Beautiful Colorado camping spots and Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde National Park
September, 2019

If you have been reading all of our summer blogs you noticed that our summer journey has included a number of visits to National Parks in Arizona and Utah.  The last National Park to visit on our summer trip was Mesa Verde National Park near Cortez, CO.  We have had this park on our radar for a couple of years now but other visits through the area had it being too hot or some of the tours were closed for the season.

But first we decided that we needed to find some mountainous terrain since we were in the desert area for the last week, so we headed to an area that we have driven through many, many times - Lizard Head Wilderness which is not far from Telluride, CO.  The 42,296 acre wilderness area is located on the San Juan and Uncompahgre National Forests in southwest Colorado.  It is so named after Lizard Head Peak which rises to 13,113 feet and is one of the most conspicuous rock spires in the San Juan Mountains.  Once again we were lucky enough to find a great spot big enough for our motorhome with AMAZING views of the surrounding mountains.

Awesome camp site at 10,200 foot elev.

View from our camp site

Road 626 to our camp site

To access our site we took dirt road 626 which is also known as the Galloping Goose old railroad grade.  Not far from our camp we visited one of the last remaining railroad trestles for the old narrow gauge Rio Grande Southern Railroad that was built through this area to serve the mines in 1890.  "Galloping Goose" you say... yes the RGSRR struggled for many years since it was built in the silver mining boom years and upon just after completion, the silver crash of 1893 just about closed all the mines. In 1931 they couldn't afford to run the steam trains and invented the 'Goose' to run small passenger loads and some mail and freight around to the mountain towns which extended their business life until 1952.

Galloping Goose Train (photo from web)

Trout Lake Trestle

Trout Lake Trestle

A curious Marmot on trestle

We also drove many other dirt roads in the area where some led us to lakes, vistas and trailheads.

It was definitely hard to leave the mountains but we traveled south just 55 miles to another site that was just as amazing.  We dry camped right beside the Dolores River in a ranchers field that offered camping along the edge of their meadow.  We opted to take the most level site and the bonus was a dock over the river.  SCORE!  This was our home base for fishing, 4-wheeling and visiting Mesa Verde National Park.  Here we enjoyed lots of wildlife sightings, Jack was successful at fishing in the Dolores River and I read a good book.  Plus the sounds of the river were soothing bed-time music.

enjoying the river peacefulness.

Some local wildlife checking out our campsite.

Rainbow Trout

Let's talk Mesa Verde National Park !  Mesa Verde NP was created in 1906 and encompasses over 52,000 acres.  In that area they preserve and protect nearly 5,000 archaeological sites including 600 cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo people.  Around AD 1200 some of the Puebloan people living in the area moved from from their mesa top fields and into the cliffs and alcoves and these cliff dwellings are what makes Mesa Verde so popular as a National Park. There are many ways to explore and experience Mesa Verde  - by vehicle, by hiking, or by ranger led tours.  In addition to driving and hiking the park we opted for the ranger led tours for three of the more popular cliff dwellings so we could get that 'up close and personal experience'.

We first explored one of the best preserved sites in the park called Balcony House.  This cliff house was constructed intermittently between AD 1180 to 1270.  It is called Balcony House because of the primary architectural feature of 'balconies' between the first and second stories throughout the dwelling.  These balconies were used to move from one second-story room to another and possibly used as work spaces also.

Climbing up ladder to access Balcony House

Balcony House through the window of time

Balconies between the dwelling floors

Corn grinding stones 

Exit passageway

Exit ladder from dwelling back up to the parking lot

The tour for Balcony House entailed climbing three long steep ladders; navigating the steep cliff trail and crawling through a narrow 12 foot long tunnel. It was so interesting to hear the history and imagine how the Puebloan people lived and survived in this area.


Another tour was of the largest cliff dwelling in North America and rightly named Cliff Palace.  The dwelling is made up of about 150 rooms, 75 open spaces and 21 kivas and was home to 100 to 120 people.  All these structures fit in the alcove of about 215 feet wide by about 90 feet deep and 60 feet high.  The tour itself was very informative and the trail we followed consisted of many uneven stone steps and climbing four ladders. During this tour we learned that the dwelling was built between AD 1190 to AD 1280 and that some of the original wooden timbers found in the dwelling were extremely valuable in providing these construction dates. It is surprising to see how precise and detailed the walls were put together and how straight-lined the T-shaped doors were and how square the windows were made.  We were amazed at the degree of craftsmanship in the dwelling.

Can you see the exit route and exit ladders ?

We visited so many more dwellings in Mesa Verde NP but we will not expose you to our many, many photos but here is a couple that we thought you might enjoy. We highly recommend taking the tours offered at Mesa Verde NP.

Thank you for joining us on our summer journey.  It's time to head back home to Arizona for the winter.

