Sunday 10/9 to Wednesday 10/12 Mesa Verde National Park

On Thursday 10/13 we left Mesa Verde because the Campground closed for the season at 11:00a.m. We decided to head home. During our four days there we did not have internet so this post is a culmination of our time there. 

Camping at Morefield Campground

We spent four fabulous days visiting Mesa Verde National Park. During our stay we camped in Morefield Campground. We did three hikes, one ranger guided tour, one self-guided tour, a motorcycle ride, visited the visitor center and I hiked the Knife Ridge Trail twice.

Before entering into Mesa Verde we stopped at the visitor center to get some information. While there we talked to the ranger and he explained what roads were open and gave us information on the hiking trails and the park. Then we walked around the center and looked at the exhibits.

Mesa Verde Visitor Center

 

A sculpture at the entrance of the visitor center

Before getting to the campground there is Morefield Village, it has showers, restrooms, coin operated laundry and gas pumps. It also has a restaurant, that serves a pancake breakfast and a grocery store. Your check in at the store, the lady fills out a card and gives it to you. You go to the campground and find an empty site you like and put the card on the post. Most campgrounds today assign you a site. This was great because you may want to move to another site during your stay and you just have to take your card and put it on the other post. The campground has one power loop which you have to reserve online but they are always full. It also has a tent loop and the rest are first come first serve RV loops. We saw deer walking through campsites and a coyote walk through the campground.

Deer in the campground

Cliff Palace & Spruce Tree House & Petroglyph Trail

Cliff Palace was a 30 minute ranger guided tour and you had to register for the tour. We arrived an hour early and the ranger said we could do the tour early because it wasn't full. We started by climbing down to where the dwellings were and another ranger took over. He explained the history of the dwellings, how they were preserving them by fixing the cracks and talked about the people who had lived there. We walked through the dwellings and stopped at a Kiva, the ranger explained what it was used for. It is round chamber built in or near every village or homestead and is usually underground. They were most likely used for combined religious, social and utilitarian purposes. We climbed four ladders during the tour. The ladders were wooden and similar to what were used by the people who lived there. The last ladder was very steep and it took you out of the dwelling to the parking lot. The dwelling was huge.

Climbing one of the ladders

 

Part of the Cliff Palace

 

Another part of the dwelling

 

Part of the dwelling

 

Our tour guide

 

After our tour we drove around the Chaplin Mesa area to the Spruce Tree House. The Spruce Tree House used to be open for a self-guided tours but they closed it in 2015 because of rocks falling. We hiked the Petroglyph Trail, a 2.4 mile loop that was very strenuous, we climbed over 227 feet in elevation, squeezed between boulders, climbed narrow stone staircases, scrambled up rocks and hiked on uneven sandstone. We had to climb up 1.4 miles to get to the top of the mesa. Then we hiked a mile back to the Spruce Tree House. During the hike we saw a small dwelling and a petroglyph panel. At the end we saw the Spruce Tree House. It was a great hike. 

 

A narrow passageway during the Petroglyph Point Trail

Dwelling along the hike

 

Petroglyph panel

 

Spruce Tree House

 

A view of the Spruce Canyon

 

Wetherill Mesa Hiking 

 

Due to weight our motor home is not allowed on the road to Wetherill Mesa so we drove the Minnie to Far View restaurant where we unloaded the motorcycle and drove it to Wetherill Mesa, which was 12 miles. It was early in the morning and quite cold. Once there we hiked the Step House Trail, which was a mile, but it was a steep half mile down to the Step House, where we did a self-guided tour. We picked up a booklet, which explained different points of interest to look at. We climbed a short ladder and looked at different parts of the Step House. It was a nice tour. Then we had to climb back up the half mile. Once on top we hiked the gravel trail to the Badger Community, which was a 2.25 mile loop. We walked through four metal building, each building explained 600 years of the Pueblo history. The buildings had ruins in them and signs that talked about the ruin. As we walked the paved road we saw some wild horses. We had a nice time. The ride on the motorcycle was very beautiful and it was on a curvy mountain road. When we got back to the Minnie we loaded the motorcycle back on it's carrier.

