Day 16: Mesa Verde National Park to Colorado Springs, Colorado

Day 16: Mesa Verde National Park to Colorado Springs, Colorado



For the last day of our trip, we had reserved an early morning tour of Cliff Palace. So we were up just after sunrise, had some breakfast, and struck camp before the half hour drive to Cliff Canyon for the tour.


View down the canyon while waiting for the tour to begin at Cliff Palace trailhead. Most of the people on the tour were Italian or German. Kenny and Sam were excited to descend the narrow trail into the canyon and climb the tall ladders up into the cliff dwellings. Photo by Blake.



Sam with Cliff Palace in the background. Photo by Sarah.



These cliff dwellings were populated between about 1190 and 1300 before the Ancestral Puebloans who built them left and migrated south. This is one of about 600 cliff dwelling sites at Mesa Verde. Approximately 100 people occupied this site, which contains about 150 rooms and 23 kivas. Photo by Blake.


Kiva and structure at Cliff Palace. Photo by Blake.


Kenny either listening intensely to the tour guide or not quite yet awake. Photo by Sarah.


The structures were built with sandstone blocks, mortar, and wood beams. Photo by Sarah.


Sam was quite taken with the park ranger who led our tour (left). Climbing out of the canyon (right). Photos by Blake and Sarah.


Pit house excavation on top of Chapin Mesa. Photo by Blake.


Windy lunch break at Montezuma Valley overlook.


Montezuma Valley and the Knife Edge. At Mesa Verde, the landscape really started to feel like Colorado again. From here, we drove east across southern Colorado to interstate 25 and north back toward Colorado Springs. Photo by Blake.


As we got within an hour of home, a threatening-looking thunderstorm loomed to the west. After a dry summer with very little rain, we were surprised to find Colorado Springs much greener than when we left two weeks prior. It had clearly rained while we were gone! Back home, as Blake unloaded the car, our neighbor from up the hill came down and filled us in on the recent torrential rains and the severe flooding in nearby Manitou Springs. There was major damage to Manitou as water rolled down off the Waldo Canyon burn scar, through the canyon, and into town. We experienced more heavy rain and flooding over the next month. Photo by Blake, yes, while driving.




So here it is again – the entire round trip route from Colorado Springs to the west coast and back. This represents a fantastic adventure that saw fruition of most of the things we wanted to see and do. Among the things we weren’t able to partake of due to weather or time were: Little Wild Horse slot canyon, Lehman Cave at Great Basin National Park, a High Sierra hike at Yosemite, camping at Sequoia National Park, a couple days in Monterey, getting out on the sea in a boat, the Narrows at Zion National Park, and a visit to Monument Valley. Those are simply things we’ll have to go back for.

We hope that the blog has been of interest with a variety of landscapes, art, observations, history, and maybe some occasional humor. Following are some more images from the trip that didn’t quite fit the daily blog narratives:




Kenny at Goblin Valley State Park, Utah. Photo by Blake.



Goblins at Goblin Valley State Park, Utah. Photo by Kenny.



Kenny and Sam ascending Lembert Dome, Yosemite National Park, California. Photo by Blake.


Tenaya Lake, Yosemite National Park, California. Photo by Blake.


Sam on the Mist Trail, Yosemite National Park, California. Photo by Sarah.


Vernal Falls, Yosemite National Park, Photo by Blake.


Yosemite Sam. Glacier Point, Yosemite National Park. Photo by Sarah.


C.S. Lewis goes to Yosemite. Photo by Blake.


This is what camping with kids looks like. Kenny at Yosemite. Photo by Blake.


Blake doesn’t road trip without Newtons. Leaving Yosemite for San Francisco. Photo by Blake.


Tomales Bay, California, from Hog Island Oyster Company. Photo by Blake.


Hornets at Hog Island Oyster Company, California. Photo by Blake.


Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay, California. Photo by Sarah.


Delicious Rueben at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco. Photo by Blake.


Shop window, downtown San Francisco. Photo by Sarah.


Sam on a springy tree branch. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Photo by Sarah.


R2 D2 at the LucasArts offices. The Presidio, San Francisco. Photo by Sarah.


Sarah selfie with Goldsworthy. The Presidio, San Francisco.


Nighttime reflection on San Francisco Bay. Photo by Blake.


The apartment we rented was on this street in Outer Richmond, San Francisco. Photo by Blake.


Sam watching a film shoot. Highway One, California. Photo by Sarah.


Alexis and dogs, Carpinteria, California. Photo by Blake.


