Mesa Verde

May 6-9

After we set up the trailer just outside of Mesa Verde National Park, we headed for the city of Cortez, Colorado. I told Gram there some neat things I wanted to show her. The first was a very large Navajo rug made over 100 years ago and the other was a very smart dog that could do clever tricks.

By the time we returned to camp it was getting dark. I showed Poppie the mesa we would drive up and around to get to Mesa Verde. Then I said good night to my new friend.

The next day I woke Gram and Poppie up bright and early. I knew we had to get to Mesa Verde early before it got too warm. I knew we would be walking through some very old pueblos built between 1200 and 1300 AD. When we arrived at the first pueblo I showed Gram and Poppie where we were headed. The Cliff House was built on the side of a cliff and inside a cave. Ranger Steve was our tour guide. He said over 500 people lived here. I had a hard time deciding which room was mine, but then I discovered the highest structure and I knew that's where I belonged. Now where's the elevator? They grew their crops on the top of the Mesa which was several hundred feet above them. What a climb they must have had to get up and down those cliffs and with no elevator.

Poppie kept asking me if we were going to see any wild life. Well all I could come up with was a lizard. It was just too warm for the other animals to be out.

We saw several other pueblos, small and large. The one that was as interesting as Cliff Palace was Balcony House. There was actually a balcony extended out from the pueblo where the children could safely play while their mothers worked.

Our day ended with another moonlit night.

The next day I had them up early again. We were going to take a trip high up into the mountains on a narrow, curvy road. I told Poppie he had better be wide awake while he was driving today. We started at the town of Durango, CO and then headed north up into the mountains.

Then we came to the town of Silverton high in the mountains. We had time to look over the train that traveled from Durango. What do you think, Jackson? Pretty neat! Oh, yes, there were some shops for Gram.

Well now it was time to continue back to our trailer. So we started but we didn't go down we still went higher into the mountains. We went over two mountain passes that were each over 10,000 feet high. We were now in the snow. We went by a ski resort called Telluride. Poppie said it was too bad we couldn't stop and ski awhile. But we continued now going down faster and faster-until we were back home to our trailer. Oh! What a trip! And Poppie was wide awake all the time.

Good-bye from Mesa Verde, Olivia