 

Fire lookout building

 

 

 

Motorcycle ride to Wetherill Mesa area

 

Fire pit at Step House

 

More rooms of the Step House

 

Badger House Community

 

One of the rooms in the Badger House

 

A couple of wild horses near Badger House

 

Another wild horse

 

Prater Ridge Trail

The trailhead for our last hike was near the campground. We hiked 6 miles for three and a half hours. The trail was called Prater Ridge, it was a very strenuous hike. We had to climb up the mountainside for 1.4 miles and 675 feet in elevation to the top. Then we hiked .25 mile to where there were two loops, the south loop was for 2.4 miles and the north loop for 3.4 miles. We did the 2.4 mile loop. The trail took us along the mesa edge and through some trees. The views were beautiful. As we hiked we stopped occasionally to enjoy the views. The day before on our drive back to the campground Larry thought he saw some horses in one of the nearby canyons. There was a place on the trail where we could see into the canyon so we stopped and looked, we saw some movement in the meadow so we got the binoculars out. We saw about 10 wild horses too far away for a picture. After walking the loop we headed back down the mountainside. We had a super hike even though we were exhausted.

 

Morefield Campground from the trail

 

Two of the evenings I hiked the Knife Ridge Trail, which was a 2 mile hike round trip. It was flat and easy. The trail took me up 65 feet in elevation and along the ridge of the canyon. It follows a section of the old park road. It had some beautiful views of the mountains. At the end of the trail if you were there to see the sunset it would be very nice. But I was too early both times. I had a great time hiking the trail.

 

We had a super time at Meas Verde National Park.  

 

A view of the mountain from Knife Ridge Trail

 

Another mountain view from the Knife Ridge Trail

          

 

 

 

  

 

Saturday 10-8 Driving to Mesa Verde National Park

 

Leaving Yellowstone National Park

Today I got up at 7:00 and started getting ready to move on to Mesa Verde National Park. While I did this Larry went to Walmart to get breakfast. They didn't have any fresh donuts so he bought Ding Dongs, we had Ding Dongs and shared a protein shake. I know it's not to nutritious but I'm a chocolate addict. After breakfast we were on the road about 7:30.

Today we drove 299 miles. We drove beautiful mountain roads through Utah into Colorado. As we were driving through the mountain pass outside of Springville, Utah we saw gorgeous fall colors. We drove by a couple of exits to Canyonlands National Park and the entrance to Arches National Park. The mountains started out a brownish color and then turned to a beautiful red rock. Before we got to Moab we saw a few skydivers landing at the airport. They looked like they were landing real fast but they landed on their feet. We were surprised that Moab wasn't that busy. We got right through the town. We stopped at the rest area at The Rock and had lunch. Of course we stopped a couple of times to fill the Minnie up. As we were driving to Cortez we noticed that there was a rain storm coming in. We saw it raining in the mountains. After filling the Minnie in Cortez we parked at the Walmart to check on the weather and e-mails. The weather report showed it was raining at Mesa Verde National Park, which was only 13 miles away. We decided to sit it out. We went into Walmart and bought a couple of items. We decided to stay the night at Walmart.

Utah welcome sign

 

Salt Lake City Capitol building

 

Near Arches National Park

 

More mountain scenery

 

The red rock at the rest area

 

Wilson Arch

       

Saturday 10-1 to Friday 10-7 Yellowstone National Park

Today 10/7 we left Yellowstone National Park and are headed to Mesa Verde National Park. For the past week we only had cell service / internet when we were at a visitor center. During our stay in Mesa Verde we will once again be without cell service for most of our stay, you might not hear from me for a bit.

Old Faithful Inn

We had six outstanding days in Yellowstone National Park. During our stay we camped in Madison Campground. We did four hikes for the total of 11 miles, toured the Old Faithful Inn and did some site seeing. The temperatures in the morning were in the 30s and the highs were in the mid 50s to low 60s.

We hiked the following trails: Beaver Ponds, Ribbon Lake, Fern Cascade and Observation Point.

Beaver Ponds in Mammoth was a 5 mile loop. The first part was in the open and we climbed 350 feet. On top we saw magnificent views of Mammoth and Gardiner. As we hiked the top we saw a coyote hunting, then the trail weaved up and down the mountain through the trees. The ponds were very nice. After our hike we walked around Mammoth and saw elk laying in the residences yards. I walked around the Hot Springs.

