Traveling Team Fischer

Once again, we arrived at another park at the end of their busy season.  We usually like this, since it generally means fewer crowds, but at Mesa Verde National Park, the best cliff dwellings are only accessible via ranger guided tour, and those wrap up at the end of the season.

We were too late to join a tour of Cliff Palace (pictured above), but we were able to see it from the overlook.  It was actually kind of nice to be able to take some photos without anybody in there.

We met a very nice ranger who let us join her last tour of the year, so we were able to explore Long House with her group.  It was amazing to see cliff dwellings up close and we were in awe of the strength and vision needed to build something this big into a cliff.

While some areas had been restored, most of what we saw was original.

There were quite a few dwellings the park did not let anyone near at any time of year, but there were many overlooks and pull offs on the road so you could still see them from afar.  Luckily, the cameras on our phones can zoom in a bit for our shots.

Tried to take a panoramic, to better capture what we saw before zooming into a dwelling.

Finally, given our location, we had to take a little day trip to four corners, too.  We didn’t stay long, very few vendors braved the chilly (yet sunny) day, and we decided we should go find a hot meal before we continued on our journey.