Sarah on the computer trying to order tickets for the James Turrell exhibition at LACMA. Carpinteria, California. Photo by Blake.


Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Photo by Blake.


Sam wondering whether that’s a pipe. LACMA. Photo by Blake.


Capitalizing on the current superhero craze. Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo by Blake.


Trees on the Virgin River canyon floor, Zion National Park, Utah. Photo by Sarah.


Hummingbird at the Thunderbird. Utah. Photo by Blake.


Driving through forest fires. Kaibab Plateau, Arizona. Photo by Sarah.


Sunrise from Grand Canyon North Rim, Arizona. Photo by Blake.


Blake at Navajo Bridge, Arizona. Photo by Sarah.


Blake at Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. Photo by Sarah.


We were a bit concerned that posting our experience on a blog would come off as arrogant; if anyone perceived it so, it’s perhaps significant to note that we strategically planned, saved and did extra work to pay for this trip. The blog was meant as a way to record moments from the trip and make them accessible to our families and friends in the U.S. and oversees. It’s also for those two kids who we dragged kicking and screaming, sometimes literally, over 3500 miles. Think of the children, for god’s sake!

A lot of folks contributed to this trip in various ways: Grant Spengler and Eva Syrovy took great care of our precious canines, Lauren Tyson compiled an elaborate travel binder for San Francisco, Brooke Bower and Richard Nehring presented us a wonderful bottle of champagne for our 20th anniversary, and Shawn, Alexis, and Emerson welcomed us into their home for two nights. You all have our most profound thanks for your thoughtfulness and generosity.

Day 15: Grand Canyon National Park, North Rim, Arizona to Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

Day 15: Grand Canyon National Park, North Rim, Arizona to Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado



August 9: Having arrived at the Grand Canyon North Rim campsite after dark the night before, we were excited to see where we were in the morning. We didn’t plan to stay long at Grand Canyon before getting underway back toward Colorado. We were to end-up at Mesa Verde National Park by day’s end, but his was the only night on the trip for which we left our accommodation open – we would either try to get a campsite in Mesa Verde or drive an hour further to Durango for a hotel depending on availability and how we felt at the end of the day.



Blake got up before sunrise to explore and head down to the canyon rim to see the sunrise. This picture by Blake is from later in the morning, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that our campsite was right by the canyon’s edge (visible beyond the tents) – we had no idea the night before as we pitched camp in the dark!



Here are a couple of pictures I took from Bright Angel Point at sunrise while everyone else was still sound asleep. Deeply in need of coffee, I returned to the campsite and as I was boiling some water, the guy from the adjacent campsite came over and asked if he cold have some hot water. He was from South Korea and was traveling alone around the Southwest. He kindly offered me a couple containers of spicy Korean noodle soup in exchange for the water. We ate the soup later and quite enjoyed it.



Kenny and Sam hadn’t even had breakfast before they wanted to check out the canyon. Photo by Blake.



At the visitor center, an artist named Ramson Lomatewama was making blown glass figures based upon similar imagery as the pictographs we had seen at Sego Canyon in Utah two weeks prior on the first day of our trip (right). Photos by Blake.


On our way out of Grand Canyon, at almost the exact spot we had stopped the previous night to gaze at the stars, was this herd of bison. If the bison were there the night before, they were very quiet. Photo by Blake.


Coming down off the Kaibab Plateau, looking southeast with Vermillion Cliffs on the upper left. Photo by Sarah.


We stopped for a nice lunch at Cliff Dwellings Lodge below Vermillion Cliffs. These river boats were behind the café. Photo by Blake.


Panorama of Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River with Vermillion Cliffs in the background. Photo by Sarah.


Looking east, up the Colorado River. After the stop at Navajo Bridge, we pressed-on through Arizona without stopping but for gas, and on across Four Corners (where the state lines of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado meet) into Colorado. It was just before dusk when we arrived at Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado. Photo by Blake.

At the Mesa Verde visitor center, we asked about campsite availability, not expecting there to be anything open, based on having to make reservations at Yosemite and Grand Canyon five months in advance of our trip. The ranger laughed at us and said “I wish the campground would fill to capacity – ever!” It was a lovely evening, so we decided to stay and were told, surprisingly, to just go find a campsite we liked and plant ourselves.




The campsite was fantastic. We pitched the tents and ate dinner as the sun set. The Milky Way dominated the sky from horizon to horizon, and as we enjoyed the campfire and some whiskey, the Perseid meteor shower highlighted the night. This last night of our trip might have been a melancholy one, but for this special place. Photos by Blake.