Mesa Verde National Park

The next stop on our journey was in Cortez, Colorado and on the Mesa Verde National Park. There was more snow and ice overnight. We arrived at the visitors center at the gate and were told that most of the roads were closed and might not open that day. We were pretty determined to see this part, so we headed for the entry, to find out the road conditions. We were able to go through with all weather tires, so we made the slow trek to the Spruce Tree House. There was a lot of snow and ice, but the roads were passable with a little winter driving experience.

All of the trees and bushes were covered with snow and frost on all sides like they had been dipped in a snow cloud. It was beautiful, and the day was clear and blue.

We made it to the next visitor's center and had to wait a few minutes for the trail to the Spruce Tree House to open. It was a short paved hike, but the park rangers apparently like to be very cautious about allowing people near the caves. It was amazing to get our first view of the dwellings.

The boys loved this hike and found plenty of places to climb in and also knock snow on each other.

We were able to climb down into a keva. Gavin and Henry went down several times.

We weren't allowed to go inside the dwelling, but it was cool to get close to them and try to imagine what life must have been like there.

A park ranger on this trail told us that Mesa Verde gets about 18 inches of total precipitation a year, and they had gotten 3 inches of snow the year before. Just our luck. It was nice that there wasn't much of a crowd and we got some beautiful pictures.

After the Spruce Treehouse, we had to wait a while longer for the Mesa View Loop road to open, so the boys spent some time throwing snowball and building snowmen. Finn was loving it.

There was so much to see on the Mesa View Loop, it was pretty amazing to see these structures just pop out of the side of the cliff.

We really enjoyed this stop and can't wait to go back in better weather and take our boys to climb into some of the dwellings when they are all old enough to avoid falling off the cliffs.