Mesa Verde National Park
We woke to a beautiful sunrise and a full moon. The Morefield Campground cafe serves all you can eat pancake breakfasts and Starbucks coffee, an opportunity we couldn’t pass up! As Kendra noted, the pancakes were the BEST all you can eat ones she’d ever had. I have to agree.
Our first stop of the day was the Long House cliff dwelling. The Pueblo people lived and farmed on the top of the mesas from about 600 C.E. Approximately 500 years later, they moved to cliff dwellings just below the mesas. Though there are a lot of theories about why they moved, nothing specific has been proven. To read more about the ancient Puebloan people, check out this PDF from the National parks.
Long House was beautiful – we had the first tour of the day, and the sunlight cast a beautiful orange glow on the bricks and cliff face.
I was a bit nervous about hiking with Addison on my back, but it worked out well. I even made it up the ladders! It was here that Kendra saved my life. Well, not really, but she did keep me from stepping on a snake, and I am sure that I would have screamed and fainted if she hadn’t, so if nothing else, she saved me from a lot of embarrassment.
After a long lunch in the cafe at the visitor’s center, we took a drive along the Mesa Loop, and then visited Cliff Palace.
By the end of the day, we were exhausted. We turned in early, ready to head to the Grand Canyon tomorrow!
