Great Sand Dunes National Park and Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde National Park wasn't on our original loose itinerary, but we decided to add it in when we learned that Mike, Hana (Frank's daughter) and the kids were going to be there on July 3-4 as part of their mainly Arizona/Utah vacation. Looking at the mileage and timing, we figured we could fit it in, and it would be fun to see the family.
To get there, our route took us through some less interesting countryside and some dead straight roads. At one point, we were dying for a good coffee and we saw no decent cafe as we drive through the town of Poncha Springs. Further down the road, we stopped for a little break in a tiny community in the middle of nowhere called Villa Grove. Across the road was an old general store that looked like it had seen better days. It didn't seem to be open. Although writing on the window panes advertised coffee and wifi, there appeared to be dusty sheets covering the windows. Then I saw some people go in. We decided to go check it out and once inside, we got a huge surprise! There were people, there were books and novelty items for sale, a cafe towards the back with lots of seating, and a selection of freshly baked pies, plus espresso and various coffees! What an unexpected oasis.


The surprising general store in Villa Grove

Excuse the blurry image, but gives a look inside the store

Just off our route towards Colorado's south-west corner was another national park that sounded unique. We decided to drive to Great Sand Dunes NP & Preserve. Here 30 square miles of giant sand dunes are formed by winds that sweep the flat, dry, alpine San Luis Valley floor. They are a surprising sight set against the backdrop of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east. These dunes are huge! The highest, called Star Dune, is 750ft high. It's a great place for some family fun. We watched kids and adults have a blast sledding down the dunes on waxed boards and plastic saucers.


On to Mesa Verde. I was excited about seeing this place that I had read about and seen pictures of. It is a Unesco World Heritage Site that preserves the cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo people (also known as Anasazi) who lived there between AD 550 and the late 1200s.
We met up with the family and were able to spend two days camping together in the park and viewing the sights together, which was great fun. We surprised them a little bit because originally we had told them we wouldn't make it down there, but later rearranged our plan.
The park was amazing. We went on a couple of Ranger-led tours to a couple of the more notable sights -the  Cliff Palace and the Balcony. What surprised us was the large number of cliff dwellings there are. Just driving along the road you can see many smaller ones.
Mike, Annabelle, Nathan, Hana, Madeline with Frank
 and myself in Mesa Verde

In the campground

At the Cliff Palace tour


Cliff Palace




Comments

  1. Iveta bxJuly 25, 2018 at 2:35 PM

    A place I've always wanted to visit. The picture from above is amazing!

    ReplyDelete

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