This year, the 4th of July fell on a Thursday which allowed me to only have to take one day off of work to get a 4 day weekend. So what does one do with a 4 day weekend? ROAD TRIP!
I love National Parks - they truly are "America's Treasures"! I have been to quite a few already but there are still so many more that I would love to visit (Bucket List goal is to visit them all!). Living in Denver, we are pretty close to some of the bigger ones, but also close to some lesser known ones. We had to decide between going to Yellowstone and The Grand Tetons (both in Wyoming) or going to The Black Canyon of the Gunnison and Mesa Verde (both in Colorado). Since it was a holiday weekend, we opted to go with the lesser known ones and stay here in Colorado. The added bonus is that our good friend Monica volunteered to watch our dogs so we were truly free to go and do whatever we wanted without having to worry about our 2 little responsibilities.
So we started off on Wednesday night and made it to Delta, Colorado, just about 30 minutes from The Black Canyon of the Gunnison N.P., where we planned to hike and tour on Independence Day.
A picture of us by the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park sign...I have one of these for almost all the parks we have visited and can't wait to get them framed and put on display!
Once we got to The Black Canyon, we stopped into the visitor center to get a backcountry permit for hiking. The ranger was very helpful and really tried to help us figure out the best hiking trail to take. Brian is not one to shy away from challenges and really wanted to hike down to the bottom of the canyon to get to the Gunnison River. The trail we took was a one mile hike, which isn't normally too tough, however the elevation change was 1400 feet within that mile, which put us at quite the decline/incline for the duration of the hike. We hiked on loose rocks and boulders called skree for most of the trail and there was one point where you had to use a chain to repel down as well as pull yourself back up the trail. This was actually my favorite part of the hike as the chain allowed you to use your arms instead of just the legs, giving them a much needed break!
Here's a picture of us at just about the halfway down point...still looking fresh! You can see the Gunnison River down below as well as the skree we were climbing up and down.
We made the round-trip trek in just about 3 hours, which left us plenty of time to check out some other areas of the park (the Painted Dragons were very cool!) and then get on the road to the next destination...Durango!
But first we had to drive on the Million Dollar Highway, which took us thru Ouray and Silverton. It was a beautiful drive, however the highway was a bit scary as it goes up and down a couple of mountain passes with steep dropoffs, tight pin turns and no guard rails. I definitely gripped the steering wheel extra tight while I was driving!
Here's a picture of us with a mountain range that is somewhere between Ouray and Silverton. It's gorgeous!
We eventually made our way safely to Durango where we planned on watching the fireworks display - a must for me as I LOVE fireworks! But first...a camping spot needed to be found and we also needed to see what was going on with our vehicle, as we had heard a weird noise on our way down from the mountains. We couldn't figure out exactly what the problem was with the truck, but Brian thought it was the front shocks so this meant we would have to take it into the shop immediately the next morning. Being 8+ hours away from home on a road trip and having car issues is not ideal. However, we managed to make the best of it anyways. We found a free campsite with some relatively quiet neighbors and headed back to Durango to get a bucket of chicken and watch things explode. Nothing more patriotic than that! :)
The next morning we took the truck into the bustling car shop (Firestone). The shop manager, Mike, was extremely nice and helpful and was busy helping lots of tourists in town, but was still able to take care of us in a relatively quick manner. Turns out, our back passenger side shock had come unbolted and had been rubbing on our back tire for we don't know how long. But it was long enough that it wore the tire down to the wires and at any point in time, we could have had a major blowout and flew off a mountain side. :-/ Not cool. Regardless though, we were able to get it bolted back on and they put on the spare to get us back on the road! Thanks to Mike and the guys at the Durango Firestone, we were off to the next National Park - Mesa Verde!
Here is a picture of Brian and I at the Mesa Verde National Park entrance.
I have wanted to visit Mesa Verde for a really long time. We actually tried to drive there on our trip to Pagosa Springs last December, however we bailed when we found out that the cliff dwellings were inaccessible and we weren't going to be able to see much. This time, that was not the case - nothing was going to stop us from seeing this unique place and I was going to make sure of it!
When we arrived, we had to sign up for the ranger-led tours in the visitor center. We opted to visit Long House and Cliff Palace and we were pretty much on the last couple tours of the day. I was super thankful we made it in time to sign up for them, even though it was going to be a scorcher of an afternoon.
Our first visit was the Longhouse Cliff Dwelling. It took us an hour to get there via a very scenic drive, with lots of fire burn scar areas which were interesting to see. The cliff dwellings themselves were really cool to see in person, especially since I love visiting ruins. The Longhouse was really interesting to see and there is a lot of mystery on why they built their dwellings into the cliffside, but the biggest mystery of all is why they left them after only living in them for a short period of time (I believe it was just a couple hundred years). The ancient Puebloans really were very smart architects and builders and made some amazing structures that have withstood the tests of time!
A picture of me with the Longhouse ruins behind me.
Brian and I with a view of the Longhouse behind us. We are standing near one of the kivas. You can see the Sipapu right between us. For more info on what a kiva is, etc, you can read the wiki page here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiva
Brian and I are at the Cliff Palace dwelling in this picture. You can see one of the towers to the left of me as well as a good glimpse of the dwellings built all the way up to the where the rocks overhang. This dwelling was amazing and gave me an eerie sense of calmness while walking through it. I think it's important to understand the significance of places like this as they are also important pieces of America's history, especially to native peoples. I hope that we can continue to preserve places like this for future generations! I really enjoyed my visit here and look forward to returning with my children someday!
With these two parks all wrapped up, it would seem as though the vacation was over, however that was not the case at all. We still had two more days left of our trip and were back on the road, off to our next adventure - Durango Mountain Resort to ride the alpine slide!
