruce House, which was closed to walking tours like when Sean had been there years before.




We explored the museum for about an hour, watched the park movie, and the kids were already ready to get sworn in as the newest rangers at Mesa Verde National Park.


Next we drove through Mesa Top Loop where we could see some pithouses and other types of cliff dwellings. We then made a stop for our picnic lunch near the area where we would take our tour to the Cliff Palace.






There are three cliff dwellings that you can visit by joining a ranger-led tour so we went down to the Cliff Palace that afternoon. The hike down was pretty short with a few ladders to climb and some small areas to shimmy through. It was very neat to be down there and reflect on the past lives that were lived there. The ranger, Risingbuffalo, had a really wonderful message about the importance of community, preserving the past, and making a better future. It reminded me of the message we heard at Crazy Horse, and I hope a little bit of it made an impact on my kids because it did for me.















We headed back to the campground to relax and have a quick dinner of leftover taco soup before going out on the bustling town of Cortez to run some errands. We hit up the Walmart, dollar store (again!), a sports store, and then ColdStone—I was pleasantly surprised that this small town had my favorite ice cream shop!! Next we went back down to the city park to see the balloon night glow. We were a little early so the kids got some playground time. The night glow was not as exciting as the morning balloon take-off but we stayed for a little while and then called it a night.


Tomorrow the adventure continues!

Mesa Verde National Park Highlights
BDG-seeing Cliff Palace
KPG-seeing Cliff Palace
EAG-seeing Cliff Palace
SGG-seeing Cliff Palace
**I think it’s safe to say we liked Cliff Palace a lot!

Location: Mesa Verde National Park, Mesa Verde, CO, USA

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