May 10
It takes about 45 minutes to drive the park road in Mesa Verde, from VC to the Chapin Mesa Museum. This is where one can begin house tours, with the Spruce Tree House, Cliff Palace, and Balcony House in the area. As with the previous dates in May, no issue with parking. Very few people, and only one commercial bus. I played “tag” with it from the VC through Spruce Tree, but the time it takes to unload and then reload, the bus was soon absent from my rear-view mirror. All of us were relegated to viewing the houses from "overlooks”. A ranger at the VC apologized for the tour date being pushed back from May 2 to May 14, but said the high level of snowfall this winter was the cause. A few of us who looked down into the two canyons agreed there was no snow in sight. Temps were around 70degF. And two school buses with 5th-6th graders were getting a tour of Balcony House. As I have said before, great to see the youngest generation getting exposure to our parks. But if they can get a tour, why not the few older folks? One lady said she tried to get the head chaperone to accept her as a volunteer chaperon, but that request was rebuffed. So, to get a look at Balcony House, I had to walk a 1.2-mile RT path to reach the official overlook. Along the way I met Celeste. She is a hiker and enthusiastically commented on the “hiker” character which shows on the front of my Quest tee-shirt. Her Quest is to hike at least one trail in each of the 50 states. Her current mark is 25 states. Keep putting one foot in front of the other, Celeste, just like that song from the animated television classic, Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
No comment about the houses and sights over on Wetherill Mesa. That section of the park is now closed for 2023. Road damage is too great to allow vehicle traffic. A good guess is 99.99999% of the visitors will not want to hike the 12 miles (one-way) needed to reach the ruins at this cul-de-sac. Just plan to come next year.
But along the park road is a section called Far View Community. It is near the Far View Terrace cafe and gift shop, and the Far View Lodge. This was a pleasant surprise, seeing that I could not tour the houses. I had not stopped at this section in my previous Mesa Verde visits. The style of construction is found in many other southeastern Puebloan sites, such as Chaco Culture and Hovenweep, and is the same time period, starting about 750 AD. The 0.75-mile RT hike was well worth the time. One of the six subsites is sufficiently fragile that the NPS has constructed a large shelter, hoping to slow deterioration by the elements.
A comment on logistics. Cortez is only nine miles to the west of the park entrance. This city has everything a tourist would want, plenty of lodging, gasoline, groceries, and restaurants.
To the east of Mesa Verde is Durango, about 35 miles away. This is an historic town. The iconic Durango-to-Silverton Train began its 2023 operations last week. It takes a full day for this train trip. Durango has twice the number of people as Cortez, so again, ready to handle any and all tourists. But I had to get to Aztec Ruins NMon, so took US 550 south. Aztec is a World Heritage Site. I cannot think of an ancient Puebloan site that has a greater concentration of ruins. Though the park is 320 acres, the plot of land on which visitors tread is probably around 3 acres. But those few acres have over 400 rooms (in multiple stories), with plenty available to tour, including the Great Kiva, which has a roof, somewhat of a rarity for a kiva. This is Navajo, Apache, Southern Ute, and Hopi territory in today’s world. There are plenty of places to purchase authentic native textiles, pottery, trinkets, and baskets, including the park’s VC/Bookstore.