Until next time - Happy Traveling

Jack and Deb

Cedar Mesa area and Natural Bridges National Monument near Blanding, UT

Natural Bridges National Monument & Cedar Mesa
August, 2019

Earlier this year when we returned from the San Miguel Swell area we traveled State Route 95 from Hanksville, Utah to Blanding, Utah where the road led us across the Utah portion of Lake Powell and up into the cedar trees near Natural Bridges National Monument.   During that trip we said we would like to come back for a more thorough look at the area so that time had come.  The area around Natural Bridges is considered high desert terrain with juniper and some pine trees along with cactus and desert type plants. This area did not offer the mountain top cool temperatures we had been chasing since we started our trip but still it was not as hot as the low desert areas. 

We knew we wanted to tour the Natural Bridges NM during our stay so we found a dirt road near there and hoped to find a place to camp for the next week and oh boy we found a great view spot that we could squeeze the motor home into and we were Happy Campers!  Even though the day time temperatures were still in the upper 80's the breeze at our site was a welcomed bonus and it cooled off nicely at night for sleeping.  We had views of the surrounding canyons and at night we could the see the lights in far away Bluff and Blanding, Utah some 30 miles away and further into Arizona and the Red Mesa area of the Navajo country. 

A camp with a view

One of many beautiful sunsets enjoyed at our camp site

Not far from out campsite was the historic hill called Salvation Knoll. In 1879, as the Mormon wagon train was forging a trail down through the Hole in the Wall area, four men went out on an eight day trip to scout ahead for a route but the men were lost and tired after twenty three days. On Christmas morning 1879, out of food and in fresh snow on the ground, one of the men climbed to the top of the knoll (which seems to be one of the tallest hills around us) where he discovered the landmark they had been looking for and were able to reach the end of the trail and map out a trail for the wagon train.  All ends well.

View from Salvation Knoll - can you see our motorhome?

View from Salvation Knoll

Most of the parks we had visited were known for their arches but the Natural Bridges National Monument displays similar looking formations but are known as bridges. What's the difference you ask? Natural bridges are formed by the erosive action of moving water. Arches are formed by other erosional forces - mainly frost action and seeping moisture - that also enlarge natural bridges once steam erosion forms them. (Per National Park Service)  In 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Natural Bridges NM as the first National Monument for Utah. It is also the first International Dark Sky Park named by the International Dark Sky Association in the nation.  We were lucky enough to attend a night telescope viewing party hosted by a park ranger and a very large and powerful telescope. We viewed Saturn and it's rings, Jupiter and it's four moons, some craters on the moon and some neat galaxies in the Milky Way.

Sipapu Bridge (220 ft high, 268 ft span, 31 ft wide, 53 ft thick)

Kachina Bridge ( 210 ft high, 204 ft span, 44 ft wide, 93 ft thick)

Owachomo Bridge ( 106 ft high, 180 ft span, 27 ft wide, 9 ft thick)

This high desert area offers many dirt road trips and hiking opportunities. We hiked Mule Canyon to a well known and well photographed cliff dwelling called House on Fire. This 900-1500 year old structure is made up of 5 granaries and is built into Cedar Mesa sandstone.  So named because the overhang rock face looks like fire during certain times of day.  Well worth the two mile RT hike!

Natural light at the time of day that we were there

Another with natural light but showing the name well.

Photo taken with a high tint effect to show the nature of the name

Kids were doing graffiti a 1000 years ago! 

The area is rich in Puebloan history as evidence by the kivas, cliff dwellings and pictographs.  We toured the Mule Canyon Kiva site. This stop offers interpretive information boards that explain the types of surface and undergrounds structures built by the Ancestral Puebloans some 1000 years ago.

A well built and stabilized 1000 year old Kiva on display 

The remains of the single story buildings

After a week of exploring the area around Natural Bridges NM we traveled to Blanding, Utah.  Blanding was a good stop for a couple of days to replenish supplies for the next outing.  While there we visited the Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum.  This is one of the most interesting and informative museums for the Ancestral Puebloans.  We thoroughly enjoyed the vast array of ancient pottery, weapons and one of a kind finds.  Adjacent to the museum is also an authentic Puebloan village that has been partial excavated by archaeologists.   One thinks this is a simple hour long visit to a 'museum'..... Well, we came out four hours later wishing for more time.  We've only attached a couple of photographs of the more rare or unusual artifacts in the museum.

Dart Tool Kit - dated during Basketmaker time period (700 to 900 AD) - rolled up inside a juniper mat
which includes the handcrafted dart foreshaft, fletching feathers and sinew for tieing.

Necklace made of insect legs and shells. Up close the legs were shiny. 

Beautiful and well preserved Macaw feather sash - 1050-1150 AD -
feathers from Scarlet Macaw which are known to be from
Mexico - used for ceremonial purposes

Story Pot - 1150 AD - Unusual because it is decorated with animal and human figures.
Black on white pottery in the Southwest typically is decorated with geometric designs.
The canteen appears to tell the story of a bird that was hunted but got away when it
caught the arrow that was aimed at it

Some of the Ancestral Puebloan Archaeological site

Entering the Kiva

Sample of outside  'yard' art work

Still in search for cooler weather we decide to go back to a place we know would be cool - Colorado.  Join us next time as we share the beauty of Colorado and our breathtaking mountain top camp site.

Happy Traveling

Jack and Deb