Well, Hail! It's Mesa Verde

October 5, Sunday - Cortez, Colorado.

This was to be our day at Mesa Verde - the Cliff Dwellings.

But we awoke to a strange sound outside our hotel door. Remember that we had temperatures from 83 to 32 yesterday - annnd everything from sun to rain to snow.

So I opened the curtains to *HAIL*!! Yes, really:

Soooo we had our breakfast at the hotel (really-great make-them-yourself waffles: almost as good as Waffle House) and wondered how to spend our day.

Buuut it began to clear - though it was cold enough that I ditched my short pants for jeans - and added a sweatshirt - and we decided to go ahead and try Mesa Verde. So we loaded up and drove the 20 miles back to the entrance - and enjoyed the beautiful scenery around us that we hadn't been able to see in the dark the previous night. Just awesome.

We took the exit into Mesa Verde National Park and got to use our Annual National Park pass for the first time. The visitor center is 15 miles into the park - which doesn't seem any big deal until we began to drive it: twisty, windy, beautiful - and foggy. It took us probably 40 minutes to make it to the "Far View" center, but it was quite scenic and we added probably 2000 feet elevation to the 6000 at the entrance.

We bot our tickets to the 2 guided tours we could take ($3 per person per tour) and hopped back into "Monroe" to drive down to the tour start... and encountered a group of horses totally unconcered about the cars trying to share their space.

We waited at the top of a mesa - looking at the tour group ahead of us - until our noon tour time, then climbed down the steps toward the "Cliff Palace" - annnd it started to hail again! We just ducked under the rocks - showing why the Anasazi chose to build where they did - and stayed out of the weather. The tour was entertaining and informative - our guide was quite good. There is much history - and many questions still unanswered: WHY did the Anasazi move down into the cliffs - after 600 years of happily living on *top* of the Mesa? Why did they then move *out* entirely - less than 100 years later? Perhaps today's descendents know, but they get coy when asked, so we have to make do with "It was time" as an answer.

Tour over, we gingerly drove toward the next tour - and stopped at one of the overlooks. The Cliff Dwellings are amazing, but the views are perhaps moreso - and wound up talking to another couple who was also visiting - so we took each others' photos - and took long enough that we were just in time for the next tour: of the "Balcony House". 32-foot ladder, tight passages, good stuff.

We then did a walk thru of another development - with some beautiful views from the top of its mesa: and which included the only re-constructed Kiva - that we got to climb down into. Cool.

Annnd we figured that that was enough Cliff Dwellings for one day. We headed out - and encountered a whole group of deer. Look closely - they blend in with the trees.

Lots of walking, lots of dust, lots of history.

Back thru the windy, foggy entrance road and a stop at Wal-Mart for some sundries. When we came out, we found a rainbow leading down to the mountains yes, this was the view from the *Wal-Mart parking lot* - what a nice surprise.

Annnd, back to my food obsession, we stumbled into a Mexican restaurant which was just *awesome*: the salsa was wonderful, they also brought out some "Mexican coleslaw", and the chimichanga was great. The best Mexican food I've ever had. Perhaps we'll hit the same place again when we come thru after the balloon festival.

A succesfull day despite a slow start.