Coyote on the trail

 

One of the beaver ponds

Larry crossing a bridge

 

Mammoth Hot Springs

 

A calf and cow relaxing 

 

Mammoth from the trail

Ribbon Lake Trail was a 6 mile hike. The actual trail to ribbon lake was 2.2 miles one way. It started at Artist Point, which is part of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The trail took us along the rim of the canyon, through trees and 500 feet up the mountainside. We hiked by Lilly Lake, which was a beautiful small lake. The hike was very nice, when we got to Ribbon Lake we continued our hike another .5 mile to the cascades. The cascades of the river was very pretty. After resting we went back to where we started. Then we walked to the Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Ribbon Lake

 

Lilly Lake

 

Lower Falls

River in the bottom of the canyon

 

A view of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Fern Cascade hike was 2.5 mile loop, which started at the old post office at Old Faithful. The trail went in two different directions. One was one mile to the cascades and the other one was 1.5 miles. We did the 1.5 direction. The hike started going up a very steep hill using an old service road. We climbed 270 feet. It was a moderate trail. Once on top it flattened out. We hiked through trees and no one was on the trail. The cascade was very hard to see because of trees. We continued the trail down the hill. We ended up finishing at the employee housing. It was very nice. They had homes for the National Park employees, RVs, mobile homes, apartments and dormitories for the other workers. We had a great hike.

An old cabin

Fern Cascade

A view from the trail

The Old Faithful Observation Trail and Geyser Hill hike was a 2.2 mile loop. We climbed 200 feet to get to the observation point. We started the hike at Old Faithful area. The trail started by taking us over a beautiful creek via a bridge. There we went up the mountainside. It was very steep but once at the observation point we saw an outstanding view of the Old Faithful area and geyser hill. We met a couple of young people and visited with them. Afterwards we continued our hike by walking part of Geyser Hill. It was a great hike.

The river we crossed over

 

A view we saw at the observation point

 

Infant Geyser

 

Bridge to get over the river

 

Old Faithful from the observation trail

We did a lot of site seeing. We did the lower and upper loops of the park. We saw some bison, a few coyotes, elks, fishermen fly fishing and a lot a gorgeous scenery. We did the river road, that went a mile along the Madison River. We stopped and looked at the mountains and saw an eagle in a tree. Every night we went to the Madison River to see what we could see. We saw Tyson the Bison a couple of times. Tyson is an old bull, that decided to spend his retirement at the Madison River by the campground. They adopted him as their mascot. 

Tyson the Bison sign

Eagle

 

Madison River

 

One of the mountains in the park

 

A waterfall on the side of the road

 

Bull Elk

A bison crossing the road in front of us

Snow on one of the mountain peaks

 

The fish that got away

We also toured the Old Faithful Inn and watched a movie about Yellowstone. The tour guide Clara was excellent. She talked about the history of the inn and the architect, Robert C. Reamer and his vision.

The clock and fireplace in Old Faithful Inn

 

Beautiful staircases in the inn

 

The old Crow Nest where the band played years ago

We had an outstanding time in Yellowstone.

Friday 10-7

Larry drove 400 miles for 10 hours. We had a long day of driving. We drove parts of four states. We were in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Utah. We drove two and four lane highways and an interstate. We saw a lot of farmland and ranches. The hardest and most stressful was driving through Salt Lake City at 3:00 in the afternoon. It was a lot of traffic, it didn't stop but it was very slow. Larry did an outstanding job.  

 

     

 

Thursday & Friday 9-29 & 9-30 Two Relaxing Days

No Internet ??

We have reservations for the next six days in Yellowstone National Park at Madison Campground. The park is huge and the only cell service is at the visitor centers, there is no service at the campground. So I'm not sure how often my blog will be updated. It is also suppose to rain the next two days so we are not sure how that will affect our plans. 

 

One of the ranches by Henrys Lake

Thursday 9-29

Today we mostly stayed around our campsite, there are no hiking trails. 

It was cloudy most of the day and windy. In the morning we went on a half hour walk down the main road. Going south the road is dirt and very well packed with no wash board. Yesterday, when we were relaxing in our chairs we heard cows. During our walk we found the cows. Our walk was very nice.

Our neighbors 

 

Another picture of the mountains

In the afternoon I walked the same road for .8 miles and back. The clouds were gone so it got a little warm. After dinner I walked around for a half hour and Larry walked with me for a bit. I just walked around the park. 

In the afternoon Larry put out the solar panels, we had a lot of solar for a couple of hours. It charged our house battery up. 

I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.

Friday 9-30

We woke with the temperature of 32 degrees, yesterdays morning temperature was 54 degrees. There was wind all day. It didn't get out of the low 50s.

Larry got up and turned on the heater. While he was waiting for me to get up he watched a few people drive to the boat ramp to launch their boats. By lunch time the trailer area was full. We had a steady flow of people coming and going to the boat ramp.

We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. The oven heated up the Minnie a bit. Then we went for a 45 minute walk on the main road for 2 miles. We walked the opposite direction than yesterday.

In the afternoon I went for a walk. I walked the main road for a total of 4 miles I ended up doing 17,000 steps, which put me in 5th place in my group.