My Trip Part VI: Mesa Verde and sand dunes in Colorado?????

Growing up, I wanted to be archaeologist.  Heck early adulthood I wanted to be an archaeologist.  I actually got to go on a dig in Israel during my college years!  I'm fascinated by history and the stuff that get's left behind.

The drive up the mountain where the cliff dwellings dwell... I caught Jesscera and Jerry while they took pictures as well

So going to visit whole cities that got left behind??

Mesa Verde was the wish list item on the trip for me.  I love all the beautiful scenery we saw on this trip, and the good times we had as a family.. but Mesa Verde was the hi-point for me personally.

700 hundred odd years ago, whole tribes left their cities, which were built in cliffs.  They remained mostly untouched for centuries, known by the local Indians but unknown by the whites until the late 1800's.  Predictably, everyone that heard about them wanted to see them, and I shutter to think how much was lost until it became a national, and PROTECTED, park.

So today, you get to see the cliff dwellings both up close and from look outs, and here are a bunch of very kewl photos from the park

There are over 5000 archaeological sites in the park... just think about that for a minute.

I could have spent longer there, just taking it all in.  I will say it was hot and I'm sad to say, I was having a few breathing issues due to the altitude.  It bothered Jerry just a tinsy bit... Jesscera didn't seem to have any ill effects.

And we had to make it about 250 miles away to South forks for our hotel that night.  Actually we stayed in a vacation cabin in the mountains... very kewl actually.

The 12th we drove to Denver but stopped at the Great Sand Dunes National Park on the way.

Sand Dunes in Colorado??

Yep.

Who knew?  I think I said this alot on the trip.  Actually our good neighbor Susie told us about this one.  Colorado has an amazing diversity of land types!

We made Denver by early evening, and set up in our hotel for our 2 nights in Denver.  This was a Bed and Breakfast in Downtown Denver -- a large, beautiful Victorian house / mansion built in 1889.

This is the "sitting room" of our suite in Denver... 

next: the end of the journey......